New Amsterdam (Now New York City) in 1671
The point of land in the foreground is now known as the Battery. The large building inside the stockade is a church. In the middle foreground is a gallows. The hills in the background form the approach to the present Morningside Heights.
The old station in 1903-'12 was torn down, brick by brick, while at the same time the new building was being erected—and all without disturbing the traffic or hindering the 75,000 to 125,000 people that passed through the station each day. This was an extraordinary engineering feat, for not only were 3,000,000 yards of earth and rock taken out to provide for the underground development, but hundreds of tons of dynamite were used for blasting. Among the improvements introduced in the new station are ramps instead of stairways, the division of out-going from in-going traffic and the elimination of the cold trainshed. The substitution of electricity for steam as a motive power in the metropolitan area made possible the reclamation of Park Avenue and the cross streets from 45th St. to 46th St.—about 20 blocks in all—by depressing and covering the tracks.
At 56th St. the tracks begin to rise from the long tunnel and pass through the tenement district of the upper East Side. The side streets seem filled with nothing but children and vegetable carts, while along the pavements shrill women with shawls over their heads are bargaining for food with street-vendors. As the railroad tracks rise higher still, we run on the level with the upper-story windows out of which the tenants lean and gossip with one another.
The Jumel Mansion, New York City
4 M. HARLEM STATION (125th St.).
(Train 51 passes 8:41; No 3, 8:57; No. 41, 1:12; No. 25, 2:56; No. 19, 5:41. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 9:11; No. 26 9:29; No. 16, 3:49; No. 22, 5:25.)
Old Harlem was "Nieuw Haerlem," a settlement established in 1658 by Gov. Peter Stuyvesant in the northeastern part of Manhattan Island. It existed for 200 years but is now lost under modern Harlem, which centers about 125th St. In this neighborhood to the west occurred the battle of Harlem Heights—a lively skirmish fought Sept. 16, 1776, opposite the west front of the present Columbia University, and resulting in a victory for the forces of Gen. Washington, who up to that time had suffered a number of reverses on Long Island and elsewhere. The battle was directed by Washington from the Jumel mansion*, 160th St. and Amsterdam Ave., the most famous house, historically, on the island of Manhattan. It is still standing.
