Peculiarities of American Cities

by Willard W. Glazier

Passing up the East River, with the ship-thronged wharves and docks of New York on one hand, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard on the other, the visitor soon obtains a view of Blackwell's, Ward's and Randall's islands. Blackwell's Island is at the foot of Forty-sixth street, and is one hundred and twenty acres in extent. Upon it are located the Almshouse, Female Lunatic Asylum, Penitentiary, Work House, Blind Asylum, Charity, Smallpox and Typhus Fever hospitals. These buildings are all constructed of granite, quarried from the island by convicts. They are plain but substantial in appearance.

Leaving Blackwell's Island, the boat passes cautiously through the swirling waters of Hell Gate, once the terror of all sailors, but now robbed of most of its horrors. It was originally a collection of rocks in mid channel, which, as the tides swept in and out, caused the waters to rush in a succession of whirlpools and rapids. But a few years ago United States engineers undertook and accomplished a gigantic excavation, directly under these threatening rocks and reefs. When it was completed a grand explosion, effected by means of connecting wires, blew up these dangerous obstructions, and left a comparatively clear and safe channel for vessels. The few remaining rocks which this explosion failed to disturb are being removed, and with its dangers, much of the romantic interest which attached to Hell Gate will pass away.

Ward's Island, embracing two hundred acres, and containing the Male Lunatic Asylum, the Emigrant Hospital, and the Inebriate Asylum, divides the Harlem from the East River. Randall's Island is separated from Ward's Island by a narrow channel, and is the last of the group. It contains the Idiot Asylum, the House of Refuge, the Infant Hospital, Nurseries, and other charities provided by the city for destitute children.

The visitor in New York should, if possible, make an excursion to High Bridge, a magnificent structure by which the Croton Aqueduct is carried across Harlem River. It is built of granite, and spans the entire width of valley and river, from cliff to cliff. It is composed of eight arches, each with a span of eighty feet, and with an elevation of a hundred feet clear from the surface of the river. The water is led over the bridge, a distance of fourteen hundred and fifty feet, in immense iron pipes, six feet in diameter. Above these pipes is a pathway for pedestrians. At One-hundred-and-sixty-ninth street, a little below the High Bridge, is the site of the elegant mansion of Colonel Roger Morris, and the head-quarters of General Washington during active operations in this portion of the island. The situation is one of picturesque and historic interest.

Rising grandly above all the shipping of the East River, on both its sides, are the massive towers of the Suspension Bridge, connecting the sister cities of New York and Brooklyn. Ponderous cables swing in a single grand sweep from tower to tower, supporting the bridge in its place. It does not seem very much elevated above the river, and you feel that a certain majestic sailing vessel which is bearing down upon it will bring the top of her masts in contact with it. But she sails proudly beneath the structure, never bowing her head, and there is plenty of room and to spare; for the bridge is one hundred and thirty-five feet above high water mark. The distance from tower to tower is one thousand five hundred and ninety-five feet, while the entire length of the bridge, from Park Place to its terminus, on the heights in Brooklyn, is six thousand feet, or a little more than a mile. Its width is eighty-five feet, affording space for two railways, besides two double carriageways, and one foot-path. It was commenced in 1871, and cost $15,000,000. Its formal opening took place on May twenty-fourth, 1883. The day was a rarely beautiful one, and was observed as a general holiday by the people of both cities. President Arthur and his Cabinet, the governors of New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, with many other distinguished persons, were among the guests, while the honors of the occasion were done by the Mayors of New York and Brooklyn. Every street in the neighborhood of the bridge was packed with a dense throng of spectators, while windows, balconies and roofs were filled with curious sight seers.

Shortly after noon the procession moved down Broadway, and a little after one o'clock the President and other distinguished guests entered the gateway of the bridge, preceded by the Seventh Regiment, the procession headed by a company of mounted policemen, while Cappa's band played "Hail to the Chief." When the party reached the New York tower, they were met by President Kingsley of the bridge trustees, and there were introductions and welcomes, and the march was resumed. At the Brooklyn tower Mayor Low met the President, and the Seventy-third Regiment presented arms. In announcement of the fact that the bridge was crossed, cannons thundered forth salutes, the steam whistles of vessels and factories screamed, bells rang, and deafening cheers went up from the watching multitude. The further ceremonies of the day took place in a pavilion on the Brooklyn end, when Mr. William E. Kingsley, the President of the Bridge Association, Mayor Low, of Brooklyn, Mayor Edson of New York, Hon. Abram S. Hewitt and Rev. B. S. Storrs, made able addresses. A reception was tendered in the evening, at the Academy of Music, by the City of Brooklyn, to the President and the Governor of the State, previous to which there was a fine display of fireworks from the bridge.

During all the excitement of the day, while cannon thundered and the multitude cheered, an invalid sat alone in his house on Columbia Heights, and regarded from afar the completion of his toil of years. John A. Roebling, the elder of the two Roeblings, first conceived and planned the bridge which connects New York and Brooklyn. He had built the chief suspension bridges in the country, and to him was intrusted the task of putting his own plans into tangible form. While testing and perfecting his surveys, his foot was crushed between the planking of a pier; lockjaw supervened, and the man who had designed the bridge lost his life in its service. He was succeeded by his son, Colonel Washington A. Roebling, who was equally qualified for the undertaking. He labored with zeal, giving personal superintendence to his workmen, until in the caissons he contracted a mysterious disease, which had proved fatal to several men in his employ. From that period he was confined to his home, a hopeless invalid, his intellect apparently quickened as his physical system was enfeebled. He has never seen the structure, save as it stands from a distance; but from his sick-room he has directed and watched over the progress of the enterprise, his active assistant being his wife, of whom Mayor Edson, in his address on the occasion, spoke in the following terms: "With this bridge will ever be coupled the thought of one, through the subtle alembic of whose brain, and by whose facile fingers, communication was maintained between the directing power of its construction and the obedient agencies of its execution. It is thus an everlasting monument to the self-sacrificing devotion of woman." After the conclusion of the address, the President and his Cabinet, the Governor, and hundreds of others, paid their respects to Colonel Roebling, and did honor to the man the completion of whose work they were celebrating. After it was over Roebling replied, to the suggestion that he must be happy, "I am satisfied."

The great bridge was opened to the public at midnight, and the waiting throng, which even at that hour numbered about twenty thousand persons, were permitted to enter the gates and cross the structure. A representative of the New York Herald was the first to pay the toll of one cent demanded, and the first to begin the passage across. With the completion of this bridge the continent is entirely spanned, and one may visit, dry shod and without the use of ferry boats, every city from the Atlantic to the Golden Gate.

But the great bridge was not to be consecrated to the use of the public without a baptism of blood. On Decoration Day, which occurred the seventh day after the opening of the bridge, there was a grand military parade in New York, reviewed by President Arthur from a stand in Madison Square, and impressive ceremonies at the various cemeteries in Brooklyn. From early morning a steady stream of pedestrians poured each way, across the bridge. About four o'clock in the afternoon there came a lock in the crowd, just at the top of the stairs on the New York side, leading down to the concrete roadway Men, women and children were wedged together in a jam, created by the fearful pressure of two opposing crowds, extending to either end of the bridge. Some one stumbled and fell on the stairs. The terrible pressure prevented him or her from rising, and others fell over the obstacle thus placed in the pathway. Those immediately behind were hopelessly forced on over them. A panic ensued. Women screamed and wrung their hands; children cried and called pitifully for "help!" Men shouted themselves hoarse, swore and fought. A hundred hats and bonnets were afterwards found upon the spot, trampled into shapelessness. Clothes were torn off, and many emerged from the crush in only their undergarments. Parents held their children aloft to keep them from being trampled upon. Hundreds of men climbed with difficulty on the beams running over the railroads, and dropping down were caught by those in the carriage-way beneath. A number of women also escaped in that manner.

At last, after almost superhuman efforts, the crowd was pressed back sufficiently to gather up the prostrate bodies, which were taken to the roadway below, and ranged along the wall, waiting for ambulances to convey them away. Twelve persons were found dead, some of them bruised, discolored, and covered with blood, and others apparently suffocated to death. The list of injured was very much larger—how much will probably never be known, since many, assisted by their friends, returned to their homes without reporting their hurts. The dead and wounded were most of them conveyed to the City Hall Police Station, and were there claimed by their friends; and the day which had begun so joyously ended in gloom.