New York

From Encyclopediak

New York. One of the Middle Atlantic States and one of the original 13 states of the Union, New York, the Empire State, though 29th among the United States in area, ranks first in population, in manufactures, in commerce, and in wealth. It controls the great eastern gateway to the country and contains the financial center of the whole world, New York City. In that tiny scrap of coast between Connecticut and New Jersey, where it tapers down to the Atlantic, New York State has one of the finest harbors in the world. This splendid harbor and its inland waterways combined to establish the state's preeminence in commerce, while its abundant water-power and its nearness to the Pennsylvania coal fields were factors in establishing its supremacy as a manufacturing state. New York is bounded on the northwest by Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, which separate it from the Canadian province of Ontario on the north by Quebec on the east by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean on the south by New Jersey and Pennsylvania and on the west by Pennsylvania, Lake Erie, and the Niagara River. About half of the boundary line is water. The greatest length of the state from east to west is 326 miles 412 miles, if Long Island be included and from north to south its greatest width is 312 miles. Its area is 49,204 square miles, 1,550 square miles being water. The state is a little smaller than Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont combined, and a little larger than England.

POPULATION. According to the 1920 census, New York had 10,385,227 inhabitants, more than half of whom live in New York City. Between 1910 and 1920 there was a gain in population of 14 per cent. More than one-fourth of the people were of foreign birth. There were 2,786,112 foreign-born whites in 1920, of whom Italians, Russians, Germans, Irish, Poles, Austrians, and English led in numbers in the order given.

SURFACE. New York presents a great variety of surface features, due not only to upheavals in the earth's crust, but also to the work of the continental glacier that covered almost the entire surface of the state. The northeastern part of the state is occupied by the Adirondack Mountains, which belong probably to the oldest strata of the earth's crust, but which, though worn down by centuries of erosion, are still impressive in height. Their highest peak, Mt. Marcy 5,345 feet, is the highest point in the state. See ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS. South of the Adi-rondacks is the Mohawk Valley, which extends from the southeastern boundary of Lake Ontario to the Hudson River near Albany, and south of this the rugged Catskill Mountains, which reach their highest point in Slide Mountain 4,205 feet high. In the southeastern part of the state, to the east of the Hudson River and extending, northward to about the head of Lake Champlain, is a mountain range which is a continuation of the Taconic and Hoosac mountains in Massachusetts. West of the Catskills and occupying all of the southern and central parts of the state and extending to the western boundary, is the great plateau region, having an elevation varying from 1,000 feet in the east to 2,000 feet in the west.

RIVERS AND LAKES. Numerous rivers not only add to the scenic beauty of the state, but have contributed greatly to its commercial progress. The Hudson, the greatest river that lies entirely within the borders of the state, has rapids and falls in its upper course, while nearer the sea it has carved its high banks into the picturesque Palisades. The Falls furnish water-power, and the river is navigable for large steamships from Troy to the Sea, a distance of 150 miles. With the Mohawk, its principal tributary, it forms the most important natural waterway utilized in the great canal system of the state. The Oswego, the Black, and the Genesee are the most important rivers flowing into Lake Ontario. Draining the southern part of the state are the Allegheny, the Susquehanna, and the Delaware. Forming part of the boundary of the state are the majestic St. Lawrence on the north, and the Niagara, with its magnificent Falls, on the west. Notable among innumerable other falls, are those of the Genesee at Portage and Rochester Trenton Falls near Utica Taughannock Falls near Cayuga Lake, the highest in the state Kaaterskill Falls in the Catskills, and the falls of the Mohawk near Cohoes. New York has thousands of lakes. Of the smaller ones, some of the most beautiful are in the Adirondack Mountains. In the central part of the state are a number of long, narrow bodies of water, formed by the damming of river valleys by glacial materials. These are called, because of their shape, the "Finger Lakes." The largest are Seneca and Cayuga, each nearly 40 miles long and two to three miles wide. Lake Oneida, to the north of the group, is of similar formation, as is also Chautauqua Lake in the extreme west, noted as a summer resort and educational center, and beautiful Lake George, in the east. Lake Champlain on the eastern border belongs partly to New York.

STATE PARKS AND MONUMENTS. Many places of scenic or historic interest in New York have been set aside and developed as state parks. There are over 40 such reservations, ranging from a single building to a vast area of forest land. Among them are Adirondack Park which is larger than the state of Connecticut Catskill Park the State Reservation at Saratoga Springs Niagara Falls State Reservation Letchworth Park, which includes the falls of the Genesee River, second only to those of the Niagara in beauty and scientific interest Watkins Glen and Enfield Falls Reservation, both in the beautiful Finger Lakes region and Palisades Interstate Park, originally created by the states of New York and New Jersey to preserve the Palisades of the Hudson and greatly enlarged by private donations. St. Lawrence Reservation, at the upper end of the St. Lawrence River, constitutes, with the adjoining portion of the St. Lawrence in Canada set aside by the Canadian government, an International Park, taking in all of the Thousand Islands. Among the places set aside because of their historic interest are John Brown's Farm, near Lake Placid Stony Point Battlefield, the scene of Anthony Wayne's daring exploit Lake George Battlefield Washington's headquarters at Newburgh Saratoga Battle Monument and, in the same locality, the Grant Cottage, where President Grant died.

CLIMATE AND SOIL. In most of the state the climate is continental, with extremes of heat and cold. The small portion of the state that is near the ocean has a more equable climate, though some days in summer are intensely hot. In the northern part of the state, among the Adirondacks, the winters are long and severe, but the summers are cool, and delightful. The rainfall varies from 50 to 60 inches in the southeast to about 30 or 40 inches in the west. The soil is mostly glacial drift, varying in depth and composition in different parts. The most widely distributed soil is a clay formed by the glacial pulverizing and the decomposition of limestone, shale, and other rock. In the larger valleys and along the shores of lakes much alluvium is mixed with the clay. In some of the northern countries a sandy soil is common.

AGRICULTURE. Two-thirds of the land of the state, in 1920, was in farms. Their average size is smaller than that of the farms of the central west, but larger than that of those of most of the New England states. Diversified farming is generally practiced. The leading field crops are hay, potatoes, oats, corn, wheat, buckwheat, and barley. In the central and western part of the state apples and peaches are raised in large quantities, as well as grapes, in the production of which New York ranks next to California. Tobacco is raised in the central part. In all localities near cities garden vegetables are grown, especially on Long Island and along the Hudson north of New York City, where truck farming is an important industry. The growing of flowers for the market is also an important industry near the large cities. In the northern and southern parts of the state maple sugar is produced in large quantities, New York ranking next to Vermont in the production of this delicacy. New York ranks second among the states in dairy products and the income from dairying forms nearly one-third of the entire agricultural income of the state. A considerable amount of wool is produced. On the whole New York is one of the leading agricultural states of the country.

FORESTS AND LUMBER. The Conservation Commission has undertaken an extensive program to restore and preserve the forest lands of the state. New York State now owns nearly 2,000,000 acres in the Adirondack and Catskill regions, known as the Forest Preserve. Here measures are taken to prevent forest fires, lumbering is prohibited, and reforestation is being carried out. Though once one of the greatest lumber-producing states, New York is no longer able to supply its own needs. White pine and hard woods are produced in considerable quantities, however, as is spruce, which is used in the manufacture of wood pulp.

FISHERIES. New York is one of the few states that have extensive fisheries in both salt and fresh water. Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, the Hudson River, Long Island Sound, and the Atlantic coast region afford rich fishing grounds in close proximity to the great markets. About 7,000 persons are engaged in the various fishery industries. Oysters are the most valuable product, but quantities of menhaden, flounders, clams, squeteaques "sea trout" or weakfish, scallops, lobsters, and bluefish are also obtained. In total value of fishery products New York generally ranks third among the states.

MINERALS AND MINING. According to the 1920 census report, New York ranked only 22nd among the states of the United States in the value of mineral products. The principal mineral industry is the production of petroleum and natural gas, which are found in the western part of the state. The mining of iron ore, chiefly in the Adirondacks, comes second. Salt is found in large quantities in the central part of the state, and clay used chiefly in the manufacture of brick in the river valleys. Other mineral products are limestone, Portland cement, gypsum, talc, basalt, lead, zinc, pyrite, slate, graphite, abrasive materials principally garnet and emery, sandstone, marble, granite, and feldspar. Mineral water from Saratoga and other mineral springs is an important product.

MANUFACTURES. New York was by far the greatest manufacturing state in the Union, in 1920. It ranks first in the production of men's and women's clothing, shirts and collars, gloves, knit goods, chemicals, soap, paints, scientific instruments, optical goods, pianos and other musical instruments, and typewriters. It was the leading state in the production of wood pulp, producing 16 per cent of the total for the United States, as reported in the 1920 census. More than one-third of all the newspaper produced in the United States comes from New York. New York also ranks first in the number of publications issued and the average circulation. In 1920 New York was the third most important state in the manufacture of textiles and reported 9.5 per cent of the total value of all textile products in the United States. It ranked fifth in the manufacture of steel and sixth in the pig-iron industry. Among countless other industries that give employment to many people and contribute greatly to the wealth of the state are the manufacture of fur-felt hats, shoes, millinery and lace goods, and tobacco products ship-building, the manufacture of automobiles, machinery, and foundry products slaughtering and meat-packing the canning of fruits and vegetablesand sugar-refining. The cities of New York and Buffalo are the chief manufacturing centers, but factories of various kinds are widely distributed over the state. Rochester, the third manufacturing city in the state, is the leading center for the manufacture of cameras and photographic materials. Syracuse is noted for its soda-ash works, and Troy for the manufacture of collars. The great power plants at Niagara Falls have caused numerous factories to be located there, and power from the Falls is sent by current to many other cities.

TRANSPORTATION AND COMMERCE. New York has unrivaled facilities for water transportation. It is bordered by lakes Erie and Ontario and the St. Lawrence River it has a number of navigable rivers, and the finest harbor on the Atlantic Coast. The Erie Canal, now part of the great system known as the State Barge Canal, connects Buffalo on Lake Erie with Troy on the Hudson, thus forming a direct water route between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic. See NEW YORK STATE BARGE CANAL. There are about 8,500 miles of steam railroad and about 5,600 miles of electric railroad in the state. The New York Central and Hudson River systems have branches extending to nearly all commercial and industrial points. Among the other important lines are the Erie the Delaware and Hudson the Lehigh Valley the Delaware. Lackawanna and Western the Pennsylvania the Central New England the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh the Rutland the Ulster and Delaware the Boston and Maine and the New York, New Haven, and Hartford. More than 35 per cent of the exports and 64 per cent of the imports of th United States pass through the port of New York. The manufactured goods of 2023 the state are distributed throughout the country and large quantities of raw materials are imported from other states. In addition to this the handling of the food supplies to meet the needs of the large cities is, in itself, an enormous business.

CITIES. According to the census of 1920, there were 58 cities in New York having a population of more than 10,000. Their combined population was 8,103,046, which formed 78 per cent of the total for the state. The most important cities, in the order of the population, are New York, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany the capital, Yonkers, Utica, Schenectady, Troy, Binghamton, and Niagara Falls.

GOVERNMENT. The present constitution was adopted in 1894. According to a provision adopted in 1916, the question of revising the constitution is to be submitted to the people at least once in every 20 years. Every citizen 21 years or more of age who has been a citizen for 90 days and has resided in the state for a year preceding the election has the right of suffrage. A voter must also have resided four months in the county, and 30 days in the election district. The executive power is vested in the governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, comptroller, treasurer, attorney-general, and state engineer and surveyor, who are elected biennially by popular vote. The legislature consists of a senate of 51 members and an assembly of 150. Senators are elected for two years and assemblymen for one. In the judicial department, the highest court is the court of appeals, consisting of a chief justice and six associate justices elected by popular vote for a term of 14 years. The power of this court is limited to the review of questions of law. The supreme court consists of 107 justices, chosen by vote of the people from the nine judicial districts into which the state is divided, and holding office, like the judges of the court of appeals, for 14 years. Lower courts consist of county courts, city courts, and surrogate courts. The state is represented in Congress by two sen ators and 43 representatives. For local government the state is divided into 62 counties.

EDUCATION. The State Department of Education is known as the University of the State of New York. It is governed by a board of 12 regents, elected by the state legislature for a period of 12 years, the term of one member expiring each year. The board appoints the state commissioner of education, who, with three assistant commissioners, has general supervision over all common, secondary, and special schools. In 1920 a law was passed providing for the establishment of part-time schools in all districts having a population of 5,000 or more. The number of illiterates in the state, taking into consideration the large foreign population, is relatively small. About 5 per cent of the persons 10 years of age or over are unable to read or write. New York does not have a state university in the sense in which the term is used in most of the states. However, the state maintains an agricultural college in connection with Cornell University, which in a way fills the position of a state university. The oldest and most famous institution of higher education in the state is Columbia University. Among other educational institutions are Adelphi College at Brooklyn, Alfred University at Alfred, University of Buffalo at Buffalo, Canisius College at Buffalo, Clarkson Technical School at Potsdam, Colgate University at Hamilton, College of the City of New York at New York, Elmira College at Elmira, Fordham University at New York, Hamilton College at Clinton, Hobart College at Geneva, Hunter College at New York, Manhattan College at New York, New York University at New York, Niagara University at Niagara Falls, Polytechnic University at Brooklyn, Pratt University at Brooklyn, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rochester, St. Lawrence University at Canton, Syracuse University at Syracuse Union University at Schenectady, and Vassar College at Poughkeepsie. In addition to the State College for Teachers at Albany, the state maintains normal schools at Brockport, Buffalo, Cortland, Fredonia, Geneseo, New Paltz, Oneonta, Oswego, Plattsburg, and Potsdam. There is a state experiment station at Geneva, and schools of agriculture are maintained in connection with Alfred University and St. Lawrence University, and at Cobleskill, Delhi, Farmingdale, and Morrisville. The United States Military Academy is at West Point.

STATE INSTITUTIONS. The state maintains hospitals for the insane at Binghamton, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Central Islip, Gowanda, Poughkeepsie, Kings Park, New York Ward's Island, Middletown, Rochester, Ogdensburg, Utica, Wingdale, and Willard. The institutions for defectives include schools at Syracuse, Newark, and Rome the State Agricultural and Industrial School at Industry the State Training School for Girls at Hudson Letchworth Village, an institution for feeble-minded boys and girls, at Thiells and Craig Colony for Epileptics at Sonyea. There is a state school for the blind at Batavia, a state hospital for tuberculosis at Raybrook, and one for crippled and deformed children at West Haverstraw. The Thomas Indian School at Iroquois, the State Soldiers and Sailors home at Bath, and the State Woman's Relief Corps Home at Oxford, are other charitable institutions under control of the state. State prisons are located at Ossining Sing Sing, Auburn, Dannemora, and Cornstock. There is a state institution for defective delinquents at Napanoch, and reformatories at Elmira and at Bedford Hills, the last being for women.

HISTORY. Probably the first European to visit New York harbor was the Italian explorer Verrazano in the French service, who came in 1525. In 1609 Henry Hudson, in the Dutch East India Company service, entered the harbor and ascended the Hudson River, and in the same year Samuel de Champlain came into what is now New York State by way of Canada and Lake Champlain. The Dutch, having made peaceful arrangements with the Iroouois, were profitably dealing with them as early as 1612. In 1614 Fort Nassau and Fort Manhattan were established, the former within the present limits of Albany and the latter on Manhattan Island. When the Dutch West India Company came into existence in 1621, a fairly active immigration commenced. Families of Walloons were brought over by Captain Cornelius May, who was commissioned by the company as governor in 1623. In 1624 Fort Orange later Albany was settled. May was succeeded in 1625 by Verhulst and the latter in 1626 gave place to Peter Minuit, who purchased Manhattan Island. (See NEW YORK CITY, subhead History.) Under Peter Stuyvesant, "the last and best of the Dutch governors," the colony, which was known as New Netherland, prospered, but Stuyvesant was unable to retain possession for the Dutch. In 1664 Charles II of England granted New Netherland to his brother James, Duke of York, and an English force took posession of the colony, which they renamed New York in honor of the Duke.

New York was the scene of much violence during the last French and Indian War 1754-63. The colony was active in the pre-Revolutionary struggle, and was the scene of many stirring events during the war itself. In 1777 it adopted a state constitution. Though opposed to a strong central government. New York ratified the Articles of Confederation in 1778, and in July of the same year, as the llth state, agreed to the federal constitution. After the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 there was a marvelous growth in prosperity. Though bound to the South commercially, New York furnished 490,000 men and about 90,000,000 for the Union army during the Civil War. During the World War, New York supplied 493,892 men, a greater number than was sent by any other state and 10.37 per cent of the total number for the United States. The casualties numbered 40,222. Of the 9,196 dead, 4,782 were killed in action. There were 30,149 wounded. A total of $6,944,703,950 was subscribed to the Liberty and Victory loans.

New York City. One of the world's largest cities, one of its greatest financial centers, and also one of its leading seaports is New York City, the great commercial metropolis of the United States, located at the southeast corner of New York State where the Hudson River enters the Atlantic Ocean through New York Bay. London, after World War I, lost to New York its place as the most populous city in the world. In 1920, nearly every nation in the world and every state in the Union had contributed to New York City's population of 5,620,048 souls, of whom nearly 2,000,000 were foreign born. Half of the nations of the world and many states of the Union have smaller populations than this giant city. New York City has an area of 320 square miles, about one-fourth that of the state of Rhode Island. The port, which lies partly across the New Jersey line, has 343 miles of water-front, measured around piers and along the heads of ships, where the masts of the five great oceans, flying the flags of all nations, may be seen unloading their cargoes from foreign lands or filling their holds with the products of the United States. More than half of the nation's exports from the Atlantic coast are handled in the port of New York. In one month alone during 1924 more than 500 outgoing ships left its docks to serve 67 different trade routes. The states of New York and New Jersey have established by agreement the District of the Port of New York. It includes 105 municipalities in the two states, among them the important ports of Jersey City and Hoboken. In the year 1921, 790,135 passengers arrived at the Port of New York from foreign countries more than 26 times the number that landed at San Francisco, the second passenger port of the country. Of this number, 560,971 were immigrants.

Manhattan Island, a tongue-shaped piece of land, about 13 miles long and a mile and a half in average width, with the tip extending into the Upper Bay, is the heart of New York, and until 1874 the city did not extend beyond this island. It is separated from the New Jersey shore on the west by the Hudson River, called in its lower course the North River, from the mainland on the north by the Harlem River, and from Long Island on the east by the East River, which is really not a river at all, but a continuation of Long Island Sound. In 1874 and in 1895 parts of Westchester County on the mainland to the north and east of Manhattan were added to the city. Then in 1898 the city's boundaries were greatly enlarged and Greater New York was divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Richmond. Staten Island, whose limits are coextensive respectively, with the counties of New York, Kings, Bronx, Queens, and Richmond. See BROOKLYN.

Although very irregular in shape, the city is, in extreme dimensions, about 35 miles long and 17 miles wide. In the East River are three large islands: Blackwell's now called Welfare Island, Wards, and Randall's, which in 1920 were occupied chiefly by prisons, hospitals, and other municipal institutions of Greater New York. New York harbor has an entrance about a mile wide, guarded by Fort Hamilton at the southwest corner of the Borough of Brooklyn and Fort Wadsworth on the eastern point of Staten Island or Richmond. This entrance, known as The Narrows, connects Lower New York Bay with the Upper Bay, about six miles long and five miles wide, which forms one of the finest harbors in the world. The Hudson and East rivers flow into the Upper Bay at the southern tip of Manhattan. Just south of Manhattan, at the entrance to the East River, is Governor's Island, and in 1920 it was used by the United States government for military purposes. To the west, near the northern end of the Upper Bay, is Liberty Island formerly Bedloe's Island, with its great statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, the famous bronze goddess who greets the returning traveler or the newcomer to America's shores. (See STATUE OF LIBERTY.) North of the latter is Ellis Island, the landing place for immigrants. In 1920, into Manhattan's 22 square miles were crowded some 2,000,000 people, or more than one-third of New York's total population. This number was swelled in the daytime by another million who came from the outlying districts and suburbs to work or shop, for Manhattan is the business center of the city. On the East Side, in the lower part of the island, are the great tenement house districts, one of the most densely populated areas in the world. On the West Side along the Hudson are manufacturing plants, lumber yards, gas houses, and below Twenty-third Street are great piers with the produce markets between and behind them. Toward the south end of the island along Broadway are the large banks and great commercial houses. Farther north is the retail shopping district and above that are the houses of the upper classes. Enormous skyscrapers cover the business section of the city.

INTERCOMMUNICATION. One of New York's greatest problems is that of transferring its millions of inhabitants from one part of the city to the other. Five great bridges span the East River between Manhattan and the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn the famous Brooklyn Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge (See BRIDGES), and Queensboro, Manhattan, and Hell Gate bridges, the last of which has one of the longest arches in the world. The first four are municipally owned, while Hell Gate Bridge was built by and is owned by the Pennsylvania and the New York, New Haven, and Hartford railroad companies. Other bridges join Manhattan and the Bronx. Highbridge carries the old Croton aqueduct across the Harlem River at an elevation of more than 100 feet. An intricate system of surface, elevated, and subway lines covers the city, and cross-river traffic is carried on by means of ferries and tunnels. Several tunnels have been built under the East River and others are being constructed. New Jersey, too, is connected with Manhattan by "tubes" under the Hudson. Numerous ferries, however, still carry a large part of the traffic. Two giant vehicular tunnels were begun in 1920 under the Hudson to carry motorists between the New York and New Jersey shores. The contract called for their completion in 1926. Motor omnibuses, especially those of the Fifth Avenue Coach Company and municipally operated busses, provide anotlier valuable means of transportation. The first elevated railway was established in 1870 and the first subway was opened in 1904. New York's subway system is one the most extensive in the world. Previous to 1913 there were two companies operating subways, the Interborough Rapid Transit and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit, now Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit. In that year the subways and elevated lines were combined into two great systems covering all the boroughs except Richmond.

MANHATTANS STREETS. Manhattan has three world-famous streets. Broadway, the greatest street in the world, extends the full length of the island and beyond the Harlem River on the mainland and changes its character a half dozen times in as many miles. In the lower part of the city it is only 80 feet wide, but contains some of New York's most famous buildings. Above Forty-Second, where most of the important theaters are found in rather close proximity, Broadway is known as the "Great White Way," from the brilliance of its lights. North of the theater district is "automobile row," while still farther north Broadway gradually becomes residential in character. No less famed than Broadway is Fifth Avenue, a beautiful thoroughfare which runs straight north from the historic Washington Square and intersects Broadway at Twenty-third street. Its six miles are lined with handsome residences, fine churches, clubs, hotels, and fashionable shops. It contains the executive offices of the subway and elevated systems the Cunard Steamship Company Building the Manhattan Life Insurance Building and the American Telephone and Telegraph Building, all huge structures built at a cost of many millions of dollars. The Bankers Trust, the Morgan Banking House, the National City Bank, and the New York Stock Exchange are among some of the notable buildings on Wall Street. The Chamber of Commerce on Liberty Street, is a magnificent pile of white marble. The New York Stock Exchange, the Cotton Exchange, the Metropolitan Life and the Mutual Life Insurance buildings, the New York Clearing House, and Whitehall Building are others on the long list of giant business houses. There are two railway stations in the heart of Manhattan the Grand Central and the Pennsylvania. Each is a magnificent structure built at a cost of more than $100,000,000.

GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS. The Old City Hall, completed in 1812, stands in the center of City Hall Park on Broadway, and facing it is the magnificent new Municipal Building, 42 stories high. In the palatial Hall of Records, which stands at the corner of Center and Chambers streets, the deeds of Manhattan real estate are kept. The Criminal Courts Building, on Center and Franklin streets, is connected with the Tombs the city's great prison by the Bridge of Sighs. The Sub-Treasury is on Wall Street, on the site of the old Dutch City Hall. The Post-Office, a handsome building of Doric and Renaissance architecture, stands at the junction of Park Row and Broadway.

HOTELS, THEATERS, AND CLUBS. New York is a city of hotels, and their accommodations for strangers are unexcelled by those of any other city in the world. Among the most luxurious hotels are the Waldorf-Astoria, the Billmore, the Belmont, the Ritz-Carlton, the Vanderbilt, the Astor, the McAlpin, and the Roosevelt. The Plaza and the Majestic are family hotels of the best type. Most of the great theatrical men and firms of the United States make New York their headquarters and producing center. The city has more than SO theaters exclusive of vaudeville houses and concert halls, and hundreds of moving picture houses. Madison Square Garden, built on the site of Barnum's Hippodrome, is one of the most well known amusement buildings in the country. The Metropolitan Opera House is the most famous of the theaters, and Carnegie Hall is foremost among the halls devoted primarily to musical productions. The clubs of New York City, representing politics, art, history, religion, sports, the professions, and other activities, number over 200. The oldest and most exclusive social club is the Union. The Knickerbocker and the Metropolitan, the latter of which is commonly known as the millionaires club, are other old and well-known organizations. The Union League is an important political club.

CHURCHES. There are about 1,500 churches in the five boroughs of New York. The historic Trinity Church, on Broadway at the head of Wall Street, the parent church of the Protestant Episcopalian faith, is the most interesting. It was first built in 1696-97. The present building of brown sandstone in Gothic style was erected in 1846. In the churchyard many famous persons are buried. St. Paul's Chapel on Broadway is a cherished relic of Colonial days, built in 1754-56 as a Trinity Parish. George Washington, Major Andre, and others worshiped there. Another famous place of worship is the Church of the Transfiguration on East Twenty-Ninth Street near Fifth Avenue, familiarly known as "The Little Church Around the Corner." The story goes that a pastor in the neighborhood once refused to hold burial services for an actor, but directed Joseph Jefferson, who was making arrangements for the funeral, to "the little church around the corner." The church was especially dear to actors and has several beautiful memorial windows to persons of that profession. The most magnificent of the Episcopal churches is the new Cathedral of St. John the Divine, on Amsterdam Avenue overlooking Morningside Drive. Grace Church, on Broadway and Tenth is also a beautiful edifice of the Episcopal denomination. St. Peter's, a short distance from St. Paul's on Barclay Street, is the oldest Catholic Church in the city. New York became the see of a Catholic bishop in 1808 and of an archbishop in 1850. St. Patrick's Cathedral Roman Catholic, on Fifth Avenue, is an ornate structure designed after 13th century Gothic architecture. John Street Church is built on the site of the oldest Methodist church in America and is called the "cradle of Methodism." Other well-known places of worship are the First Baptist Church the Park Avenue Baptist the Broadway Tabernacle Congregationalist the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian First Church of Christ, Scientist Temple Beth-El Jewish, and Marble Collegiate Church Reformed Church in America.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS. One of the most important buildings, historically, in New York is the Jumel Mansion at 160th Street and Jumel Place, Manhattan. Erected in 1763 by Lieutenant Colnel Roger Morris, it was Washington's headquarters tor a period in 1776 and the headquarters of General Clinton of the British forces in the following year. The house is now a museum for Revolutionary relics. Fraunces Tavern, on the corner of Broad and Pearl streets, was built in 1719 as a private residence. Purchased in 1762 by Samuel Fraunces, who opened the Queen Charlotte Tavern, it was the scene of many historic meetings of Revolutionary leaders. The third thoroughfare is Wall Street, one of the financial centers of the world, where sudden fortunes are made and equally sudden ruin is met by speculators. It is a narrow thoroughfare, scarcely half a mile long, which extends from Broadway to the East River, well towards the southern end of Manhattan. Park Row, a tiny street running east from Broadway half a mile north of Wall Street, is the home of several great newspapers. The Bowery, an East Side street running in the same general direction as Broadway, was once the rendezvous of rough characters, but today it is a respectable street of shops and tenements, the center of a large Jewish population. Its name comes from the bouwerij, or farm of old Governor Peter Stuyvesant Riverside Drive, one of the world's most beautiful boulevards, skirts the Hudson River from Seventy-Second Street north to the Spuyten Duyvil Creek which connects the Harlem River with the Hudson. Luxurious apartment buildings and private residences line the east side of the drive, looking across the Hudson to the Palisades, the beautiful green-grey cliffs of the New Jersey shore. All the diverting panorama of marine life on the river is also spread before the onlooker from Riverside Drive. An anchorage for the Atlantic division of the United States Navy extends along the shore from Ninetieth Street to Spuyten Duyvil. The chief point of interest on the Drive is Grant's Tomb, at 122d Street a beautiful monument which contains the bodies of General Grant and his wife. Near Washington Square is Greenwich Village, a district with short crooked streets, which prides itself on its Bohemianism. It is a favorite residence of artists and has many art studios. The chief pride of the village is the beautiful Washington Arch. designed by Stanford White, located at the terminus of Fifth Avenue and the entrance to Washington Square. It celebrates the centennial of Washington's inauguration.

COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL BUILDINGS. The business section of the Borough of Manhattan, when viewed from the bay, presents a picture of towering office buildings huddled together in apparent contusion upon a strip of land less than a mile wide. Among the immense business structures which line Broadway are the Flatiron Building, a wedge-shaped building at the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue, said to be the world's first steel skyscraper the Woolworth Building, the highest building in the world the Equitable Assurance Building, Which takes care of some 15,000 tenants the Singer Tower, noted for its height and beauty the Adams and American Express buildings the Standard Oil Building at 26 Broadway, on the spot where Alexander Hamilton's house once stood the Knickerbocker Building, formerly the famous Knickerbocker Hotel the City Investing Building, which 2027 2028 4, 1783, Washington here bade farewell to 44 of his officers, and a hundred years later the Sons of the Revolution was organized in the Long Room of the Tavern. This organization later bought the property. It is still used as a restaurant, but the second floor has become a museum.

LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS. There are three public library corporations in the City of New York the New York Public Library, which serves Manhattan, Bronx, and Richmond the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Queens Borough Public Library. These three systems maintain about a hundred branch libraries. The first named is a white marble building on Fifth Avenue at Forty-second Street. It was established in 1895 by a consolidation of the Astor and Lenox libraries and the Tilden Trust. There are also many private libraries which are open to the public, among them that of the American Geographical Society, the Columbia University Library, the New York University General Library, Russell Sage Foundation Library, the Morgan Library, Cooper Union, and various historical and professional libraries. The American Museum of Natural History, on Seventy-seventh Street facing Central Park, is the property of the city. In addition to the work of securing and exhibiting its famous collections, it maintains a department of public education which works in conjunction with the city's public schools. The Aquarium, with its large collection of fish from all over the world, is housed in the former Castle Garden in Battery Park. It was built as a tort, later became an amusement place, and still later a receiving place for immigrants. In 1891 it was remodeled to serve its present purpose. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the largest and most important art museum in the United States, is located in Central Park. It has departments of painting, sculpture, and architecture, as well as collections of the industrial arts. Among other museums may be mentioned that of the American Numismatic Society with its collection of coins, medals, and decorations, and that of the Hispanic Society of America, which has a fine collection of Spanish art.

PARKS. Manhattan has 75 parks and 72 playgrounds. The Bronx has 49 parks Brooklyn has 42 parks and 10 combined parks and playgrounds Queens Borough has 24 parks, and Richmond Borough has 4. The total park system of the city covers 8,703 acres. Battery Park, at the southern tip of Manhattan, occupies the site of the old Dutch fortifications. The old fort is now used as an aquarium see subhead Libraries and Museums. Bowling Green is a small plot just north of the Battery and in front of the Custom House. Central Park, in the center of Manhattan, is a well-known recreation ground for the people of that crowded borough. It contains 862 acres. One of its chief curiosities is the Egyptian obelisk presented to the United States in 1877 by the Khedive of Egypt and brought to New York in 1880 at the expense of W. H. Vanderbilt. The New York Zoological Park and the New York Botanical Garden together constitute what is generally known as Bronx Park. Brooklyn's finest pleasure ground is Prospect Park. Its highest point, Lookout Hill, affords a fine view of the harbor, Long Island, the Palisades, and south Brooklyn. Van Cortlandt Park, which contains the Van Cortlandt house built in 1748, is north of the Harlem River. Pelham Bay Park on Long Island Sound with its eight miles of salt-water shore is connected by a boulevard drive with Bronx and Van Cortlandt parks. The beautiful Palisades Interstate Park along the west bank of the Hudson is also accessible to New York residents. (See PALISADES) Coney Island, just south of Long Island, attracts the largest crowds of any New York playground. (See CONEY ISLAND)

EDUCATION. In 1920, about 100 million dollars per year was spent by the city of New York on public school education. In 1924 there were nearly 1,000,000 pupils taught in the regular day public schools and an additional 80,000 were enrolled in evening schools. It is a gigantic task to educate New York's large number of immigrant children, speaking some 70 different tongues, and fit them for useful places in the community. The College of the City of New York at 138th Street near the Hudson is municipally supported. Columbia University with its affiliated colleges. Barnard College and Teachers College, is the most important privately owned institution. Its campus, which extends from Riverside Drive to Morningside Park along the Hudson, has been called "the Acropolis of America." (see COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY.) New York University is located at four centers. The Hall of Fame is one of its attractions. (See NEW YORK UNIVERSITY HALL OF FAME) Other institutions are Hunter College, in the Borough of Queens, Cooper Union, an institution for working people, and several denominational schools, notably Union Theological Seminary Presbyterian, the General Theological Seminary Protestant Episcopal, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Saint John's College and the College of Saint Francis Xavier both Roman Catholic.

CHARITIES. New York City differs from other large American cities in that it grants large subsidies to private charitable institutions. The city maintains several homes and a dozen hospitals, and there are many dispensaries, infirmaries, and day nurseries. Most of the city institutions and some of the state and private institutions are located on Ward's, Randall's, and Blackwell's islands. The Charity Organization Society of New York and the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities do splendid work in correlating the different agencies. Among the more important charitable organizations are the United Hebrew Charities, Children's Aid bociety, St. Vincent de Paul Society, and the Association for Improving the Conditions of the Poor. The work of social settlements and similar institutions have greatly improved conditions in the crowded sections of the city.

WATER SUPPLY. One of the greatest problems which have confronted New York is that of water supply. The Croton aqueducts, which bring water from the Croton watershed about 22 miles north of the city, and in 1920 supplied about 400,000,000 gallons of water a day. In 1917 the great Catskill aqueduct was completed, the most remarkable water tunnel ever built at the time, which is designed to carry between 500 and 600 million gallons of water a day from the Catskiil Mountains 92 miles north of the city limits. The Shandaken tunnel, completed early in 1924, extends 18.13 miles through rock and is the longest tunnel ever built up to that time. It is a valuable extension of the Catskill water supply. The boroughs of Queens and Richmond are largely supplied by the Esopus watershed. The average daily consumption of water in New York is 745.7 million gallons.

TRANSPORTATION AND COMMERCE. New York owes its commercial importance to its central location on the Atlantic seaboard and to its excellent harbor. The opening of the Erie Canal now a part of the New York State Barge Canal in 1825, which connected the Great Lakes with the Hudson, was the greatest single factor in establishing the city's importance as a trade center. Nine great railroad systems have their terminals at the Port of New York. All of the railroads from west of the Hudson except the Pennsylvania have their terminal stations in New Jersey and convey their passengers across the river by ferry or by trains through the river tunnels. Several roads which approach from the north make use of the Grand Central Station. It was estimated, in 1920, that 75 million tons of freight annually move in or out of the Port of New York by rail and 40 million tons by steamship. Freight cars that enter and leave during the year would fill eight tracks across the continent from New York to San Francisco. An ocean-going steamer comes in and one goes out every 20 minutes every day.

MANUFACTURES. The importance of New York City as a financial and commercial center is so great that its prowess as a manufacturing center is apt to be overlooked. But nearly 10 per cent of the nation's manufactured goods are produced there and the city's manufacturing interests are almost as great as those of Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and St. Louis combined. Its commercial advantages, its nearness to the Appalachian coal and oil fields, and its large supply of immigrant labor have all contributed to the growth of the manufacturing industry. Men's and women's clothing is the most important manufacture, and the printing and publishing business takes second place. Slaughtering and meat packing and the manufacture of millinery and lace goods and of foundry and machine shop products follow in rank. Tobacco, fur goods, ships and boats, patent medicines and druggists supplies, boots and shoes, malt liquors, and jewelry are next in value in the order named, and there are hundreds of other products of greater or less importance.

GOVERNMENT. The five boroughs of New York are closely united under one responsible executive, the mayor, one financial officer, the comptroller, and two legislative bodies, the board of estimate and apportionment, and the board of aldermen. Each of the boroughs elects a borough president for a term of four years, who is in a measure a local mayor, responsible, to a large degree, for matters relating to local improvements and administration. A borough president is removable by thr governor on charges after a hearing. A vacancy in the office is filled, for the unexpired portion of the term, by a majority vote of all aldermen representing the borough. The borough presidents, within their respective boroughs, have charge of highway, sewer and topographical work of the care of public buildings and offices and of the enforcement of the building code the presidents of the boroughs of Queens and Richmond also have charge of street cleaning. In addition to exercising these administrative functions, the borough presidents are members of the board of estimate and apportionment, the presidents of Manhattan and Brooklyn having two votes each in the board and the other three presidents having one vote each. Each borough president is also a member of the board of aldermen and is chairman of the several local improvement boards composed of the aldermen in his borough.

HISTORY. Though the region about New York was visited by earlier explorers, the real history of the city begins in 1609 when Henry Hudson explored the harbor and the river, while in the service of the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch established a fur trading post on Manhattan Island a short time later and in 1614 Fort Manhattan was built. When the West India Company came into existence in 1621 with chartered rights to the exclusive trade of the coasts of both North and South America, that body chose Manhattan Island for the seat of government and a shipping station. In 1626 Peter Minuit was appointed director-general of the Province of New Netherland, and he bought the entire island from the Indians for goods valued at 24. The name New Amsterdam was adopted for the colony and by 1640 the shores of Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Staten Island were occupied. Minuit was later succeeded in turn by Van Twiller, William Kieft, and Peter Stuyvesant, the most interesting figure of the Dutch days, who held the governorship from 1647 until the English conquest in 1664. The colony prospered and the place was incorporated as a city in 1653. In 1664 Charles II of England granted New Netherland to his brother, the Duke of York, who took possession of the city and renamed it New York. The Dutch regained the city in 1673 but gave way to the English a year later. In 1690 the first intercolonial congress was held in New York. In 1732 a stage line was established between New York and Boston. New York City took a prominent part in the movement which led to American independence. In 1765 the Stamp Act Congress met there. The city was occupied by the British army during the Revolutionary War and was a place of refuge for Loyalists. After the war New York forged rapidly to the front as a commercial center. In 1790 the city limits were extended, and in 1807 Fulton's steamboat, the dormant, began running between New York and Albany. In 1812 a steam ferry was opened to Long Island. The Erie Canal was completed in 1825 and insured the commercial supremacy of New York among American cities. The city was the capital of the colony and tate until 1797, and in 1789-90 was also the lederal capital under the new constitution. During tile 19th century several epidemics of cholera took a large toll of lives, and in 1835 a great fire destroyed the entire East Side below Wall Street. Several disastrous Financial panics also occurred in the 1800's. The city suffered for several years from frauds perpetrated by the Tweed Ring, which from 1S63-67 controlled municipal affairs and corruptly plundered the city government. Members of the Ring were finally convicted of having robbed the city of $20,000,000 and it was effectually broken up.

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