. The new New York : a commentary on the place and the people . he game at thePolo Grounds, thirty thousand or more, and spend half aday perched contentedly on benches, banks, bridges, anddistant housetops. The largest gatherings are seen only at political ormilitary parades or at some important public Dewey Celebration and its like, the processionspreceding national elections, even the fire and poHceparades, bring out vast numbers of spectators. Thepeople of the East and West Sides come flocking throughthe side streets to Fifth Avenue, where they occupy thestoops, climb railings,
. The new New York : a commentary on the place and the people . he game at thePolo Grounds, thirty thousand or more, and spend half aday perched contentedly on benches, banks, bridges, anddistant housetops. The largest gatherings are seen only at political ormilitary parades or at some important public Dewey Celebration and its like, the processionspreceding national elections, even the fire and poHceparades, bring out vast numbers of spectators. Thepeople of the East and West Sides come flocking throughthe side streets to Fifth Avenue, where they occupy thestoops, climb railings, windows, trees, lamp-posts, to geta sight of what is moving. The processions themselvesare often enormous aggregations of individuals. InDecember, 1905, there was a Jewish parade (a protestagainst the massacres of Jews in Russia) that is said to havecontained 125,000 people. It took the better part of theday in passing a given point. Such crowds are hardly tobe imagined. And when seen, the wonder is where thepeople come from, and how they are housed and ~^««>-n-^ ^-^ THE BRIDGES 295 If one is whimsically inclined, he may even wonder as towho made all the thousands of Derby hats that are every-where in sight. Seen from a window or a balcony of asky-scraper the whole avenue looks paved with black hats. But even on days and nights devoid of holiday signifi-cance the streets are full of people. There are certainplaces that are always congested. These are the main-traveled thoroughfares, the principal avenues, the largercross-streets, the railway stations, the subway and ferryentrances, — above all, the bridge entrances. The numberof people that daily pass between Manhattan and LongIsland by the bridges is something extraordinary. Thereare nearly 5000 trolley cars a day moving on the BrooklynBridge alone, and they are generally full up withpassengers. A moderate estimate gives 200,000 people aday passing over this bridge, and in 1907 it ran for a singleday as high as 4
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishernewyorkmacmillanco
