The personality of American cities . e to span the East river. But the work of the firstof all mans highways to conquer the mighty water high-way has hardly lessened. The oldest of the bridges, andthe most beautiful despite the ugliness of its approaches,still pours Brooklynites into Park Row, fifty, sixty,seventy thousand to the hour. The overloading of the Brooklyn bridge is repeatedin the subway — that hidden giant of New York, whichis the real backbone of the island of Manhattan. Builtto carry four hundred thousand humans a day, that busyrailroad has begun to carry more than a million each
The personality of American cities . e to span the East river. But the work of the firstof all mans highways to conquer the mighty water high-way has hardly lessened. The oldest of the bridges, andthe most beautiful despite the ugliness of its approaches,still pours Brooklynites into Park Row, fifty, sixty,seventy thousand to the hour. The overloading of the Brooklyn bridge is repeatedin the subway — that hidden giant of New York, whichis the real backbone of the island of Manhattan. Builtto carry four hundred thousand humans a day, that busyrailroad has begun to carry more than a million eachworking day. How it is done, no one, not even the en-gineers of the company that operates it, really riders in the great tube who have to use it duringthe busiest of the rush hours are willing to hazard aguess, however. It is probable that in no other railroadof the sort would jamming and crowding of this sort betolerated for more than a week. Yet the patrons of thesubway not only tolerate but, after a fashion, they like. NEW YORK 19 it. You can ask a New Yorker about it half an hourafter his trip down town, sardine-fashion, and he willonly say: The subway? Its the greatest ever. I can comedown from Seventy-second street to Wall street in six-teen minutes, and in the old days it used to take metwenty-six or twenty-seven minutes by the elevated. There is your real New Yorker. He would be per-fectly willing to be bound and gagged and shot througha pneumatic tube like a packet of letters, if he thoughtthat he could save twenty minutes between the Batteryand the Harlem river. No wonder then that he scornsa relatively greater degree of comfort in elevated trainsand surface cars and hurries to the overcrowded sub-way. But New York astir in the morning is more even thanManhattan, the Bronx and the populous boroughs overon Long island. Upon its westerly edge runs the Hud-son river — New Yorkers will always persist in callingit the North river — one of the masterly water
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectcitiesandtowns, booky
