Page:Historic towns of the middle states (IA historictownsofm02powe).pdf/410

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and the two brothers, together with General Washington,—himself an engineer by profession,—had collaborated with Captain Pierre Charles L'Enfant the plan of the National Capital. With the beautiful design of Washington City fresh in his mind, Joseph Ellicott gave to the village of New Amsterdam a similar system of radiating broad avenues, embracing in the territory they enclosed rectangular systems of streets. The avenues were 99 feet in width and the streets 66 feet. The surveys were begun in 1798 and completed in 1805. Indirectly, therefore, Buffalo is indebted to President Washington for some of its topographical features.

JOSEPH ELLICOTT.

FOUNDER OF BUFFALO.

The early history of the village is not unlike