Jersey; but the other railways have their terminals on the New Jersey bank of the Hudson and are reached either by ferries or by subways under the river. The New York Central tracks are sunken from the Grand Central Station for about 50 blocks and then run on a trestle (like the “elevated” railways) for the rest of their course in Manhattan. Ten steamboat lines afford communication with the cities and towns on the Hudson. The Old Dominion, the Clyde and the Savannah are among the more important coastwise lines connecting the city with ports on the South Atlantic coast. The Metropolitan line connects it with Boston, and the Portland line with Portland; and there are several lines to ports on Long Island Sound. Among great trans-Atlantic lines which serve the city are the Cunard and the White Star lines to English, French and Mediterranean ports; the North German Lloyd, and the Hamburg-American lines to English, French and German ports; the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique to French ports; and the Holland-American line to the Dutch port of Rotterdam; the docks of some of these lines are on the New Jersey side of the North river, in Hoboken. There are also lines to the West Indies, Central and South America.
Commerce.—The lack of railway lines direct to wharfs and piers in Manhattan is one of the commercial disadvantages of the city. The value of the imports received at the port of New York, which comprises New York Harbor and the Hudson river, increased from $518,796,561 in 1899 to $891,614,678 (or 60·4% of those of the entire country) in 1909; the value of the exports from $476,609,251 in 1899 to $627,782,767 (or 36·3% of those of the entire country) in 1909. The importations of works of art, furs, laces, diamonds, sugar, coffee, spices, cocoa, india-rubber, cigar wrappers, tin, cheese, hemp, hides of cattle and gloves of kid or other leather at New York are especially large as compared with the other ports of the country; and so are the exportations of chemicals and medicines, copper, machinery, illuminating oil and hardware.
The city is the principal centre of the New World for the wholesale grocery and dry-goods businesses. Here are the country’s most important “exchanges,” including the Stock Exchange (1792), the Produce Exchange (the New York Commercial Association in 1862–1868), the Cotton Exchange (1871) and the Consolidated Stock Exchange (1885); and here are the richest and most powerful banks and trust companies in the New World and the great New York Clearing House. The Chamber of Commerce of the city was first organized and was chartered in 1768, and was reorganized in 1784.
Manufactures.—Many of the manufacturing industries, notably the manufacture of clothing, are favoured by the abundance of immigrant labour. Others, such as the refining of sugar and molasses, derive an advantage from their position with respect to imported raw materials. Still others, e.g. the refining of petroleum, derive an advantage from their position with respect to the exportation of the finished products. The growth of manufactures was promoted by the rapid growth in commerce after the opening of the Erie Canal (1825) and by a great stream of immigration, and New York became the foremost manufacturing city in the United States about the middle of the 19th century. The value of its manufactured products increased from $1,084,850,236 in 1890 to $1,371,358,468 in 1900, and the total value of factory products[1] from $1,172,870,261 in 1900 to $1,526,523,006 in 1905 (an increase of 30·2%). Clothing ranked first in value in 1905, and its value ($305,523,795) was greater than the total value of all factory products in any other city in the United States except Chicago and Philadelphia. Printing and publishing, with products valued at $116,877,594, ranked second. In 1905 the highest degree of localization of any industry in the country was in lapidary work, of which 96·5% of the entire output of the country was produced in New York City, more than 60% of the total for the city being produced in Brooklyn. The boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx produced in that year goods valued at $1,043,251,923, or a little more than two-thirds of that for the entire city; and in this part of the city is made more than 95% of the clothing manufactured in all the city. The Borough of Brooklyn produced nearly three-fourths of the remainder.
Water Supply.—The water supply[2] of the colonial city was derived from wells and from the many fresh-water streams and ponds which have now almost without exception been filled in. A system, drawing water from Collect Pond, was installed in 1774–1776 by Christopher Colles (1738–1821), but this never was in actual operation. In 1799 the Manhattan Company was incorporated ostensibly to supply the city with water, but under an omnibus clause in its charter it devoted itself to the banking business. In 1829 the city built a reservoir on 13th Street. In 1830 De Witt Clinton suggested the Croton river as a source of supply. Between 1837 and 1893 were constructed the first Croton Aqueduct, the Bronx river Conduit and the New Croton Aqueduct (see Aqueduct), with maximum discharges respectively of 95,000,000 gals., 28,000,000 gals. and 302,000,000 gals. a day. In 1905 a new Water Supply Commission was created and immediately afterwards work was begun on a new aqueduct[3] to bring water from the Catskills; a great reservoir (the Ashokan) was built more than 85 m. N. of New York, W. of Kingston (on the W. side of the Hudson); thence an aqueduct was constructed which crossed under the Hudson river between Storm King and Bear Mountain to the Kensico storage reservoir at White Plains, to a filtration plant near Scarsdale and to the Hill View distributing reservoir in Yonkers, and from this reservoir to the five boroughs of Greater New York (Queens and Richmond boroughs both being supplied from Brooklyn) by tunnels, the supply for Staten Island only being pumped through pipes. One of the largest of the new reservoirs within the city limits is the Jerome Park. The water supply for the typical New York City “sky-scraper” cannot be forced to the higher storeys of these buildings by the pumps of the municipal service, and such buildings must have each its own installation of engines for this purpose. In 1908 a high pressure water supply system was installed for fire-protection of a part of the city below 23rd Street; induction motors driving multi-stage centrifugal pumps give sufficient power to force the water to a fire in the top of the highest buildings. (See Fires and Fire Extinction.)
Administration.—By the close of the Dutch period the city had become practically self-governing. But in the permanent form of English government that was established by the Dongan charter, granted in 1686 when the English crown was attacking the privileges of municipalities in the mother country, the mayor and sheriff were appointed by the governor and council; the recorder, town clerk and clerk of the market were appointed either by the king or by the governor; and although the aldermen and assistants were elected by the people no ordinances of the common council could remain in force more than three months unless they were confirmed by the governor and council. The Montgomerie charter of 1730 was mainly an enlargement of the Dongan charter. From 1777 to 1821 the mayor was chosen by the state council of appointment, consisting of the governor and four senators; from 1821 to 1834 he was elected by the common council; since 1834 he has been elected by the people. In 1730 the common council was divided into two chambers: the board of aldermen and the board of assistants; and the mayor and recorder were excluded from membership. In 1853 a board of sixty councilmen, in which was vested the sole right to originate acts appropriating money, was substituted for the board of assistants. The latter was restored in 1868, but was abolished in 1873 when the board of estimate and apportionment was created. Until 1849 the common council was an executive as well as a legislative body, and for many years the government was administered chiefly by its committees and by the heads of departments which it created and appointed; and the mayor’s veto could be overcome by a bare majority vote of the members elected to each chamber. In 1849 the choice of the heads of departments was given to the people, and in 1853 a two-thirds vote of the members elected to each chamber was required to pass an act over the mayor’s veto. In 1857 the state legislature began the appointment of boards and commissions for the performance of various functions, and from this state interference and the popular election of the heads of departments resulted a divided responsibility in the city government. The present state constitution (1894) affords some protection against state interference, and under the Consolidation Act of 1882 and under the present charter of “Greater New York,” granted in 1897 and revised in 1901, responsibility centres in the mayor.
The mayor is elected for a term of four years. With the exception of that of finance he appoints the heads of all departments: law, water supply, gas and electricity, fire, street cleaning, bridges, docks and ferries, parks, public charities, tenement house, health, correction, police, education, taxes and assessments. Even in the department of finance he appoints the chamberlain and two commissioners of accounts, who examine the receipts and disbursements in the office of the comptroller and chamberlain and may examine the affairs of such other offices or departments as the mayor may direct. All officers appointed by the mayor may be removed by him, except certain judicial officers and the members of the board of education.
- ↑ The census of 1905 was confined to establishments under the factory system; the total for all manufactured products in 1900 (the figure given in the 1900 census) is greater than the value of factory products only (the figure given for 1900 in the 1905 census, so that figures for 1900 and 1905 may be comparable).
- ↑ See Edward Wegmann, The Water Supply of the City of New York (New York, 1896).
- ↑ See A. D. Flinn, “The World’s Greatest Aqueduct” in the Century Magazine for September 1909.
