New York had become the second largest metropolis in the world at the turn of the twentieth-century. A metropolis is roughly defined as a city with a population of more than one million. The Island of Manahatta, what we now know as Manhattan, was consolidated into Greater New York in 1890, along with the other four boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx. At the time, the combined population totaled slightly less than 3.5 million. The total population was second only to London, with a population of over 6 million,^[1] but New York City’s growth rate of 315 people per day exceeded London’s 285.^[2] This was a period of rapid growth for New York City, as more and more immigrants came in search of jobs and fresh starts. Manhattan had a population growth of almost 38% from 1899 to 1900, and Queens had a growth rate of 75% during the same period.^[3] In all five boroughs, immigration far exceeded the natural population growth. Poor employment opportunities elsewhere led to large-scale immigration into the city, where many hoped to seek factory jobs created from the city’s industrialization. This massive influx of people is what bolstered New York City’s rise as a metropolis.

The Harbor

As American author Moncure D. Comvay said, “‘See Naples and die’ was an adage before New York became so beautiful, but it should be ‘See New York and live’”.^[4] And there is certainly truth to that statement, as New York Harbor was considered by many to be the most picturesque in the world.

With its prime geographical location between the two Christian continents^[5] at the time, through which the majority of ocean ferries passed, New York seemed destined to become a city of great importance. The New York Harbor consists of the East River, Lower Bay, Upper Bay, and the southern portion of the Hudson River. It can be entered from the Atlantic Ocean through the Long Island Sound, or through the channels at Sandy Hook. It served as a converging point for seafarers, whether sailors and merchants, tourists or students.

The Lower Hudson has numerous natural advantages; the strong tides of the Gulf Stream prevent the port from freezing over, even when the Chesapeake and Delaware bays have frozen over. It is shielded from winds by Staten Island and the areas of danger are marked by buoys, lighthouses or beacons. The harbor has multiple methods of protection for various emergencies, such as quarantines or military attacks. The northern part of Sandy Hook houses Fort Hancock, a specially fortified harbor defense consisting of sixteen 12-inch rifled mortars and several 12 and 13-inch guns. There are various other Forts offering protection to New York, such as Fort Wadsworth, Fort Hamilton, Fort Tompkins, and Fort Lafayette.

“It is safe to say that New York harbor is impregnable to any attacks which may be made by a hostile power.”^[6]

Great care was taken to ensure the safety of the harbor, which was vital to the wealth of the city and the country as a while. In addition to these precautions, a complete system of submarines had been implemented by the US Government, although the details of the system were not made public. The system includes electrical submarine mines and land guns as defenses against possible bombardment. Detailed maps and plans were commissioned and carefully prepared by the Board of Engineers for the fortifications.

New York City’s imports and exports totaled more than any other city in the world. By the late 1870’s and early 1880’s, New York City’s foreign commerce exceeded $185 million annually, far more than that of France or London at the time^[7]. Its thriving harbor saws two thirds of the country’s imports and half of the country’s exports each year, transported on one of the city’s 7,000 vessels. The activity along the harbor led to the growth of markets all along the river fronts of the island. The Fulton Market was one example that was hardly sanitary, yet still a provider of some of the best products of American waters at the time.

The Police

Due to the rapid influx of people into a densely packed space, conflicts were bound to arise. Order was kept by the police, who represented an organized and stable force to ensure the protection of the city and its residents. Similar to Paris, New York was dealing with an overabundance of police at the close of the nineteenth century, much to the displeasure of its citizens. The police had a wide jurisdiction, and while corruption was not necessarily widespread, their enforcement of petty laws was certainly a nuisance to all.

“The reputation of the tribe is bad; and men are rarely better than their reputation. They are compelled to associate with vulgarians and scoundrels of all grades; are exposed to every species of temptation; act unfavorably on each other, and have no restraining influences beyond their own intelligence, which is not very great, and their fear of exposure, which is not probable.”^[8]

Although not all police officers are bad or corrupt, the lack of close monitoring leads many to bend the rules or become dishonest. At the time, there were roughly 2,000 police in New York, while the force of the entire Metropolitan District, including Manhattan,  Brooklyn, Richmond, King’s, part of Queen’s and Westchester counties totaled 2,566 men.^[9]

The head of the Metropolitan District Police, Superintendent Kennedy, has working under him hundreds of patrolmen who were more able-bodied, well dressed and better trained than the general police force. Some of these patrolmen were designated as the “Broadway squad,” and was composed of about one hundred carefully picked policemen. They defended and fought off the furious mob during the August Riots of 1863, and continued to assist those in trouble long afterwards.

“They are very neatly attired, and…are very serviceable in assisting women and children across the crowded thoroughfares, directing strangers to different parts of the city, arresting pickpockets, and preventing street fights. They are the real autocrats of the highway, and the position is sought by all members of the force; only the most intelligence and best-behaved being eligible to the place.”^[10]

Although the general police force was not looked highly upon or especially effective at maintaining the peace and fairly enforcing laws, the Broadway Squad has a much higher rate of public approval, and consisted of only the most intelligent, dedicated andhonestof the police force. The existence of a special patrol squad for Broadway indicates its importance to the city; it was a center for high culture, where the wealthy and prominent were, as well as tourists who wanted to come to see the culture of New York City. The size of the police department in the city is a mark of its metropolitan status; with a large population comes the need for a structured organization to maintain order. Small towns and villages had their local sheriffs and deputies; New York City had its police force of 2000 men.

The Park

For a city known for its rampant industrialization and tightly packed spaces, there has been a great effort to set aside land for New Yorkers desiring some fresh air and a touch of green. As is typical of a metropolis, which by definition is densely crowded, one cannot escape people. The streets, the subways, the buildings; all are crowded and all mark the superficiality of the city, in the sense that it is largely manmade. Thus, it has become common for a metropolis to take great pains to maintain the presence of nature within the city.

The island of Manhattan, once known for its plentiful greenery, was quickly depleted of such resources as factories and roads became more widespread. It was not until 1851 that Mayor A.C. Kingsland argued that a public park should be created as a place where citizens of all classes could come to relax and escape the noise and pollution of the city. He argued that the park would “give four-fold returns in the health, happiness, and comfort of the people, especially of the poorer classes.”^[11]

Mayor Kingsland’s proposal was met with approval and led to the creation of Central Park in 1853.^[12] Although often taken for granted today, the park was designed carefully and methodically, so that one could tour and enjoy the beauties of the park either by carriage, by horse, or on foot, and manage to avoid interaction with those who chose to tour via automobiles.

“The drives of the park were ingeniously designed, first…to fetter the attention of the visitor to the rural charms …of the park, to screen from the eye all sights and suggestion of the busy city outside; second, to enable him to make the entire circuit, or to shorten his tour by taking one of the traverse roads leading to the opposite drive; and, third, to enable residents on either side of the city – physicians, for instance, hurriedly called to patients, or social callers or evening guests – to enter by one of the side gates and drive directly through the park to the opposite side.”^[13]

Thus, New Yorkers could finally escape from the familiar sights and sounds of the city, indicating the extent to which New York City had become a metropolis. It had become so densely packed that its residents could not find any place within its borders to relax and escape the noise. To enhance the experience of the park as an escape from city life, the Ramble was created. With twenty six acres, Central Park’s artificial jungle featured a variety of the island’s native shrubs and song birds, as a tribute to the island’s heritage prior to the rise of factories. The Meer, a small body of water within the park, was created with a similar purpose in mind; to give the impression of “unbounded room and freedom.”^[14] The walkways within the park averaged 13 feet wide, with a total of 48 bridges, archways and tunnels in the park. The park consisted of 400 acres of wooded area and over 500,000 planted trees to be enjoyed by city dwellers and tourists alike.^[15]

The success of Central Park led to the creation of various other parks. Morningside and Riverside parks began improvements shortly afterward, along with the East River Park, the Van Cortlandt Park, and Prospect Park. Similar to Central Park, plants and bodies of water were incorporated in order to give city dwellers a place in which they could relax and escape from the bustle of the city. New York City had a total of 5,167 acres of park land, greater than the 4,565 acres in Paris and the 1,442 acres in London.

Skyscrapers

The rise of skyscrapers paralleled the rise of New York as a metropolis, as the city struggled with internal disputes about its rise towards the sky. As the metropolis grew, sky scrapers were developed. The building of skyscrapers meant more places to live, thus leading to more people coming into the city in the hopes of making a living. Thus, the city as a metropolis and the building of skyscrapers were interdependent. The first skyscrapers began coming up in the 1870’s to 1880’s in New York City and Chicago. The Washington Building, north of the Battery at No. 1 Broadway, is roughly referred to as “the first skyscraper”.^[16] As a measure of the changes that New York has undergone since it was first settled by the Dutch, the term “skyline” used to refer to the point at which the earth and sky met. With the advent of the skyscrapers, the term came to represent something manmade; an “urban silhouette”.^[17]

The building of skyscrapers met with much opposition and apprehension from New Yorkers. Whereas factories were considered an inevitable fixture in any urban community, the development of skyscrapers was a choice. And New Yorkers were unsure whether it was the right choice, for a variety of reasons, moral, religious or political. The advent of the skyscraper reminded many of Babylon’s Tower of Babel. Some considered the story a warning that humans should not extend themselves beyond their means; it was a step that should not be taken. Others had more practical objections to it. In particular, many in the religious community felt that it uprooted traditional values that had been an integral part of the city. Up until the rise of skyscrapers, Trinity Church had been the tallest building in the city and was something that New Yorkers and tourists alike could appreciate. As the skyline became more and more cluttered with skyscrapers, Trinity Church quickly faded into the background. The majority of the skyscrapers were privately owned, usually by private businesses, raising the argument that these wealthy businesses were “upstaging civic pride” by altering NYC’s skyline.^[18] Rather than the Trinity Church rising proud and tall over the surrounding buildings, the buildings of private companies overshadowed the church and became representative of the New York Skyline, often the first and one of the most memorable views for foreign tourists and immigrants. The commerce of New York was becoming more intricately tied with the culture of the cosmopolis.