Continuing my stroll the 1893 Baedeker description of New York, pages 12 and 13 are a list of “chief lines” of streetcars in Manhattan. There’s a parenthetical note that there are three streetcar lines that cross the Harlem River in “The ‘Annexed District’”. That’s the west Bronx, which had been joined to New York City in 1874 but had not yet been named after the Bronx River.
The description of “Carriages” – AKA horse-drawn taxis – is amusingly timeless: “The cab system is in a very undeveloped condition in new york, owing partly to the high fares, partly to the abundance of tramway and railway accommodation, and partly to the bad paving of the streets, which makes driving, outside of a few favoured localities, anything but a pleasure.”
The list of ferries includes a note about a ferry from Fulton Street in Brooklyn to the new Jersey railroad terminals that is described as being “near the Suspension Bridge.” There was, in 1893, only one suspension bridge in New York, as opposed to the eight we have now.
You must be logged in to post a comment.