[Illustration: The Clermont, Fulton's First Steam-Boat.]

So Fulton came back to New York and with the money given him by
Livingston began to build a steam-boat which he called the Clermont--the
name of Chancellor Livingston's country home. The citizens laughed a
good deal at the idea and called the boat "Fulton's Folly." In August,
1807, the Clermont was finished, and a crowd gathered to see it launched
and to laugh at its failure. But the boat moved out into the stream and
up the Hudson River, while the people gazed in wonder at the marvellous
thing gliding through the water, moved apparently by some more than
human force. It went all the way to Albany, and from that day on
continued to make trips up and down the river. This was the first
successful steam-boat in the world. Soon steam ferry-boats took the
place of those which had been driven by horse-power. Quickly, too, after
the success of the Clermont, steam navigation went rapidly forward on
both sides of the ocean. Fulton made other and much better boats. Other
men followed in his footsteps, and the great ocean liners of to-day are
one of the results.




CHAPTER XXXVI

THE CITY PLAN


It is interesting at this time to read how the streets came to be just
where they are. The city was growing more rapidly than ever and the
streets and byways met one another at every sort of angle, forming a
tangled maze. To remedy this, a commission was formed of several of the
prominent citizens to determine just what course the streets should
take. Now this commission decided not to interfere with those that
existed, but to map out the island above the city and plan for those
that were to be. They worked for four years and then submitted, in the
year 1811, what they called the City Plan. If you will look at a map,
you will see at the lower part of the Island of Manhattan that the
streets cross and recross each other in the most bewildering manner. And
you will also see that above this jumble the streets and avenues extend
through the island in a regular and uniform way. This change was the
result of the City Plan.

While the commission was making its plan, there came threatenings of
war. Again England was at war with France, and those two countries in
fighting one another very often injured the American ships. Besides, the
British war-ships had a disagreeable way of searching American ships and
taking charge of any Englishmen they found on them, even those who had
become American citizens. These same British war-ships often fired upon
those American vessels whose captains objected to their being searched.

So it came about that American ships carrying merchandise to other
countries and bringing merchandise to American ports were interfered
with more and more, and American commerce was thus ruined, for no
American ship was safe. The end came early in the year 1812, when the
United States declared war against Great Britain.

[Illustration: Castle Garden.]

As soon as war was declared, the citizens of New York united for
defence, and when news came that the city was to be attacked, a great
meeting was held in City Hall Park, and everybody decided, then and
there, to support their country with their fortunes, their honor, and
their lives. Then they went to work, stopping all other employment, and
night and day they built forts and defences. They built forts on the
islands in the bay to defend the approach to the city from the ocean,
and they built forts in the Hell Gate to defend the approach by way of
Long Island Sound, and they built batteries on the Island of Manhattan
itself. One fort built at this time was on a little island close by the
Battery, and was called Fort Clinton. This afterward became Castle
Garden.

But though the British had sent soldiers and ships to fight the forces
in America, they made no effort to capture the city of New York.

The war went on for two years; there were battles, many of them, on the
land and on the sea. Very often the British had the best of it, and then
again the Americans would have the best of it. But in the end, although
the British fought hard, the Americans fought harder, and in the first
month of the year 1815 the war ended with a great battle in New Orleans,
which the Americans won.




CHAPTER XXXVII

THE STORY of the ERIE CANAL

Everything was going along smoothly when all at once the yellow fever
broke out on the west side, far downtown. It raged with even more
violence than had the small-pox. Citizens fled, and the stricken
district was fenced off so that no one might enter it. It was like a
place of the dead, silent and deserted. Many people went far out of town
to Greenwich Village, and many business houses opened offices in this
little settlement; with the result that Greenwich Village started on a
new life, and it was not long before it grew to be an important part
of New York instead of a suburb. For many who had transferred their
business also went to live there, not returning to the city even after
the fever had passed away.

[Illustration: Landing of Lafayette at Castle Garden.]

In the year after the fever (it was by this time 1824) General Lafayette
came again to America and was warmly received. Landing first at
Staten Island, he was, on the following day, escorted by a naval
procession and conducted to Castle Garden. A multitude came to voice
their welcome and follow him to the City Hall, where he was greeted by
the Mayor and all of the officials. During his stay he held daily
receptions in the City Hall, and afterward visited the public
institutions and buildings. On leaving for a tour of the country he was
accompanied all the way to Kingsbridge by a detachment of troops. For
thirteen months he travelled through the country, and when he returned
to New York in the autumn of the next year, the citizens gave a banquet
in his honor, at Castle Garden, which surpassed anything of the kind
that had ever been seen.

Then General Lafayette sailed away to France again. In the month after
he had gone, with all the city cheering him and making such a din that
you would have thought that there never could be a greater, in the very
next month the city was again all decorated, and more shouts rent the
air, for a grand undertaking had just been completed, which you shall
now hear of.

Ever since the days of the Revolution there had been talk of digging a
canal from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean; for you must know that
in these days there being no railroads, most of the traffic and travel
were done by water. This canal had been long talked of, but no step had
been taken toward building it.

Now you will remember that De Witt Clinton, while he was Mayor, took a
great deal of interest in everything that was for the good of the city.
Well, after he had been Mayor for some years, he became Governor of the
State, and it was he who came to think that although the building of the
canal would be a great undertaking, for it would have to be more than
300 miles long, it might after all be accomplished. For years he worked,
with some others, while many said that it was a foolish idea, and too
much of a task even to think of. But still Clinton worked at his plans,
and finally, the money having been given by the State, the digging of
the canal was begun. The work went on for eight years, and in the month
of October, 1825, was finished.

The canal was a water-way that stretched across the State of New York
from Buffalo to Albany and there joined the Hudson River, which leads
straight to the city of New York, and so on to the ocean.

The people in the city and in the State were delighted at the
completion of the work, and on the day of the opening of the canal they
expressed their joy as loudly as they could. Governor De Witt Clinton
was at the Buffalo end, and he, with the State officers, started in a
boat decorated with flags and bunting and was towed through the canal.
As the boat set out from Buffalo, a cannon was fired, and many more
cannon having been placed each within hearing distance of the other by
the side of the canal, in turn took up the sound and carried it along,
mile after mile, until the last one, stationed in the city of New York,
was fired, one hour and twenty-five minutes after the first had been
fired at Buffalo. By this the people all across the State knew that the
canal had been opened.

For ten days the boats crept along the canal, and at each town bands
played, and speeches were made, until on the tenth day the Governor and
his party reached New York--the first to make the journey across the
State by water. They were taken to Sandy Hook, the Mayor of New York,
with many others, attending, and surrounded by all the ships in the bay,
with their colors flying and their whistles blowing. And there at Sandy
Hook, Governor Clinton poured a keg of water which he had brought from
Lake Erie into the waters of the ocean.

Thus were the waters of the Great Lakes and the waters of the Atlantic
Ocean united, and the city was illuminated as it had never been before,
and great bonfires burned all night, in honor of the wedding.




CHAPTER XXXVIII

THE BUILDING of the CROTON AQUEDUCT


It really seemed now as though some fairy wand had been turned toward
New York. Blocks of houses of brick and stone sprang up, and buildings
of every sort crept up the Island of Manhattan and were occupied by more
than 200,000 people. The city was the centre of art and literature and
science in America. The streets were lighted by gas; there were fine
theatres; and the first street railroad in the world was in
operation--the first step toward crowding out the lumbering stages.
Newspapers were multiplying, and there were now fifty various sorts,
daily, weekly, and monthly. The dailies cost six cents, and were
delivered to regular subscribers. In the year 1833 the _Sun_, the first
penny paper to be published in the city, was issued. It was a success.
Boys sold it on the streets in all parts of the town. This was the
beginning of the work of the news-boys, and after this they were to be
found all over the country.

But now there came another great fire. On a December night, a night so
cold that it was said there had not been such another in fifty years,
flames broke out in the lower part of town near the river. The citizens
battled with it as best they could, but it burned for three days,
destroying almost all of the business end of the city. For years
afterward it was called the "Great Fire," and was remembered with dread.
To-day there is a marble tablet on a house in Pearl Street near Coenties
Slip, which was the centre of the burned district, where you can read of
how fearful the fire was and how thankful the people were that the
entire city was not destroyed. But the houses were quickly rebuilt, and
New York prospered more than ever before.

[Illustration: View of Park Row, 1825.]

Destructive as the fire was, however, it called attention to the fact
that there was a woful lack of water in the city. Most of the water was
still supplied by the wells and springs which had been sufficient for
a small town, but were by no means so for a city of the present size. It
was now that the idea of bringing a large supply of water from without
the city was conceived. The plan was to build an artificial course, or
aqueduct, for water, from the Croton River, forty miles and more above
the city. Many thought that this was not possible, but then other
seemingly impossible things had been accomplished, so they pushed ahead
and commenced the building of this work. A dam was thrown across the
Croton River, forming a lake five miles long. The aqueduct extended from
this dam to the city. Sometimes it had to be cut through the solid rock;
sometimes it was continued underground by tunnel; sometimes over valleys
by embankments, until at last it reached the Harlem River where a stone
bridge, called the High Bridge, was built to support it. Through this
channel of solid masonry the water was brought into the city, and when
it reached the Island of Manhattan was distributed in pipes over the
entire city. This wonderful work cost $9,000,000, and took seven years
to build. When the water was first released from Croton River and flowed
into the new channel, rushing along for forty miles to the city, the
citizens rejoiced greatly. There was a celebration with parades and
illuminations.

[Illustration: High Bridge, Croton Aqueduct.]

It now looked as though there would be enough water to last no matter
how large the city should become, for there were now 95,000,000 gallons
a day available. But before another fifty years had passed there was a
cry for more water, But this time the people knew just what to do, and
another aqueduct was built from the Croton River. This one was carried
under the Harlem River instead of over it, supplying so much water that
it will doubtless be many a long year indeed before another will be
needed.




CHAPTER XXXIX

PROFESSOR MORSE and the TELEGRAPH


There lived in New York at this time a man whose name was Samuel F.B.
Morse. He was an artist and was interested in many branches of science.
He had founded the National Academy of Design and was Professor of the
Literature of the Arts of Design at the University of the City of New
York. This man believed that an electric current could be transmitted
through a wire and so make it possible to convey a message from one
point to another. One night, after having worked on his idea for years,
he invited a few friends to the University building, which overlooked
Washington Square, and showed them the result of his labors. It was the
first telegraph in the world. This was a crude affair, but Professor
Morse proved that he could send a message over a wire. In the year 1845
he had advanced so far that a telegraph line was built between New York
City and Philadelphia. Then all the world recognized the genius of
Morse. The people of New York especially honored him, and even in his
lifetime they erected a statue of him which you can see to-day in
Central Park.

By this time the city had crept up to both Greenwich Village and Bowery
Village, and had engulfed them. On every side were houses, some of them
five and six stories high, where before they had been but two stories.

An open space nearby Bowery Village was called Astor Place. This was the
scene in 1849 of a famous riot, which came about in this wise: Edwin
Forrest, an American actor, and William Charles Macready, an English
actor, had quarrelled about some fancied slight. So when Macready came
to the city to play at the Astor Place Opera House, some friends of
Forrest's gathered and sought to prevent his acting by shouting their
disapproval. This was the excuse for an unruly mob to gather outside the
theatre and storm the house with stones. Macready escaped by leaving
the theatre by a rear door. Then a regiment of soldiers came and after
using all peaceful measures to quell the disturbance, fired upon the mob
and killed many of them before the space was cleared and quiet restored.

[Illustration: Crystal Palace.]

Castle Garden, which had once been Fort Clinton, had become a place of
amusement. Here Jenny Lind, "the Swedish Nightingale," sang, and many
another artist of rare ability was seen and heard.

Now, too, a World's Fair was opened on Murray Hill. Held in a
fairy-like building of glass, made in the form of a Greek cross, with
graceful dome and arches, it was a Crystal Palace in fact as in name,
where all the products of the world were shown. But, unfortunately, a
few years later it was burned to the ground.

There are always some wise and thoughtful people who think of the
comfort of others, and some of these realized that it would not be long
before the Island of Manhattan would be so covered with houses that
there would be no open places where one might enjoy fresh air and
recreation. They said it would be well to have a garden laid out for
this purpose, with walks and drives as needed. This was done and an
immense tract of woodland and forest, almost as large as the city itself
at the time, was set apart. As this was in the centre of the island it
was called the Central Park. Millions of people have been thankful for
it, although they have not put their gratitude into words.

We have now come to the days of the Great Civil War, when many men
left the city to join the army. Now there were those who did not see
the necessity for war and had no desire to be soldiers, so when more
men were called for there was a riot; a terrible and destructive one.
A mob swept over the city, a murderous, plundering mob that left a trail
of horror wherever it touched; and before it was put down a thousand
persons had been killed or injured, and $2,000,000 damage had been done.
This was the Draft Riot. The Civil War ended, the city prospered,
growing greater and greater, until in the year 1878 the stages and
horse-cars could no longer carry all the people. Then railroads elevated
above the streets were built that could carry great numbers swiftly to
all parts of the city.

New York, already become one of the great cities of the world, advanced
with giant strides.




CHAPTER XL

THE GREATER NEW YORK


The time came when the city of New York grew beyond the limits of the
Island of Manhattan, though the island had seemed such a boundless tract
of land, that it had been thought laughable for the City Plan to provide
for streets over its entire length. The city grew larger and larger. It
stretched up to the Harlem River, leaped over it and went branching out
into the country beyond. Great libraries were built; hospitals for the
sick; prisons for the wrong-doer, markets, churches, public institutions
of every kind. Buildings grew taller and taller until they came to be
twenty and twenty-five stories high. Even then there were so many people
that there were not houses enough to hold them all. So they swarmed over
into the already large city of Brooklyn, on Long Island. And the
ferry-boats being no longer able to carry the vast crowds in comfort, a
great suspension bridge was built over the East River from New York to
Brooklyn. At last the city of New York and the city of Brooklyn had so
much in common, that they, with some of their suburbs, were united into
one great city in the year 1898.

Then the Island of Manhattan became simply the Borough of Manhattan, one
of the five boroughs of Greater New York.

So the story of the Island of Manhattan is ended.




TABLE of EVENTS

Year

1609.  Hudson discovers the island of Manhattan

1613.  Ship Tiger burned

1614.  United New Netherland Company organized

1614.  Fort Manhattan built

1621.  West India Company organized

1626.  Peter Minuit Governor
Fort Amsterdam built

1629.  Charter adopted under which the Manors were established

1633.  Van Twillier Governor

1636.  Annetje Jans' Farm laid out

1638.  William Kieft appointed Governor

1641.  First Cattle Fair held on Bowling Green

1642.  Stadt Huys built
Church built in the Fort

1643.  Beginning of the Indian wars

1644.  Fence erected, which was later replaced by a wall, and still
later by Wall Street

1646.  Peter Stuyvesant appointed Governor

1647.  Kieft and Dominie Bogardus drowned in the wreck of the Princess
while returning to Holland

1652.  City of New Amsterdam incorporated

1653.  New Amsterdam made a walled city by the building of a wall
across the island

1655.  Stuyvesant subdues the Swedes on the Delaware
Indian war breaks out again

1664.  English capture New Amsterdam and it becomes New York
Richard Nicolls Governor

1667.  Francis Lovelace appointed Governor

1670.  Lovelace establishes the first Exchange

1673.  First mail route established
The Dutch retake New York

1674.  English again in possession of New York
Sir Edmund Andros Governor
Captain Manning disgraced for surrendering New York to the Dutch

1678.  Bolting Act created

1681.  Andros recalled

1682.  Thomas Dongan Governor

1686.  Dongan Charter granted to the city

1688.  New York and New England united, and Sir Edmund Andros Governor

1689.  William III. becomes King of England
Jacob Leisler assumes title of Lieutenant-Governor
and takes charge of New York

1691.  Henry Sloughter Governor
Leisler and Milborne executed
Governor Sloughter dies

1692.  Benjamin Fletcher Governor

1693.  Bradford establishes first printing press in the colony

1696.  Trinity Church built
Bolting Act repealed
Lord Bellomont appointed Governor
Captain Kidd sails to search for pirates

1697.  Streets first lighted at night

1699.  City wall demolished and Wall Street laid out
City Hall built in Wall Street

1700.  First library opened

1701.  Captain Kidd executed in England
Lord Bellomont dies

1702.  Lord Cornbury Governor

1705.  Queen's Farm granted to Trinity Church by Queen Anne

1708.  Lord Lovelace Governor

1710.  Robert Hunter Governor

1711.  Public slave market established

1714.  First public clock set on City Hall in Wall Street

1715.  Lewis Morris appointed Chief-Justice

1720.  William Burnet Governor

1725.  Bradford prints first newspaper in city

1728.  John Montgomery Governor

1729.  First Jewish cemetery established

1731.  First Fire Department organized
Montgomery dies

1732.  William Cosby Governor

1733.  James De Lancey made Chief-Justice

1735.  Peter Zenger tried for libel

1736.  Governor Cosby dies

1741.  Negro Plot

1743.  George Clinton Governor

1745.  Louisburg captured

1752.  Walton House built

1753.  Sir Danvers Osborne Governor

1755.  Sir Charles Hardy Governor

1756.  Corner-stone of King's College laid
Lord Loudoun appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British forces
in America

1759.  General Jeffrey Amherst appointed Commander-in-Chief in place
of Lord Loudoun

1760.  Montreal captured
Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey dies
George II. of England dies
George III. becomes King

1761.  Robert Monckton Governor

1763.  Monckton resigns as Governor

1765.  Stamp Act passed
First Colonial Congress held in New York
Sir Henry Moore Governor

1766.  Stamp Act repealed
Liberty Pole set up on the Common

1770.  Statues of William Pitt and George III. erected
Tax removed on all articles except tea
Battle of Golden Hill

1771.  Sir William Tryon Governor

1773.  Tax on tea reduced

1774.  Taxed Tea dumped into the river
First Continental Congress held

1775.  Lexington massacre
Second Continental Congress
Turtle Bay stores seized
Marinus Willett seizes the British ammunition wagons
Battle of Bunker Hill
Governor Tryon returns from England
General Montgomery killed at Quebec

1776.  April.--General Washington comes to New York after the success
of the Continental army at Boston
July.--Independence declared
August.--Battle of Long Island

1776.  September.--British occupy New York
Battle of Harlem Heights
A Great Fire
Nathan Hale executed
November.--Fort Washington captured

1777.  George Clinton, Governor of New York State
Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga
Washington at Valley Forge

1780.  Benedict Arnold's treason

1781.  Surrender of Lord Cornwallis

1783.  September.--Treaty of Peace, between Great Britain and the
United States, signed
November.--British troops depart from New York
December.--Washington bids farewell to his officers at
Fraunces's Tavern

1788.  The Doctors' Mob

1789.  New York the seat of the National Government
Washington becomes First President of the United States and
comes to live in New York
The Government House built
Tammany Society organized

1790.  Trinity Church rebuilt

1798.  Small-pox epidemic
Manhattan Company established

1803.  New City Hall begun

1804.  Alexander Hamilton killed by Aaron Burr

1805.  Free School Society organized

1807.  The Clermont launched

1811.  City Plan completed

1812.  United States at war with Great Britain

1814.  Fort Clinton (afterward called Castle Garden) built
War with Great Britain ended

1823.  Yellow fever epidemic

1824.  General Lafayette comes again to America

1825.  Erie Canal celebration
Gas introduced into city

1833.  First penny newspaper started

1835.  The "Great Fire" destroys six hundred houses
Work commenced on the Croton Aqueduct

1842.  Water admitted through the Croton Aqueduct

1845.  First telegraph recording apparatus publicly tested by
Samuel F.B. Morse

1849.  Forrest-Macready riots

1853.  World's Fair in the Crystal Palace

1856.  Ground bought by the city for the Central Park

1863.  The Draft Riot

1870.  Brooklyn Bridge started

1878.  Elevated roads built

1883.  Brooklyn Bridge completed

1898.  The island of Manhattan becomes the Borough of Manhattan
of Greater New York