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“Yikes! What a Way To
Go...New York City's Travel Experience
By Miriam Medina
Part II
New York City's Travel Experience
1822-1853
Researched and Compiled by Miriam Medina
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On the 22d of April, 1822, the Messrs.
Stevens made a trial trip of the first steamboat placed on
the ferry since 1813. This was the "Hoboken." Thereafter it
made trips "every hour by St. Paul's Church clock." On the
21st of July, 1823, they received permission to start the
Canal street ferry and use steamboats thereon. (37)
BY 1825 NEW YORK CITY had a
population of 200,000, while Brooklyn whose only method of
transportation was connected by ferry across the East River,
was a thriving village of 15,000. The wealthy people
traveled by private carriage or coach while everyone else
walked..
Picture of Ferry At Brooklyn
(click twice)
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A new steam ferry-boat named the "William
Cutting," and of similar construction to the "Nassau," was
put on the ferry in 1827. The detentions at the ferry, the
poor construction of the boats, and the insufficient
accommodations furnished, excited great dissatisfaction and
animosity, which found expression in public meetings and by
complaints in the newspapers. (37)
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A) Abraham Brower a New Yorker
launched a vehicle called the Accomodation. This vehicle was
built especially for Brower by the firm of Wade & Leverich.
It resembled a stagecoach. The Line ran from Wall street
along Broadway to Bleeker Street, then traveled way uptown.
B) in 1829 Bower followed up with a new
improved stage called the
"Sociable", which had a rear entrance , steps and handrail.
As Brower's
innovations proved to be practicable and profitable, many
others began
to enter this method of public transportation.
(7)
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Stages were next started in Broadway. Four
horses began to be attached to the city stages. Several ran
from the Bowery to Yorkville, to Harlem, &c. The
four-horse stages pay a license of $20; the two-horse,
$10.The fare throughout the city was 12 1/2 cents. To
Yorkville was 18 3/4 cents; to Harlem and to Manhattanville,
25 cents. The number of persons, who take the omnibuses is
believed to average not less than 25,000 per day. (2)
THE FIRST OF THE OMNIBUSES began to
appear in 1830,
 which
ran from Bowling Green via Broadway to Bleecker street. The
omnibuses were drawn by four horses. The panels of the
omnibuses were noted for their true work of art bearing the
names of distinguished Americans upon their sides such as
the Lady Washington, the George Washington, The Benjamin
Franklin and the De Witt Clinton. Many of the omnibus
drivers were beginning to develop an obnoxious reputation
for their reckless behavior in the treatment of passengers.
These dangerous drivers delighted in racing with wild
abandon their vehicles down the street cracking their whips
as they would plow through the crowded thoroughfare, running
down sleepy pedestrians creeping across the road or any
vehicle that stood in its path. The loud outcries, that were
heard from time to time, against the drivers of these
vehicles were ineffective. This destructive spirit that
would possess these drivers would remain unchecked for
decades. However, among these careless omnibus drivers there
were those worthy of mention that were responsible and
cautious, doing their duties as good citizens, equally
careful of themselves and of others. They were considered to
be" wonderful whips, steering vigilantly, avoiding accidents
and dangerous collisions by a hair's breadth." By the time
1835 rolled around, there were in existence throughout the
city of New York, at least 100 public omnibuses.
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A) "The New York and Harlem Railroad Company
was incorporated in 1831, with a capital of $350,000, for
the purpose of constructing a railroad from the central part
of the City to Harlem. The total number of passengers
carried was 89,094." (8)
B) In 1831, a competitor appeared which in
the course of a generation was destined wholly to supersede
the canal as a means of passenger transportation, and to a
large extent in the moving of freight, although the lower
freight tariff by water still
makes the influence of the canal felt. In 1831 the first
railroad in New York, and one of the first in the United
States, was opened between Albany and Schenectady.(29)
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The first streetcar, a horse-drawn vehicle
called the John Mason, went into operation in New York City,
on November 14,1832.
 The street railway were "coaches
mounted on iron wheels drawn by horses over iron rails laid
in the middle of the street. John Stephenson constructed the
two cars for the street railway. Each car with seats for 30
passengers, were divided into three compartments each with
its own entrance door. By the 1850s the Second, Third, Sixth
and Eighth Avenue lines were established,
and others were being built in Brooklyn." (7)
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"April 24, 1832, was chartered the first
great trunk line, the Erie, designed to open communication
between the city of New York and the Great Lakes through the
southern counties of the State. (29)
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A) In 1834 stages started from Brooklyn Ferry,
Fulton Street, every hour, for different parts of Long
Island; also, from foot Cortlandt Street, hourly, for
different parts of New Jersey. (3)
B) At this time (1834) the country road, the
"King's Highway" of colonial times, ran crookedly up the
hill from the "ferry slip" (now Fulton Ferry), past an old
Dutch church set in the middle of the road, and on through
Bedford and Jamaica to Montauk Point. (29)
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In 1835 the South Ferry was opened. (9)
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A) The Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad was
opened, its first time-table taking effect on April 26 of
that year. (10)
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The Fulton ferry boat "Olive branch," was
built in 1836.
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On March 1, 1837, under the auspices of the
Long island Railroad, it was opened through Queens County to
Hicksville, and to its terminus in Greenport in 1844. (10)
DURING THE 1840S, New York City was
already getting its fill of traffic congestion, vehicular
confusion as well as having its pedestrians' lives
endangered as they attempted to cross congested areas.
Disgruntled and angry citizens appealed to the City council
authorities to come up with some plan that would ease the
traffic jams plaguing the city as well as making it safe for
the pedestrians. The people complained about the presence
and smell of horse manure in the streets, the never replaced
stinking hay tossed on the car floors to soak up the mud and
rain, poor maintenance of the vehicle, overcrowding
conditions, and rudeness of the driver to which they were
forced to subject to. Not to mention that the crowded cars
were a great resort for pickpockets. Many valuable articles
and much money were stolen by the light-fingered thieves in
these vehicles.
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A) The Fourth Avenue Railroad Bridge was
authorized in 1840, and the railroad bridge over Spuyten
Duyvil Creek was authorized in 1846. These bridges were
built for railroad purposes only. (20)
B) Houston street ferry to Grand Street,
Williamsburg, was leased by the company in March, 1840. (37)
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The Long Island Railroad, chartered in 1834,
first ran from Brooklyn to Greenport L.I. on July 27, 1844
and was formally opened for public use on August 9. (3)
AS EVIDENCE OF THE GROWING METROPOLIS
became apparent, so did its transit needs, resulting in the
extension of additional routes and increase of public
transportation vehicles criss-crossing the city, as well as
going still further beyond the city's limits.
(11)
The greater part of the vehicular congestion
was in the area of the waterfront leading to the ferries and
along the downtown area of Broadway. The Broadway line which
started at South Ferry, would proceed slowly through the
bustling Wall street area confusion of curb traders
conducting exchange business, pedestrians, and vehicles,
thence-forth to Broadway. This was the most
traveled line. Nevertheless, it is said that over 300
American cities had horse cars by the year 1886.
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On July 4, 1848, the High Bridge at a cost
of $950,000 was opened to pedestrian traffic for the first
time. Although it was designated a landmark by the New York
Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1970, the High
Bridge has fallen into neglect in recent decades. The bridge
was closed to pedestrians in 1960, soon after the span had
become a popular hangout for vandals and delinquent youth
who tore out fences and dropped debris on cars and boats
below.
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The idea of a surface car line on Broadway
had its inception as early as 1850, and a company of thirty
was incorporated for the purpose. This corporation, of which
Jacob Sharp and John L. O'Sullivan were the prime movers,
secured from the Common Council in December, 1852, a
franchise "to lay a double track in Broadway and Whitehall
or State Street from the South Ferry to Fifty-seventh
Street; and also, hereafter to continue the same from time
to time along the Bloomingdale Road to Manhattanville." (3)
Photo Credit: Traffic snarl (22)
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The Sixth Avenue Street Railway Company was
organized and chartered in September, 1851. (34)
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John Martino established the Roosevelt Ferry
in 1852 and after various changes of ownership and a
temporary discontinuance it was finally and permanently
established in 1868. (9)
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A) The charter for the Second Avenue Railway
was granted in 1853. The Second Avenue Railway was built and
put in operation circa 1855. (34)
B) In 1853, the Roosevelt street ferry to
Bridge street, Brooklyn, was established by F.C. Havemeyer
and S.J. Tilden, and equipped with three good ferry-boats
and ferry fixtures, at a cost of $170,000. In the same year,
Jacob Sharpe and associates obtained a lease for ten years
of a ferry from Wall street, New York, to Montague street,
Brooklyn, supposing the Union Ferry Company would pay a
bonus for the lease, but they declined to do so. (37)
C) Greenpoint ferry, from East Tenth street,
New York, was established in 1853. Lease dated October 30th,
1853.
D) St. Patrick's Cathedral ferry, from East
Twenty-third street to Calvary Cemetery landing, through
Newton Creek, was established in 1853.(37)
Sources of
Information Utilized
Back To "New York City's
Travel Experience Table of Contents
Next: Part III New York City's Travel
Experience 1854-1876
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