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Chapter I: Part 1

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Transcriber's note:

The footnote to the first entry says that in the train
schedules, times from noon to midnight are shown in
"dark-face type." In this plain-text edition that cannot
be done, so the letters "p" and "a" have been appended
to each time to indicate AM and PM hours.

Minor typographical errors have been corrected: employes
to employees on p. 1, 129, and 130; nagivation to
navigation on p. 48; conferation to confederation on
p. 46. Inconsistent hyphenation in the original has been
retained.

In this plain-ASCII edition, accented and special
characters have been replaced as follows: The sterling
currency symbol with L; e-acute with ['e]; e-grave with
[`e]; o-umlaut with [:o]; i-umlaut with [:i];
e-circumflex with [^e].

Owing to the method used to scan this work, in a few
cases the first or last letters of a line were lost and
had to be found from other sources or inferred from
context. Where an inference is not certain, the presumed
missing letters are in parentheses with a question mark,
for example "p(art?)". In each of the numbers in the
table on page 130 ("Passengers carried annually," etc.)
the final digit cannot be determined and has been
replaced with 0.

THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD

Historical, Industrial and Descriptive Information of the Towns, Cities and Country passed through between New York and Chicago via The New York Central Lines

Illustrated

Based on the Encyclopaedia Britannica

FOREWORD

In furtherance of giving the utmost service to the public, the New York Central Lines asked the editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica to prepare this booklet descriptive of and vivifying the historical development of what has been termed "The Greatest Highway in the World."

It is presented to you in the hope that it may prove a pleasant companion on a journey over our Lines. The information will afford a new appreciation of the historical significance and industrial importance of the cities, towns and country which the New York Central Lines serve.

The New York Central Lines enter twelve states and serve territory containing 51,530,784 inhabitants or 50.3 per cent of the nation's population. This rich and busy territory produces 64 per cent of the country's manufactured products and mines a similar proportion of its coal.

This system does approximately 10 per cent of the railroad transportation business of the United States, although its main-track mileage is only 6 per cent. In other words the business it handles exceeds that of the average railroad, mile for mile, by nearly 100 per cent. The New York Central carries 52 per cent of all through passengers between New York and Chicago, the remaining 48 per cent being divided among five other lines. The freight traffic of the New York Central Lines in 1920 was greater than that carried by all the railroads of France and England combined.

The scenes that stretch before the eyes of passengers on these Lines are rich with historic interest. Few persons know that the second settlement in the United States was at Albany and that it antedated Plymouth by several years. Probably fewer persons know that the first United States flag was carried in battle at Fort Stanwix, now the city of Rome, N.Y. We hope that the reader will discover in the following pages more than one historic shrine which he will wish to visit.

It has been said that the history of a country's civilization is the history of its highways. Certainly the development of a great system such as the New York Central is an important element in the progress and prosperity of the country which it serves. This railroad is, in fact, a public institution, and it will prosper to the extent that it gives _service_ to the public.

The New York Central Lines have the initial advantage that they follow the great natural routes along which the first trails were blazed by the red men, and are almost free from grades, sharp curves and other hindrances to comfortable and efficient transportation. Thus the road owes its superiority primarily to the fact that it lends itself to a maximum degree of efficiency.

But _service_ as it is conceived by the New York Central, involves many aspects. One is the careful provision for the comfort and convenience of passengers; another is adequate and efficient facilities for serving the interests of shippers. In other words, New York Central _service_ means not only fast and luxurious passenger trains, but also the rapid handling of freight. To give such service requires the highest class of equipment--the best rails, the finest cars, the most powerful locomotives, etc.--but it also requires an operating force of loyal, highly trained employees. In both respects the New York Central Lines excel.

The inspiring record of the system's growth through public approval and patronage is fundamentally a tribute to the _service_ rendered, constantly advanced and developed in pace with public requirements. The accompanying booklet is in one sense an expression of past achievement, but it is also an earnest of greater accomplishment to come.

NEW YORK TO ALBANY

NEW YORK, Pop. 5,261,151. Grand Central Terminal. (Train 51 leaves 8:31a; No. 3, 8:46a; No. 41, 1:01p; No. 25, 2:46p; No. 19, 5:31p. Eastbound: train 6 arrives 9:22a; No. 26, 9:40a; No. 16, 4:00p; No. 22, 5:25p.)[1]

[1. Throughout this handbook the time is given at which trains are
scheduled to leave or pass through the cities or towns mentioned.
From New York to Chicago, Train No. 51 is the Empire State
Express; No. 3, the Chicago Express; No. 41, The Number
Forty-one; No. 25, the Twentieth Century, and No. 19, the Lake
Shore Limited. In the reverse route, from Chicago to New York,
No. 6 is the Fifth Avenue Special; No. 26 is the Twentieth
Century; No. 16, the New York and New England Special, and No.
22, the Lake Shore Limited. The time given is Eastern Standard
Time at all points east of Toledo, and Central Standard Time,
which is one hour slower, at Toledo and all points west. (When
Daylight Saving Time is adopted during the summer it is one hour
faster than _Standard_ time, but all time given in this booklet
is Standard time.) The time between 12.01 o'clock midnight and
12.00 o'clock noon is indicated by light face type; between 12.01
o'clock noon and 12.00 o'clock midnight by dark face type. The
use of an asterisk (*) indicates places recommended as especially
worth visiting. Population figures are those of the 1920 U.S.
Census.]

Fifty years ago when Commodore Vanderbilt began the first Grand Central Station--depot, they called it, in the language of the day--he made one error of judgment. His choice of a site proved to be magnificently right, though he selected a spot that was practically open country, then technically known as 42nd St. The story goes--it is a typically American story--that his friends laughed at him, remarking that a person might as well walk to Boston or Albany as go away up to 42nd St. to take a train for those cities. But the people did come, and they admired the commodore's new station, which is perhaps not surprising, since the commodore had set himself to build the greatest terminal in the world. Many Americans considered the new "depot" as only second to the capitol at Washington, and it served as an excellent show place when visitors came to town. Europe might have its cathedrals, but it had no Grand Central Station!

The commodore's one mistake lay in thinking that his fine new station would last a century. Within ten years an addition had to be built; in 1898 it had to be entirely remodeled and enlarged, and fifteen years later it was entirely demolished to make way for the present building which would be adequate for handling the city's ever-increasing millions.

There seems to be little doubt that the city of N.Y. and its
environs has become within the last decade larger even than London.
The population of greater London (including all the separate
administrative entities within the Metropolitan Police District) is
estimated at 7,435,379. Jersey City, Hoboken, and the other N.J.
cities on the west, as well as Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, New Rochelle,
etc., on the north, although politically detached, are included in
the "city" of N.Y. in the larger sense, their political detachment
being in a certain sense accidental. Including these, the population
of N.Y. area corresponding to the Metropolitan London area is
7,583,607. The population of N.Y. City proper is 5,261,151. The
London area comparable with this, viz., the part of London governed
by the London County Council has a population of 5,028,974.
Comparing the areas of the two--N.Y.C. with 327 sq. miles and London
with 692 sq. miles, it is hard to understand how the respective
populations should approximate each other so nearly until it is
remembered that New York grows perpendicularly instead of
horizontally, that it usurps more air rather than more land. In some
of the downtown business streets, such as Wall or Rector, the
buildings tower so high above the narrow thoroughfare that they form
a kind of deep canyon along which the wind is drawn as through a
tunnel.

In the colonial period Philadelphia was the most important city,
commercially, politically and socially, while just before the War of
Independence, Boston, with a population of 20,000 was the most
flourishing town in all the colonies. During the Revolutionary War,
N.Y.C. had fallen to a population of 10,000 and in 1790 it had
barely gained a position of leadership with 33,131, but by 1840
N.Y.C. had grown to be a city of 313,000 while Philadelphia had
95,000 and Boston 93,000.

Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) at the age of 16 bought a sailboat
in which he carried farm produce and passengers between Staten
Island, where he lived, and N.Y. He was soon doing so profitable a
business that in 1817, realizing the superiority of steam over
sailing vessels, he was able to sell his sloops and schooners, and
became the captain of a steam ferry between N.Y. and New Brunswick.
His projects grew enormously. He inaugurated steamship lines between
N.Y. and San Francisco, N.Y. and Havre, and other places. In
1857-1862 he sold his steamships and turned his attention more and
more to the development of railways, with the result that before his
death he had built up and was a majority share owner in the N.Y.
Central & Hudson River, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, the
Harlem, and the Michigan Central & Canada Southern railways, and had
holdings in many others. He died at N.Y. in 1877.]

Today one of the most remarkable features of New York is the Grand Central Terminal. The exterior finish is granite and Indiana lime-stone; the style somewhat Doric, modified by the French Renaissance. Over the entrance to the main building is a great arch surmounted by a statuary group wherein Mercury, symbolizing the glory of commerce, is supported by Minerva and Hercules who represent mental and moral force.

Within, the main concourse of the station proper is an immense room with a floor space of 37,625 sq. ft. where the New York City Hall might be set and yet leave room to spare. It is covered with a vaulted ceiling 125 ft. high, painted a soft cloudy blue and starred over with the constellations of heaven. Great dome-shaped windows, three each at the east and west ends, furnish light.

The entire site of the Grand Central Terminal comprises 30 blocks and 80 acres which above the surface are covered with a great variety of buildings, making almost a city in itself. Moreover, there is direct subway entrance to three large hotels, capable of housing as many as 10,000 persons, and to all these conveniences is added that of comfortable temperature throughout the terminal, no matter how cold the weather.

This survey, made in the winter of 1775, shows the city proper as
it existed during the Revolutionary War. Places indicated by the
lettering are described under the original as follows: A, Fort
George. B, Batteries [at the two points of the island]. C,
Military Hospital [south of Pearl St.]. D, Secretary's Office
[near Fort George]. E, [Not Shown]. F, Soldiers' Barracks [at
extreme right]. G, Ship Yards [lower right hand corner]. H, City
Hall [Broad and Wall streets, site of present Sub-Treasury
building]. I, Exchange. J, K, Jail and Workhouse [both situated on
the "intended square or common," now City Hall Square]. L, College
[Church and Murray streets; this was King's College, now Columbia
University]. M, Trinity Church [the present Trinity was built on
1839-46, though it stands on the site of the old church built in
1696]. N, St. George's Chapel. O, St. Paul's Chapel [built in
1756, the oldest edifice still standing in N.Y.C.]. P to Z,
various churches.]

As distinctively "New York" as the sky-scrapers, are the hotels and
apartment houses. Of the latter, there are more than in any other
city in the world, and the number of persons who are giving up their
houses and adopting this manner of life is steadily increasing. The
first thing, in fact, that impresses a visitor on his arrival is the
seemingly endless amount of buildings adopted for transients. A few
of the largest hotels have space for several thousand persons at one
time.

The point of land in the foreground is now known as the Battery.
The large building inside the stockade is a church. In the middle
foreground is a gallows. The hills in the background form the
approach to the present Morningside Heights.]

The old station in 1903-'12 was torn down, brick by brick, while at the same time the new building was being erected--and all without disturbing the traffic or hindering the 75,000 to 125,000 people that passed through the station each day. This was an extraordinary engineering feat, for not only were 3,000,000 yards of earth and rock taken out to provide for the underground development, but hundreds of tons of dynamite were used for blasting. Among the improvements introduced in the new station are ramps instead of stairways, the division of out-going from in-going traffic and the elimination of the cold trainshed. The substitution of electricity for steam as a motive power in the metropolitan area made possible the reclamation of Park Avenue and the cross streets from 45th St. to 46th St.--about 20 blocks in all--by depressing and covering the tracks.

At 56th St. the tracks begin to rise from the long tunnel and pass through the tenement district of the upper East Side. The side streets seem filled with nothing but children and vegetable carts, while along the pavements shrill women with shawls over their heads are bargaining for food with street-vendors. As the railroad tracks rise higher still, we run on the level with the upper-story windows out of which the tenants lean and gossip with one another.

4 M. HARLEM STATION (125th St.). (Train 51 passes 8:41a; No 3, 8:57a; No. 41, 1:12p; No. 25, 2:56p; No. 19, 5:41p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 9:11a; No. 26 9:29a; No. 16, 3:49p; No. 22, 5:25p.)

Old Harlem was "Nieuw Haerlem," a settlement established in 1658 by Gov. Peter Stuyvesant in the northeastern part of Manhattan Island. It existed for 200 years but is now lost under modern Harlem, which centers about 125th St. In this neighborhood to the west occurred the battle of Harlem Heights--a lively skirmish fought Sept. 16, 1776, opposite the west front of the present Columbia University, and resulting in a victory for the forces of Gen. Washington, who up to that time had suffered a number of reverses on Long Island and elsewhere. The battle was directed by Washington from the Jumel mansion*, 160th St. and Amsterdam Ave., the most famous house, historically, on the island of Manhattan. It is still standing.

Peter Stuyvesant, Dutch Governor of N.Y. from 1647 to 1664 and a
valiant member of the Reformed Church, had an intense prejudice
against all other sects. At Flushing a Baptist cobbler, William
Wickendam, ventured to preach "and even went with the people into
the river and dipped them." He was fined 12,500 guilders ($5,000)
and ordered to be banished. As he was a poor man the debt was
remitted, but he was obliged to leave the province.]

The house was built in 1763 by Roger Morris for his bride, Mary
Philipse of Yonkers, for whose hand, it is said, Washington had
been an unsuccessful suitor. The house was subsequently owned by
John Jacob Astor and then passed into the hands of Stephen Jumel,
a French merchant, who, with his wife Eliza, added new fame to
the old house. They entertained here Lafayette, Louis Napoleon,
Joseph Bonaparte and Jerome Bonaparte. Aaron Burr (1756-1836) in
his old age, appeared at the mansion with a clergyman, and
married Mme. Jumel, then a widow. She divorced him shortly
afterward, and he died in poverty on Staten Island, 1836.
Alexander Hamilton whom Burr killed in the famous duel at
Weehawken, N.J. (July 11, 1804) owned a country place in the
neighborhood, "Hamilton Grange," which now stands at 140th St.
and Convent Ave.

Leaving Manhattan, that extraordinary island which Peter Minuit, director-general of New Netherlands, bought in 1626 from the Indians for sixty guilders' worth of goods (about $24), we cross the Harlem River to the Borough of the Bronx, named for Jonas Bronck, the first white settler, who made his home in 1639 near the Bronx Kills (where the Harlem River flows into Long Island Sound).

The original price paid for the Bronx--or a large share of it--was
"2 gunns, 2 kettles, 2 coats, 2 shirts, 2 adzes, 1 barrel of
cider, and 6 bitts of money." The assessed value of Manhattan
today is $5,116,000,000 and that of the Bronx $732,000,000
(realty).

The Hudson River Division of the New York Central turns to the left and follows the course of the Harlem River, 7 M. long, which separates Manhattan Island from the mainland and connects the Hudson with the East River. On the south bank of the Harlem are Washington Heights, with the Speedway on the immediate bank, and Fort George (near 193d Street) named from a Revolutionary redoubt. The Speedway was built at a cost of $3,000,000 for the special use of drivers of fast horses. On the right, after passing the High Bridge, which carries the old Croton aqueduct, one of the feeders of the city water supply, and the Washington Bridge, are University Heights and (farther to the west) the township of Fordham, where the cottage in which Edgar Allen Poe lived from 1844 to 1849 and wrote _Ulalume_ and _Annabel Lee_, is still preserved.

New York University, on University Heights, was founded in 1832;
the principal buildings include Gould Hall, a dormitory; the
library, designed by Stanford White, and the Hall of Fame,
extending around the library in the form of an open colonnade,
500 ft long, in which are preserved the names of great Americans.

11 M. SPUYTEN DUYVIL. (Train 51 passes 8:51a; No. 3, 9:09a; No. 41, 1:23p; No. 25, 3:06p; No. 19, 5:53p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 8:57a; No. 26, 9:17a; No. 16, 3:37p; No. 22, 5:02p.)

Spuyten Duyvil is situated on Spuyten Duyvil Creek, celebrated by Washington Irving, which connects the Harlem and Hudson Rivers. In recent years the creek has been enlarged into a ship canal.

The town and stream receive their curious name from the following
story, according to Irving. In 1664, when the Dutch were being
threatened by the British, Anthony van Corlear, Dutch trumpeter
to Gov. Stuyvesant, was despatched to sound the alarm. It was a
stormy night and the creek was impassable. Anthony "swore most
valourously that he would swim across it 'in spite of the devil'
(en spuyt den duyvil) but unfortunately sank forever to the
bottom." The "duyvil" had got him. "His ghost still haunts the
neighborhood, and his trumpet has often been heard of a stormy
night."

Across the Hudson, along which our route now lies for nearly 150 M., can be seen the Palisades, an extraordinary ridge of basaltic rock rising picturesquely to a height of between 300 and 500 ft. and extending along the west bank of the Hudson about 12 M. from a point north of Ft. Lee, N.J., to Palisades, N.Y.

The peculiar hexagonal jointing of the rock, which has given rise
to the name Palisades, is an unusual geological formation; the
only other important places where it is found are at Fingal's
Cave in Scotland and the Giant's Causeway in Ireland. The beauty
of the Palisades was threatened by quarrying and blasting
operations until N.Y. and N.J. agreed to the establishment of the
Palisades Interstate Park which comprises 36,000 acres (1,000
acres in New Jersey and 35,000 in New York State).

"The spacious and stately characteristics of the Hudson from the
Palisades to the Catskills are as epical as the loveliness of the
Rhine is lyrical. The Hudson implies a continent beyond. No
European river is so lordly in its bearing, none flows in such
state to the sea. Of all the rivers that I know, the Hudson, with
this grandeur, has the most exquisite episodes."--George William
Curtis.

In September, 1609, Henry Hudson started up the Hudson in the
"Half Moon," which attracted frequent visits from the natives
along the route.]

To the right, just north of Spuyten Duyvil, is a high promontory, upon which stands a lofty monument to Henry Hudson, who had his first skirmish here with the Indians after entering N.Y. Bay in Sept. 1609. With an excellent harbour at its mouth, and navigable waters leading 150 M. into a fertile interior, the Hudson River began to attract explorers and settlers soon after the discovery of America. Verrazano, the Florentine navigator, sent out by the French king, Francis I, ventured a short distance up the Hudson in 1524, almost 100 years before the Pilgrim Fathers, and in 1609 Henry Hudson sailing in the "Half Moon" nearly up to the site of Albany demonstrated the extent and importance of the river that bears his name.

Slaves were introduced into N.Y. as early as 1626 when the West
India Co. (a Dutch company), which had large establishments on the
coast of Guinea, brought negroes to Manhattan, and practiced the
slave trade here "without remorse." It is said that in proportion
to population N.Y. imported as many Africans as Virginia. That New
York did not become a slave-state like Carolina was, according to
Bancroft, "due to climate and not to the superior humanity of its
founders. [Gov.] Stuyvesant was instructed to use every exertion
to promote the sale of negroes. They were imported sometimes by
way of the West Indies, often directly from Guinea, and were sold
at auction to the highest bidder. The average price was less than
$140." With the extension of English rule to N.Y. in 1664 the
slave trade in this colony passed into the hands of the British.
It is estimated that the total import of slaves into all the
British colonies of America and the West Indies from 1680 to 1786
was 2,130,000. The traffic was then carried on principally from
Liverpool, London and other English ports; the entire number of
ships sailing from these ports then engaged in the slave traffic
was 192, and in them space was provided for the transport of
47,146 negroes. The native chiefs on the African coasts took up
the hunt for human beings and engaged in forays, sometimes even on
their own subjects, for the purpose of procuring slaves to be
exchanged for western commodities. They often set fire to a
village by night and captured the inhabitants when trying to
escape. Out of every lot of 100 shipped from Africa, about 17 died
either during the passage or before the sale at Jamaica, while not
more than 50 lived through the "seasoning" process and became
effective plantation laborers. Slavery in N.Y. was continued till
1827. It was then abolished by terms of an act passed by the N.Y.
Assembly ten years earlier.]

Henry Hudson, English navigator, made four important voyages to
find a passage to China by the northeast or northwest route; it
was on the third venture undertaken at the instance of the Dutch
East India Co., that he found the Hudson, probably a greater
discovery than the one he undertook to make. With a mixed crew of
18 or 20 men he started on his voyage in the "Half Moon," April
6, 1609, and soon was among the ice towards the northern part of
Barents Sea. His men mutinied and he was forced to seek the
passage farther south. Thus eventually he entered the fine bay of
what is now N.Y. harbour, Sept. 3, 1609. John Fiske says: "In all
that he attempted he failed, and yet he achieved great results
that were not contemplated in his schemes. He started two immense
industries, the Spitzbergen whale fisheries and the Hudson Bay
fur trade; and he brought the Dutch to Manhattan Island. No
realization of his dreams could have approached the astonishing
reality which would have greeted him could he have looked through
the coming centuries and caught a glimpse of what the voyager now
beholds in sailing up the bay of New York." The Dutch called the
Hudson the North River (a name which is still used) in
contra-distinction to the Delaware which they called the South
River.

The lower Hudson is really a fiord--a river valley into which ocean water has been admitted by the sinking of the land, transforming a large part of the valley into an inlet, and thus opening it to commerce as far as Troy (about 150 M.), up to which point the river is tidal and, therefore, partly salt. The Hudson extends above Troy for 150 M. farther, but navigation is interrupted by shallows and swift currents. Below Troy the fall is only five feet in a distance of 145 M. This lower, navigable portion of the Hudson was the only feasible route through the Atlantic highlands, and in consequence it has been one of the most significant factors in the development of the United States. New York City likewise owes its phenomenal development largely to this great highway of commerce.

The invention and successful operation of the steamboat, the first line of which was established on the Hudson by Fulton in 1807, gave early impetus to the importance of N.Y.C., and the building of the Hudson River R.R., one of the first successful railways, now a part of the New York Central Lines, and the opening of the Erie Canal (1825) connecting the Hudson with the Great Lakes and the far interior, were among other contributory factors in the city's growth.

15 M. YONKERS, Pop. 100,226. (Train 51 passes 8:56a; No. 3, 9:15a; No. 41, 1:29p; No. 25, 3:11p; No. 19, 5:59p. Eastbound No. 6 passes 8:52a; No. 26, 9:12a; No. 16, 3:31p, No. 22, 4:56p.)

When the Dutch founded New Netherlands, the present site of Yonkers was occupied by an Indian village, known as Nappeckamack, or "town of the rapid water," and a great rock near the mouth of the Nepperhan creek (to the north of the station) was long a place of Indian Worship.

In the early days, the Hudson River Valley from Manhattan to
Albany was occupied by Algonquin tribes, while the central part
of the state along the Mohawk Valley had been conquered by the
famous Iroquois Confederation, of which the Mohawks were the most
warlike. The Mohawks soon drove out the Mohicans, who claimed as
their territory the east bank of the Hudson. On the whole, the
Dutch lived peaceably with their Indian neighbors, but an attempt
of Gov. Kieft to collect tribute from them led to an Indian war
(1641), which resulted in the destruction of most of the outlying
settlements. Later a treaty of alliance was made with the
Iroquois Confederation, which protected the early settlements in
N.Y. from those attacks which occurred so frequently elsewhere in
this period. The treaty was renewed when the British took
possession of New Netherlands, and lasted until the Revolutionary
War.

The land where Yonkers now stands was part of an estate granted in 1646 by the Dutch government to Adrian Van Der Donck, the first lawyer and historian of New Netherlands. The settlement was called the "De Jonkheer's land" or "De Yonkeer's"--meaning the estate of the young lord--- and afterwards Yonkers. Subsequently the tract passed into the hands of Frederick Philipse, the "Dutch millionaire," as the English called him, some of whom alleged that he owed a large part of his fortune to piratical and contraband ventures. The suspicion was strong enough to force Philipse out of the governing council of the colony, and he returned to his manor where he died (1702) at the age of 76.

It was even charged that he was one of the backers of Capt.
William Kidd (1645-1701), for whose buried treasure search has
been made along the Hudson, as well as in countless places along
the Atlantic Coast. Capt. Kidd began the career which made him
notorious under a commission from the British Government to
apprehend pirates. He sailed from Plymouth, England, in May 1696,
filled up his crew in N.Y. in the following year, and then set
out for Madagascar, the principal rendezvous of the buccaneers.
Deserting his ship, he threw in his lot with theirs and captured
several rich booties. Returning to N.Y., he was arrested, sent to
London, found guilty and hanged. Of his "treasure" about L14,000
was recovered from his ship and from Gardner's Island, off the
east end of Long Island. The stories of large hoards still
undiscovered are probably mythical.

The Philipse manor house*, one of the best examples of Dutch colonial architecture in America, erected in 1682 and enlarged in 1745, was the second residence built by the Philipses (the other is at Tarrytown) and is now maintained as a museum for colonial and Revolutionary relics. It was confiscated by the legislature in 1779 in reprisal for the suspected "Toryism" of the third Frederick Philipse, the great grandson of the first lord of the manor and his second successor. Before being converted into a museum it served for many years as the City Hall of Yonkers.

This famous old house, said to be one of the best examples of
Dutch colonial architecture in America, was built by Frederick
Philipse, first lord of the manor of Philipsburg. It was
confiscated by the State of New York after the Revolutionary War
and for many years served as the City Hall of Yonkers. It is now
a museum.]

Yonkers has some important manufactures with an annual production of $75,000,000 and 15,000 wage earners; its output includes passenger and freight elevators, foundry and machine shop products, refined sugar, carpets, rugs and hats. It has one of the largest carpet factories in the world.

The country round Yonkers is dotted with fine estates. Conspicuous to the right, 2 M. north of the station, is the battlemented tower of "Greystone," once the home of Samuel J. Tilden and now owned by Samuel Untermyer, the N.Y. lawyer.

Samuel J. Tilden (1814-1886), a lawyer and reformer, served one
term as governor of N.Y., and was later candidate for the
presidency against Rutherford B. Hayes. He had become famous for
his attacks on the notorious Tweed ring of N.Y.C., and later for
his exposure of the "Canal ring," a set of plunderers who had
been engaged in exploiting the N.Y. canal system. He was given
the Democratic nomination for president in recognition of his
services as a reformer. The Republicans nominated Hayes, and the
result was the disputed election of 1876, when two sets of
returns were sent to Washington from the States of Florida,
Louisiana, South Carolina and Oregon. As the Federal Constitution
contains no provision for settling a dispute of this kind, the
two houses of Congress agreed to the appointment of an
extra-Constitutional Body, the Electoral Commission, which
decided all the contests in favor of the Republican candidates.
Tilden's friends charged that they had been made a victim of a
political "steam roller," but he advised them to make no
protests. Tilden left more than $2,000,000 for a library in N.Y.
(now consolidated with the N.Y. Public Library).

Across the Hudson River from Hastings (19 M.) can be seen Indian Head, the highest point on the Palisades, near which (about 1/2 M. farther north) is the boundary between N.J. and N.Y.; from this point northward both shores belong to N.Y.

20 M. DOBBS FERRY, Pop. 4,401. (Train 51 passes 8:58a; No. 3, 9:23a; No. 41, 1:37p; No. 25, 3:18p; No. 19, 6:07p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 8:45a; No. 26, 9:05a; No. 16, 3:23p; No. 22, 4:48p.)

About the time of the Revolutionary War, a Swede named Jeremiah Dobbs, established a ferry here connecting with the northern end of the Palisades (visible on the left across the river). Originally only a dugout or skiff, it was the first ferry north of Manhattan, and was kept up by the Dobbs family for a century. In times past the residents have often tried to change the name of the town to something more "distinguished," but the old name could not be displaced.

The story goes that 50 years ago a mass meeting was held in the
village at which it was proposed to name the town after one of
the captors of Maj. Andr['e]--either Paulding or Van Wart. The
meeting came to nothing when an old resident suggested
Wart-on-Hudson.

The strategic position of Dobbs Ferry gave it importance during the War of Independence. It was the rendezvous of the British after the battle of White Plains in Nov. 1775 and a continental division under Gen. Lincoln was stationed here in Jan. 1777. The American army under Washington encamped near Dobbs Ferry on the 4th of July, 1781, and started in the following month for Yorktown, Va., where the final story of the war took place. Two years later (May 6, 1783) Washington and Sir Guy Carleton met at Dobbs Ferry to negotiate for the evacuation of all British troops, and to make terms for the final settlement recognizing American Independence. Their meeting place was the old Van Brugh Livingston house.

Peter Van Brugh Livingston (1710-1792), prominent merchant and
Whig political leader in N.Y., was one of the founders of the
College of N.J. (now Princeton), and was president of the first
Provincial Congress of N.Y. (1775). His brother, William, was the
first governor of N.J.

After the ratifying of the federal constitution, Washington, in
1788, was unanimously elected president. On April 23, 1789, he
arrived from Virginia at New York, where he was received with a
frenzy of gratitude and praise, and was inaugurated at the Senate
hall which stood on the site of the present U.S. Sub-Treasury
building. The stone whereon Washington stood when he came out of
the house is preserved in the south wall of this building. He is
described as wearing suit of homespun so finely woven that "it was
universally mistaken for a foreign manufactured superfine cloth."
This, of course, was a high tribute to domestic industry.]

22 M. IRVINGTON, Pop. 2,701. (Train 51 passes 9:06a; No. 3, 9:25a; No. 41, 1:39p; No. 25, 3:21p; No. 19, 6:11p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 8:43a; No. 26, 9:03a; No. 16, 3:21p; No. 22, 4:46p.)

"Sunnyside," a stone building "as full of angles and corners as a cocked hat"* and situated behind a screen of trees a little north of the station, was the home of Washington Irving, for whom the town was named. First erected by Wolfert Acker in 1656, it was considerably enlarged by Irving in 1835.

These are authentic pictures, showing actual details, of the ships
used by the Americans and British at the time of the Revolutionary
War. They were originally engraved for the First Edition of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica (1768). In the centre is a first rate ship
of war, "the noblest machine that ever was invented," to quote the
First Edition; and the illustration below shows the interior
construction of the hull. It will be noticed that there are three
gun decks, below which is the poop, or storage deck. "A common
first rate man of war," says the First Edition, "Has its gun deck
from 159 to 178 ft. in length, and from 44 to 51 broad. It
contains from 1313 to 2000 tons; has from 706 to 1000 men, and
carries from 96 to 100 guns. The expense of building a common
first rate, with guns, tackling and rigging is computed at 60,000 L
sterling."]

The east end is covered with ivy said to be grown from a slip given to Irving when he visited Scott at Abbotsford. At Irvington we come to Tappan Zee (to be seen on the left), where the Hudson widens into a lake-like expanse, 10 M. long and 3 to 4 M. wide. It is a favorite cruising place for ghosts and goblins, according to popular legend.

After a long sojourn abroad, Washington Irving returned in 1835 to
"Sunnyside" said to have been built originally in 1656. It was
considerably enlarged by Irving, who spent the remainder of his
life here. "Sunnyside" is now owned by Irving's descendants.]

There is, for example, Rambout van Dam, the roystering youth from
Spuyten Duyvil, who was doomed to journey on the river till
Judgment Day--all because he started to row home after midnight
from a Saturday night quilting frolic at Kakiat. "Often in the
still twilight the low sound of his oars is heard, though neither
he nor his boat is ever seen." Another phantom that haunts the
Tappan Zee is the "Storm Ship," a marvellous boat that fled past
the astonished burghers at New Amsterdam without stopping--a
flagrant violation of the customs regulation, which caused those
worthy officials to fire several ineffectual shots at her.

Across the river from Irvington is Piermont, and 2 M. to the southwest of Piermont is the village of Tappan, where Maj. Andr['e] was executed Oct. 2, 1780. Lyndehurst, with its lofty tower, the home of Helen Gould Sheppard, the philanthropist, a daughter of Jay Gould, is passed on the right just before reaching Tarrytown.

24-1/2 M. TARRYTOWN, Pop. 5,807. (Train 51 passes 9:08a; No. 3, 9:27a; No. 41, 1:41p; No. 25, 3:23p; No. 19, 6:13p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 8:40a; No. 26, 9:00a; No. 16, 3:18p; No. 22, 4:43p.)

Situated on a sloping hill that rises to a considerable height above the Tappan Zee, historic Tarrytown stands on the site of an Indian village, Alipoonk (place of elms), burned by the Dutch in 1644. Irving explains that the housewives of the countryside gave the town its name because their husbands were inclined to linger at the village tavern, but literal minded historians think it was more likely that the name came from Tarwen dorp or Tarwetown, "wheat town." There were perhaps a dozen Dutch families here in 1680 when Frederick Philipse acquired title to Philipse Manor, several thousand acres, in what is now Westchester county. Just above Tarrytown is the valley of the Pocantico creek, the mouth of which is marked by the projection of Kingsland Point.

Washington Irving (1783-1859) was intended for a legal profession,
but although called to the bar preferred to amuse himself with
literary ventures. The first of these, with the exception of the
satirical miscellany, "Salmagundi," was the delightful
"Knickerbocker History of New York," wherein the pedantry of local
antiquaries is laughed at, and the solid Dutch burgher established
as a definite comedy type. When the commercial house established
by his father and run by his brother began to go under in 1815,
Irving went to England to look into the affairs of the Liverpool
house, and as it was soon necessary to declare bankruptcy, his
misfortune forced him to write for his living. Returning to
America in 1832 after 17 years' absence, he found his name a
household word. The only interruption to his literary career was
the four years (1842-1846) he spent as ambassador to Spain. For
the rest, he passed some little time travelling, but in the main
kept retreat at "Sunnyside," where he died, Nov. 28, 1859.]

This is the "Sleepy Hollow" of Irving's legend, where Ichabod
Crane, the long, thin school-master, whose conspicuous bones
clattered at any mention of ghosts, encountered the Headless
Horseman pounding by night through the little Dutch village. It
was after a quilting bee at Farmer Van Tassel's, where his
daughter Katrina and what would come with her in the shape of fat
farm-lands and well-stocked barns, aroused Ichabod's affections
to the boiling point. He had a rival, however, "Brom Bones," a
young black-headed sprig, who watched Ichabod's advances
uneasily. After the party Ichabod mounted his old horse,
Gunpowder, as bony as he, but no sooner was he well under way
than he heard hoof beats on the road behind him and saw,
glimmering in the dark, a white headless figure on horseback,
carrying in its arms a round object like a head.... Never before
or since was there such a chase in Sleepy Hollow. Perhaps the
hapless school-teacher might have escaped, had not the Huntsman,
just as they reached the Sleepy Hollow bridge, hurled his head
square at his victim. The next morning no Ichabod, only a pumpkin
lying on the road by the bridge, where the hoofmarks ceased. He
had completely disappeared. Some weeks later Brom Bones led
Katrina to the altar.

Through this valley, we get a glimpse of the site where Philipse erected, partly of brick brought from Holland, a manor house,* a mill,* and a church,* all of which are still standing.

"There is probably no other locality in America, taking into
account history, tradition, the old church, the manor house, and
the mill, which so entirely conserves the form and spirit of
Dutch civilization in the New World.... This group of buildings
ranks in historic interest if not in historic importance with
Faneuil Hall, Independence Hall, the ruined church tower at
Jamestown, the old gateway at St. Augustine, and the Spanish
cabildo on Jackson Square in New Orleans. And the time will come
when pilgrimages will be made to this ancient beautiful home of
some of those ideals and habits of life which have given form and
structure to American civilization."--Hamilton Wright Mabie.

Irving says: "The sequestered situation of the church seems always
to have made it a favorite haunt of troubled spirits. It stands on
a knoll, surrounded by locust trees and lofty elms, from among
which its white-washed walls shine modestly forth, like Christian
purity beaming through the shades of retirement." The church is
still standing.]

During the War of Independence, Tarrytown was the scene of numerous conflicts between the "cowboys" and "skinners," bands of unorganized partisans who carried on a kind of guerilla warfare, the former acting in the interest of the colonists, and the latter in that of the king. On the old post road on Sept. 24, 1780, Maj. Andr['e] was captured by three Continentals, John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac van Wart. The spot where Andr['e] was captured is now marked with a monument--a marble shaft surmounted by a statue of a Continental soldier.

Tarrytown lies principally along either side of a broad and
winding highway, laid out in 1723, from N.Y.C. to Albany. It was
called the King's Highway till the War of Independence, then
called Albany Post Road, and the section of it in Tarrytown is
known now as Broadway. The delights of traveling in the days
when the road was first laid out are suggested in the following
description: "The coach was without springs, and the seats were
hard, and often backless. The horses were jaded and worn, the
roads were rough with boulders and stumps of trees, or furrowed
with ruts and quagmires. The journey was usually begun at 3
o'clock in the morning, and after 18 hours of jogging over the
rough roads the weary traveler was put down at a country inn
whose bed and board were such as to win little praise. Long
before daybreak the next morning a blast from the driver's horn
summoned him to the renewal of his journey. If the coach stuck
fast in a mire, as it often did, the passengers must alight and
help lift it out."

The Manor House, the Old Church and the Mill were erected by
Frederick Philipse, the lord of several thousand acres, in what is
now Westchester County. The mill, much dilapidated, still exists.]

Many of the stirring incidents of Fenimore Cooper's novel, _The Spy_, occurred in this neighborhood, and the town is particularly described in _The Sketch Book_ of Washington Irving who was for many years the warden of the old church and is buried in the old Sleepy Hollow burying ground.

With Cooper and Washington Irving (1783-1859) American literature
first began to exist for the world outside our own boundaries.
The _Knickerbocker History of New York_, in which the Dutch
founders were satirized, was practically the first American book
to win appreciation abroad. This and later books "created the
legend of the Hudson, and Irving alone has linked his memory
locally with his country so that it hangs over the landscape and
blends with it forever."

Harvey Birch, the hero of _The Spy_, is a portrait from the life
of a revolutionary patriot who appears in the book as a peddler
with a keen eye to trade as well as to the movements of the
enemy. One of the best known incidents in the book is that in
which Harvey, by a clever stratagem, assists Capt. Wharton to
escape. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) was born at Burlington,
N.J., but was reared in the wild country around Otsego Lake, in
central N.Y., on the yet unsettled estates of his father. It was
here he learned the backwoods lore, which in combination with his
romantic genius, made him one of the most popular of authors.

Among the literary residents of Tarrytown have been Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth, well known to a previous generation for her romantic novels, John Kendrick Bangs, the humorist, and Hamilton Wright Mabie, editor and essayist. Carl Schurz (1829-1906) is buried here in the Sleepy Hollow churchyard. Tarrytown is the trading center of a prosperous agricultural region; it also has about 100 manufacturing establishments with a large output. Just north of Kingsland Point (seen at the left, on the east bank of the river), the seat of William Rockefeller comes into view on the right, and behind it, among the hills, is the estate of his brother, John D. Rockefeller.

John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839 at Richford, Tioga Co.,
N.Y., but his family moved to Cleveland while he was still a boy,
and his career was begun there. In 1858 he went into the produce
commission business, and 4 years later his company invested in
an oil refinery. Mr. Rockefeller kept constantly adding to his
influence and possessions in this field until by 1872 the
Standard Oil Co. was organized with him as president, and a
practical control of oil production in America was secured. This
was the first great American "trust." Mr. Rockefeller himself
retired from active business in 1895. While his wealth is
enormous, his benefactions have been on an equal scale,
comprising gifts to the Baptist Church, the founding of
educational institutions and the supporting of those already
existent. Scientific research in medical fields has been a
particular object of his generosity.

Mr. Rockefeller's country estate is called "Kijkuit," meaning
look-out--a name given by the early Dutch settlers to the
beautiful hill on which it stands, and which, rising to a height
of 500 ft., gives a lovely view up and down the Hudson, across to
the distant mountain ridges of N.J., and inland over Westchester
County. The house and gardens are famous not only for their
splendour, but for the priceless works of art they contain. Among
the treasures which have been worked in as details of the
landscape gardening is a fountain which for years has been
considered unrivalled by experts. The huge basin, 20 ft. 8 in. in
diameter, was cut from a single block of granite weighing 50 tons
and brought on the deck of a schooner from an island on the Maine
coast to the dock at Tarrytown. The heroic figure at the top
represents Neptune, and the figures below symbolize the Atlantic,
Pacific and Indian Oceans.

In the "morning garden" at the rear of the house is a bronze
Victory (a facsimile of the Pompeiian Victory at Naples), which
stands on a marble column with a Byzantine capital brought from
Greece. The 13th century relief set in the wall of the pergola at
the left came from a church in Venice.

Descending a flight of steps to the westward, one comes upon the
Aphrodite temple. The style of this is Graeco-Roman, with columns
of marble supporting a dome decorated after the fashion of the
portico niches in the Massimi palace in Rome, which was designed
in the 16th century by Baldassare Peruzzi. Under a roof of copper
and bronze, on a high pedestal, stands "Aphrodite," resembling
the Venus de Medici, but so superior to her in line and
proportion that many critics believe it to be a Praxitilean
original from which the Venus de Medici was clumsily copied. This
is the greatest art-treasure in the garden.

30 M. OSSINING, Pop. 10,739. (Train 51 passes 9:15a; No. 3, 9:34a; No. 41, 1:48p; No. 25, 3:30p; No. 19, 6:21p. Eastbound: No. 6, passes 8:34a; No. 26, 8:54a; No. 16, 3:11p; No. 22, 4:36p.)

Ossining was first settled in 1700, when it was part of Philipse Manor. It was originally called Sing Sing, taking its name from the Sin Sinck Indians, but in 1901 the name was changed to Ossining, on account of its association with the Sing Sing prison, which can be seen to the left near the water's edge. The prison is a low white-marble building, built in 1826. Ossining has a public library, several private schools, the Roman Catholic Foreign Missionary Seminary of America, and a soldiers' monument.

Passing the Croton aqueduct (on the right), which is carried over a stone arch with an 80-foot span, the train crosses the mouth of the Croton River and intersects Croton Point. It was at the extremity of this peninsula that the British sloop-of-war "Vulture" anchored when she brought Andr['e] to visit Benedict Arnold at West Point. Six miles up the Croton River is the Croton Reservoir, which supplies a large share of N.Y. City's water. Across the river is Haverstraw Bay.

At the north end of Haverstraw Bay, on the west bank, is Stony
Point Lighthouse, the site of a fort which was the scene of one
of the most daring exploits of the Revolutionary War. Gen.
Anthony Wayne (1745-1796) had been forced, through political
necessity, to relinquish his regular command, and on the
recommendation of Washington, he organized a new Light Infantry
Corps, with which on the night of July 15, 1779, he stormed the
fort and recaptured it from the British at the point of the
bayonet. This well-planned enterprise aroused the greatest
enthusiasm through the country, and won for him the popular name
of "Mad Anthony." Later, in war with the Indians on the frontier,
Gen. Wayne further distinguished himself.

At this point is the greatest width (4 M.) in the river's course. Shortly before reaching Peekskill we pass Verplanck's Point (on the left), near which the "Half Moon" dropped anchor, Sept. 14, 1609.

40-1/2 M. PEEKSKILL, Pop. 15,868. (Train 51 passes 9:36a; No. 3, 9:55a; No. 41, 2:09p; No. 25, 3:50p; No. 19, 6:43p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 8:13a; No. 26, 8:33a; No. 16, 2:47p; No. 22, 4:14p.)

Peekskill means Peek's creek, and was named from the Dutch mariner, Jans Peek, who established a trading post here in 1760. It will be noticed that the Hudson turns abruptly to the left at this point, while the creek branches off to the right. According to tradition, the adventurous Jans, who had been voyaging up the Hudson, became confused and turned to the right, following the creek with the idea that it was the main river, until his boat ran aground. As a result of this accident he chose the spot to set up a trading post. During the latter part of the Revolutionary War Peekskill was an important post of the Continental Army; and in Sept. 1777, the village was sacked and burned by the British. To the north of Peekskill are Manito Mts., where the N.Y. National Guard has its summer encampment on a high cliff overlooking the river. The summer home of Henry Ward Beecher was in Peekskill, and ex-Senator Chauncey M. Depew was born here.

Peekskill on the east side of the Hudson, and Dunderberg Mt. (865 ft.) on the west, stand at the lower gate of the Highlands, so named from the steeply rising hills which border both sides of the river for the next 16 M. At the foot of Dunderberg Mt. is Kidd's Point, one of the numerous places where the notorious pirate is supposed to have concealed treasure.

Our train passes too close to the hills on the east bank to give a perspective, but on the west, where the Highlands are visible across the Hudson, the outlook is very beautiful. This part of the Hudson, often compared to the Rhine, has always been a source of artistic and poetic inspiration.

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The Greatest Highway in the WorldChapter I: Part 1

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