NEW YORK.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE ..EFECT•TOR."1 Si,—Your article on "New York" in the issue of March 21st has this allusion :— " But these chapels-of-ease [Brooklyn and Jersey City] were not the real New York, nor are they in easy contact with it. Since 1897 they have been reckoned officially as boroughs of the City of New York (the grander name of what was once New York City) ; but the bridges, ferries, and tunnels are not a substitute for the easy passage of innumerable streets. The pressure on the triangle at the 'down-town' end of Manhattan Island has become terrific. The dwellers in a city which has dry land surrounding it can escape whither they will, checked or encouraged alone by economic exigencies. But the only escape from the crushed part of New York City is into the water."
The City of New York has been, since the legislative enactment of the year you mention, comprised of the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, and
Richmond. Jersey City is in the State of New Jersey. It may be a "chapel-of-ease," but it is not "reckoned
officially" as a borough of New York. The borough of Manhattan was once the City of New York, but was only styled New York City in a slipshod way, as it still is by those who think it necessary, without knowing
why, so to name it, and as the result of habit. You compare the dwellers of a city which has dry land surround- ing it with those who dwell in the crushed part of "New York City," by which you of course mean the " down-town " end of Manhattan Island. The City of New York is partly sur- rounded by land and partly by water, and escape from the
crushed part of the borough of Manhattan is facilitated by two railroad tunnels, two bridges, and many ferries in opera- tion, and will be made easier when several tunnels and two bridges in course of construction shall have been completed. Whether these are or will be a substitute for "the easy passage of innumerable streets" or not may be a matter of conjecture ; but transit by them will unquestionably be more rapid than would be transit over similar distances by streets.
New York.
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