Chapter 09. Gilbert Elevated Railroad and Rapid Transit Commission of 1875

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Fifty Years of Rapid Transit · James Blaine Walker

One of the Designs for Gilbert Elevated Road, 1872.

Chapter IX

The Gilbert Elevated Railroad and the Rapid Transit Commission of 1875.

SHORTLY after the New York Elevated Railroad Company had taken over the Harvey elevated road in 1871 a rival interest appeared in the rapid transit field. This was the Gilbert Elevated Railway Company, chartered by act of the Legislature of June 17, 1872. Like Harvey's, this was a patent railway. The inventor and patentee was Dr. Rufus H. Gilbert, a veteran of the Civil War, who on taking up a peaceful avocation shortly after the close of the war devoted himself to perfecting a design for an elevated railroad. Like Harvey, too, he got a franchise and started his road, only to lose all interest in it to the men associated with him and see its profits go to others.

After six years of effort Dr. Gilbert succeeded in getting the Legislature of 1872 to pass an act incorporating the Gilbert Elevated Railway Company, with a capital stock of $3,500,000, to build and operate a railroad according to the plans of "Gilbert's Improved Elevated Railway." The incorporators named in the act were: George B. Grinnell, B. W. Van Voorhis, Elisha A. Packer, Rufus H. Gilbert, William Foster Jr., Henry J. Davidson, Burnett Forbes, M. 0. Davidson, J. E. Southworth, Howell W. Bickley, Isaac P. Martin, P. Lorillard, H. D. Clapp, J. C. Williams, B. J. Dillon, Henry S. Winans.

The route was not fixed in the act, but a Board of Commissioners was named to select one. This Board, named in the act, consisted of Henry G. Stebbins, Major General Quincy A. Gilmore, Sheppard Knapp, Chester A. Arthur, many years later President of the United States, and General John A. Dix, afterward Governor of New York.

The plan of "Gilbert's Improved Elevated Railway" provided for tubular iron roadways suspended above the streets by Gothic arches springing from the curb lines. Through these tubular roads cars were to be propelled by atmospheric or other motive power. The company was to build a road from the Harlem River southward through the city according to the route to be fixed by the Board of Commissioners. It was to complete the road as far north as 42d Street in one and a half years, to 86th Street in two and a half years and to the Harlem River in three years. An amendatory act passed in 1873 prohibited the use of Broadway south of 34th Street.

Here is the route selected by the Board of Commissioners: From Kingsbridge on the Harlem River down River Street, Eighth Avenue, 110th Street, Ninth Avenue, Fifty-third Street, Sixth Avenue, Amity Street, South Fifth Avenue, West Broadway, College Place, Murray Street, Church Street, New Church Street to Morris Street; thence through private property and Bowling Green to Beaver Street; thence by Beaver and Pearl Streets, the New Bowery, Division Street, Allen Street, First Avenue, Twenty-third street, Second Avenue and River Street to the first named line at River Street and Eighth Avenue; also a connecting line along Chambers Street and Chatham Street and a branch on Sixth Avenue from 53d to 59th Street.

In 1874 the Legislature passed an act confirming the route and extending the time of construction for three years. The panic of 1873 and the financial depression following it, together with the impossible method of construction prescribed, prevented the company from getting the capital to build the line. Accordingly an appeal was made to the Legislature of 1875 for relief. This was obtained by the famous act of 1875, creating the first Rapid Transit Commission. This act confirmed the company in its routes and authorized it to use a simple method of construction. It was approved by the Governor, who was Samuel J. Tilden.

Horrors of Elevated Railroad Operation as Seen By Its Opponents.

The elevated railroad system in Manhattan and the Bronx as it exists today owes its existence to the Board of Commissioners of Rapid Transit formed under this act, which not only provided for the building of the Gilbert road, but also laid down "connecting" routes for the New York Elevated Railroad Company, the connections being longer than the original lines. The act, which was denominated a general act in deference to a recently adopted amendment to the State constitution forbidding the enactment of special legislation, in reality applied only to New York City. In general it provided that, whenever fifty or more householders in a county or city should make application that there was need of a steam railway in such county or city, the Board of Supervisors or the Mayor, as the case might be, should appoint five commissioners, who were thereby empowered to fix the routes over which such steam railroads should be built, and to fix routes for the connection of any existing steam elevated railroad with ferries and other railroads.

In June 1875 two petitions from householders were presented to the Mayor of New York City, then W. H. Wickham. One declared that need existed for another steam railroad in the city, and the other that the existing line of the New York Elevated Railroad Company, in Greenwich Street and Ninth Avenue, needed connections with other steam railroads and with the ferries. Among those who signed the first petition was Theodore Roosevelt, of No. 6 West Fifty-seventh Street, New York. On July 1 Mayor Wickham appointed the following five Commissioners: Joseph Seligman, of No. 26 West 34th Street. Lewis B. Brown, of No. 257 West 45th Street. Cornelius H. Delamater, of No. 424 West 20th Street. Jordan L. Mott, of Third Avenue near East 133d Street. Charles J. Canda, of No. 208 West 14th Street.

The Commission met on July 6 in the Mayor's office. Mayor Wickham was present and informed the Commissioners that fifty householders, as provided by the act, had petitioned him that there was need of a rapid transit steam railway in New York and asking that commissioners be appointed. Later the Commission organized by electing Mr. Seligman chairman. Burton N. Harrison acted as Secretary. It immediately advertised in the newspapers for rapid transit plans, to be submitted by August 1. Various plans were submitted, and the Commission held many conferences with those who presented them.

Many opinions were obtained from counsel on the interpretation of the act under which the Commission was proceeding. Among them was one which led to the "connection" of the Ninth Avenue elevated line with the Grand Central station and the ferries by doubling the Battery and running up the East Side. The law forbade the laying out of a route in Broadway south of 34th Street, and the Commission asked counsel whether this provision inhibited the crossing of Broadway. Counsel held that such crossing was prohibited, but that the New York Elevated Railroad could be "connected" with South Ferry and the Grand Central station by an extension "turning" Broadway at its southern end and continuing up the East Side to Forty-second Street and beyond to the northern ferries.

On September 2, 1875, the Commission adopted resolutions fixing the routes for the New York Elevated and the Gilbert Elevated roads. The resolution for the former read in part as follows:

"Resolved: That, in pursuance of the powers and Authority conferred upon us by Chapter 606 of the Laws of 1875, we do hereby fix and determine the route or routes by which the New York Elevated railroad, an elevated steam railway now and at the time said law was enacted in actual operation, may connect with other steam railways or the depots thereof and with steam ferries as follows:"

Here the route of the Third Avenue elevated was recited in full, "turning" Broadway as suggested by counsel. A similar resolution was adopted on the same day, fixing the routes for the Gilbert Elevated road, as given above. On the next day, September 3, the Commission voted down a resolution to fix a route for the plan of J. B. and J. M. Cornell by a vote of three to two, Delamater and Mott for, and Seligman, Brown and Canda against. This was the only project outside of the New York and Gilbert Elevated schemes which came to a vote. The Commission refused to consider any underground projects on the advice of counsel that "to attempt to authorize the construction of a road to be built entirely or mainly under the surface would be a proceeding of such doubtful legality that we cannot advise it."

Rates of fare were prescribed for both elevated lines. From the Battery to Fifty-ninth Street the fare was to be 10 cents; from the Battery to Harlem not to exceed 15 cents and to Highbridge not to exceed 17 cents; for five miles 10 cents and each additional mile 2 cents. The resolutions also provided for "Commission trains", to be operated from 5:30 to 7:30 o'clock in the morning and from 5 to 7 o'clock in the evening, on which the fares should be half the above, namely 5 cents from the Battery to Fifty-ninth Street, 7 cents to Harlem and 8 cents to Highbridge.

By railroad men the so-called "rush hours" in New York are known as "commission hours," because of the fact that "commission trains" as provided for by the Commission of 1875 were operated at a cheaper fare in those hours.

As the act authorized the Commission to organize a company to build a road in case no company carried out the plans approved, the Commission in October caused the organization of the Manhattan Railway Company, with a capital stock of $2,000,000, all of which was subscribed for. The incorporators included men interested in both the New York and Gilbert Elevated companies. The directors, elected under supervision of the Commission, November 10, 1875, were: Cornelius K. Garrison, George M. Pullman, Horace Porter, Jose F. Navarro, Milton Courtright, William L. Scott, John F. Tracy, David Dows, John Ross.

The articles of association for the Manhattan Railway company recited at length the resolutions adopted by the Commission in fixing the routes for the two elevated systems, as well as the resolutions in which the Commission specified the plans on which the roads should be built. These contained directions for placing the elevated pillars to support the elevated structure and complete specifications for the work and the materials to be used. The company was given till May, 1877, to complete the roads to Fifty-ninth Street and till June, 1878, to the Harlem River, on the West Side of the city, and till December, 1877 and December, 1878, respectively those portions on the East Side.

The schedule of fares adopted by the Commission was also included in the articles. An interesting feature of this schedule was that it provided that passengers in non-rush hours who could not get a seat in the trains could travel free. Provision also was made for "saloon or drawing room" cars, for a seat in which the company might charge an extra fare. The articles declared specifically that the Manhattan company should not build the roads authorized to be built by the Gilbert Elevated or the New York Elevated company unless the latter failed to construct its road in the time allowed.

The Board of Directors met on November 12, 1875, and elected David Dows president and Horace Porter secretary of the Manhattan company. At the request of the New York Elevated company the Commission on December 2, 1875, fixed more definitely the route across the Battery, by which the "connection" with ferries and the Grand Central station was to be made. This action gave the company specific rights across Battery Park. After approving and filing the bonds given by the two elevated companies, the Commission finished its work and on December 11, 1875, adjourned "subject to the call of the president or of any two of the Commissioners." Its last act was to draft and send to Mayor William H. Wickham a farewell letter, in which it said:

"We have every reason to expect that Rapid Transit will now be afforded to the city."

he effect of the Commission's action was soon seen. Each of the companies made the requisite financial arrangements and began construction, which was pressed as fast as circumstances would allow. Obstacles of various kinds were encountered, not the least of which were injunction suits brought by property owners. These, however, were fought successfully, and in 1877 final decision in favor of the roads was handed down by the Court of Appeals. The New York Elevated company completed its line up Ninth Avenue to Fifty-ninth Street and began operating it in 1876; its line from Battery Place to South Ferry in 1877; the Third Avenue line from South Ferry to 42d Street in August, 1878, and to 129th Street in December, 1878. In 1880 the Second Avenue line reached 67th Street and the Ninth Avenue line Harlem.

Work on the Gilbert Elevated company's lines began in 1876, but was stopped by legal proceedings brought by property owners and the surface railroad companies, culminating in the injunction which was finally dissolved by the Court of Appeals decision in November, 1877. Construction was then pushed rapidly, and the line from Morris Street to Fifty-ninth Street (the Sixth Avenue road) was completed in April and placed in operation in June, 1878. In the same month by court order the name of the Gilbert company was changed to the Metropolitan Elevated Railway company. Financial difficulties beset the company, and differences arose among its directors. As a result the Manhattan Railway Company, organized by the Rapid Transit Commission of 1875 for just such an emergency, stepped in, leased both roads and took control of the work on the Gilbert road in September, 1879, and completed construction to the Harlem River. It was in May, 1879, that both old companies, the New York and the Metropolitan, made a contract with the Manhattan Railway Company, for the lease of the property and rights of the former. The lease took effect as of January 31, 1879.

This lease was made the subject of special inquiry by the Railroad Committee of the New York Assembly in an investigation of railroads held in 1879. It was spread upon the minutes and men prominent in both the New York and the Gilbert companies were examined as to its terms and conditions. It was testified that the Manhattan Railway Company had $13,000,000 in capital stock, half of which was issued to each company in return for stock in the old companies. The lease was to run 999 years and the rental was fixed at ten per cent. on the stock of each of the old companies, which was $6,500,000 each. It was also brought out in the testimony that the New York Elevated company was obligated to pay to the City of New York five per cent. of its net earnings, and the Metropolitan, or Gilbert company, two per cent of its dividends.

According to the testimony the original elevated roads cost about $700,000 to $800,000 per mile of double tracked structure and the cars about $3,100 to $3,500 apiece. Jose F. Navarro was the leading promoter of the Gilbert road. He testified that he had obtained his stock at various prices, some as low as twenty cents a share and some as high as par value. Before the charters were upheld by the Court decision of 1877 he said it was difficult to interest capitalists in the project. After he persuaded Commodore Garrison and George M. Pullman to take stock, it was easier to interest others. William H. Vanderbilt had been approached, but he would have nothing to do with the project, because he believed that people never would consent to walk up and down stairs to and from the railroad. Navarro said his road had increased the assessed value of city property $100,000,000 and in five years more would increase it $500,000,000.

Benjamin Brewster, a stockholder in the New York Elevated company, which took over the old Harvey road, testified as to the reasons for the merger of the two companies in the lease to the Manhattan Railway company. Both old companies, he said, were compelled to use the same tracks in Pearl street from Beaver street to Chatham Square, and in Ninth Avenue from 53d street to 110th street. This involved grade crossings for the trains of each and meant dangerous operation. His company had appealed to the Assembly for the right to build crossings, but had been told that it was a matter the companies must settle between themselves. The only way they could settle it was by getting together and forming one operating company; hence the lease.

Both Navarro and Brewster were examined as to the rates of fare, which then were ten cents on each road, with five cents in the "commission" hours, so called because the Rapid Transit Commission stipulated for a five cent fare for workers going to and coming from work. Each declared that a uniform five cent fare would be too low. Navarro said his company was entitled to charge 26 cents to Harlem and 12 cents to Central Park, but voluntarily had reduced the rates to ten cents, which he thought low enough. Brewster said his company was entitled to charge ten cents from Battery to Fifty-ninth street and two cents a mile additional, not exceeding fifteen cents to Harlem River. He also said the New York Elevated stock was then (1879) worth $165 and had been as high as $200.

Brewster was asked about certain letters published in the daily press, crediting Samuel J. Tilden and Cyrus W. Field with having made $1,000,000, out of an investment of about $200,000 in New York Elevated stock. He said he imagined that came from the fortunate period when Mr. Field and Mr. Tilden went into the enterprise. It was practically broken down and elevated roads were in bad odor; that was before the Court of Appeals had affirmed the validity of the elevated road legislation.

With the extension of the elevated roads to the Harlem River, their business expanded by leaps and bounds. In 1878, before either line had reached Harlem, the total number of passengers carried on both roads was 9,236,670. In December of that year the Third Avenue line reached 129th street, and the passengers carried in 1879 jumped to 45,945,401. In 1880 the Ninth Avenue line reached Harlem and the Second Avenue line reached 67th street. The figures for that year increased to 60,831,757. As this immense business of course meant large profits, it is small wonder the stock of the elevated roads was in demand.

By this time the success of the elevated system of city travel was established. That it was so is due almost entirely to the act of 1875 and the proceedings of the Rapid Transit Commission acting under it. In a report made to a sub-committee of the committee appointed by the Assembly in 1879 to investigate railroad conditions in New York City, E. Sweet, an engineer, wrote:

"The Rapid Transit act of 1875 and the proceedings of the Commission appointed under it insured a certain and rapid solution of the quick transit question in New York City by fixing so small a number of routes as to make them valuable, and by making the enjoyment of these routes by the companies on which they were conferred dependent upon immediate development. They created for both the Metropolitan and the New York Elevated companies the possibility of the success they have now realized."

The evolution of the elevated railroad from the crude conception of Harvey in 1866 to the successful operation of 1879 was attended by revolutions within the companies themselves. It has been told how Harvey, the inventor, lost the rewards which his work merited and was eliminated from the reorganization of his company. A similar fate overtook Dr. Rufus H. Gilbert, the inventor or projector of the Gilbert or Metropolitan railroad. Gilbert, like Harvey, had a crude idea. His plan contemplated the construction of a huge iron tube through which he proposed to propel cars by pneumatic power. The law granting the rights for this railroad had to be amended so as to permit the building of a simple structure carrying an open track which could be operated by locomotive engines before the project became practicable. Like Harvey, also, Gilbert lacked the financial ability to successfully organize his scheme. In his efforts to enlist capital he gave away the control of the company, and his final elimination without the reward to which he was entitled followed its reorganization. Others reaped what he sowed. One version of his unfortunate experience was given in a speech made by Isaac Hayes, a member of Assembly, at a meeting held in Chickering Hall on June 21, 1877, as a protest against allowing the Gilbert Elevated company to inflict damage on private property without compensating the owners. In that speech Mr. Hayes said:

"Things in the Gilbert company appear to be rather mixed. They don't seem to deal any more fairly by each other than they do by the property owners whom they threaten with calamity nor the public who 'demand' the building of the road. I judge this from reading the title of a suit now pending in the U. S. Supreme Court which runs thus: 'Rufus H. Gilbert, plaintiff, against J. T. Navarro, William Foster Jr., the Gilbert Elevated Railway Company, the New York Loan and Improvement Company and the Edgemoor Iron Company, defendants.'

"Now all of these parties to the suit have been more or less interested directly in this combination to destroy South Fifth Avenue, Amity Street and Sixth Avenue. I will tell you how, to begin at the beginning. Dr. Gilbert, who has been apparently most grievously wronged, conceived the idea of a rapid transit road to be built of iron. He had seen plenty of shot and shell during the war, and iron was a favorite with him. He worked away over that idea for six long years, and finally in 1872 he secured a charter from the Legislature. Then he meets William Foster Jr., and they together make up a company. They create directors and issue stock. Foster Jr. takes some thousands of these shares to sell, but he doesn't sell them. But he falls in with Mr. Navarro, who has some knowledge of a company with a charter, called the 'New York Loan and Improvement Company'. And now others step in, and a little ring is formed, and this little ring manage to get possession of all the stock of the Gilbert Elevated Railway Company, the Doctor's included, and Dr. Gilbert, who had obtained the franchise, after six years finds himself out in the cold. But he pockets a promise of ever so many shares of the New York Loan and Improvement Company in lieu of his own, and is content. To be sure, he never got the stock, as he swears, hence the suit. Well, this Improvement company undertook to construct the road.... The Gilbert Elevated Railway Company ... never did have any money, as one would think, or they would hardly have gone over body and soul through the agency of Foster Jr. and Navarro to the Improvement company. And now the said Improvement company, finding itself in this sad predicament of impecuniosity, sublet their contract with the Railway company to the Edgemoor Iron Company, of the State of Delaware."

Mr. Sweet in the report above quoted said that the New York Loan and Improvement Company financed the Gilbert project, making a contract in 1876 with the Railway company to build and equip the line for $500,000 in stock, $750,000 in first mortgage bonds and $750,000 in second mortgage bonds for each completed mile of double track road.

While the Rapid Transit Commission of 1875 undoubtedly did much for the New York Elevated Railroad, it must not be inferred that it did everything for it. That company was on its feet and part of its road was in successful operation at the time the Commission was created. Its report dated January 20, 1875, shows that it was then running cars from Greenwich Street up Ninth Avenue as far as 34th Street, and an immediate extension to 59th Street was recommended., By this report it was shown that the company had expended more than $1,300,000 in building and equipping the road. Its receipts from passenger fares for the year were $82,945, and this was for only 313 days, the road not having been operated on Sundays. Its trains were composed of two cars or three cars, and the average daily receipts were $265. Owing to a lack of turnouts, it took 35 minutes to make the trip from 34th Street to the Battery and return, and among the recommendations of the report were more turnouts and the immediate extension of the line to 59th Street. Another recommendation was that the gauge of the track be reduced from five feet to four feet, eight and one-half inches, the standard of the steam railroads. On the lower part of the road the rails had been laid on longitudinal timbers, while above 30th Street they were laid on iron cross-ties. The report recommended the substitution of wooden cross-ties as better and less expensive. All these changes were made in time.

That the company was apprehensive of the results of pending legislation (the Rapid Transit Act of 1875) is shown by the following closing paragraph:

"This company, as the pioneer in the experiment of elevated rapid transit in this city, and in consideration of the long struggle it has had and the large expenditure it has made in demonstrating its success, is, I think, entitled to, and will, I trust, receive proper consideration from the State authorities and from the authorities and people of this city in the movement now going on for a general system of elevated rapid transit for the city."

The report was signed by Milton Courtright, then president of the New York Elevated Railroad Company.

James Grant Wilson's History of New York says the Greenwich street elevated road, while the germ of real rapid transit, was "the butt of good natured ridicule till it was sold out by the sheriff in 1871. Its new management made a strong effort to push it northward, but legal obstacles beset them on all sides, thrown in their way by the strenuous opposition of the horse railroads and of property owners."

The "terrors" of the elevated railroad are pictured in an old print, which is reproduced on another page. This print was found in a pamphlet published in 1877 describing a meeting of the "antis" in Chickering Hall on June 21 of that year. This meeting was held to "protest against the destruction of property by elevated railroads without compensation to owners." Henry M. Taber was elected chairman, and there was a large list of vice-presidents, headed by Smith Ely Jr. The resolutions adopted included the following:

"Resolved, that we will aid by our means and influence any legitimate and adequate method for rapid transit, believing that a necessity exists for a speedy, safe and comprehensive system of communication between the two extremities of the city; but in doing so we utterly repudiate the idea that the property of one man is to be sacrificed to put money into the pockets of another. We believe that the citizens of New York can afford to act honestly and pay fairly for what the city needs; and we believe that the so-called elevated railroads are a sham and a snare, the tendency of which is to defeat the real object in view."

How the opposition to the elevated roads viewed the Rapid Transit act of 1875 is shown by an address delivered at this meeting by Robert H. Strahan, chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Assembly of 1877. A part of Strahan's speech follows:

"Let it be understood, then, that by certain amendments to the constitution of this State, which went into effect on the first of January 1875, all special legislation as to street railroads was prohibited. It was necessary to the success of the two projects in question (the Gilbert elevated and the New York elevated) that this prohibition be got around in some way. To do it an act purporting to be a General Rapid Transit act was passed. This was also in 1875. This was a very remarkable piece of legislation. It purported to be a general act, applicable to the whole State, this to avoid the constitutional objection as to special legislation; but it was in fact of the most special character. It was intended for the exclusive benefit of these two companies-the Gilbert Elevated and the New York Elevated companies.

"This 'general' act authorized the appointment of five commissioners, to whom were given powers of legislation and administration. This commission of five was authorized in the first place to determine upon the necessity of these railways in any county or city; they were given exclusive power to locate these railways over, across or under any of the streets or avenues of the cities of this State. They were given power also to adopt plans of construction and conditions of construction, and they had power to prepare articles and to organize companies. If a corporation be formed by enactment of this commission to build these railways, certain powers were given to it by this act, among which was the power of eminent domain -- that is, the right to take private property.

"Such a Commission of Five was appointed by the Mayor of the City of New York for this city and county, and they were clothed with these general powers."

The speaker then pointed out that, if the commission should happen to locate a route coincident with the route of an existing corporation, that corporation might build its route according to the plans of the Commission. This provision, the Gilbert corporation claimed, exempted it from building the kind of a structure required by its charter, and accordingly "it is now endeavoring to build the cheap and unsightly and unheard of structure which is intended as its road."

Another provision of the law empowered the Commission, in case there was an elevated railroad already in operation, to lay out and give it what was called "connecting" routes with other railroads or ferries. That meant the New York Elevated company, the speaker said, and

"this peculiar phraseology enables it to encircle the whole island. It was the only corporation in the whole world which had an elevated railway, or part of one, in operation. Now, that is all there is of this great general rapid transit law. That Commission, clothed with these general powers, is dead; it cannot again be called into life. It has left nothing to show for its work except just what it did for the Gilbert company and for the New York Elevated company. By this peculiar legislation and the operation of the Commission appointed under it, these two private corporations have got possession, now and forever apparently, of the whole field of rapid transit operations in the whole city of New York."

This period, namely, from 1870 to 1877, was made notable by other transit improvements. Up to 1871 the Hudson River Railroad, the New York and New Haven Railroad and the New York and Harlem Railroad had their terminals in the center of the up-town district -- the Hudson River company at 30th Street and Ninth Avenue, and the other two at Madison and Fourth Avenues, Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh streets. In 1871 the first Grand Central station at 42d Street and Park Avenue was opened, and all three roads terminated there. In 1875 the work of separating grades north of the station was completed, and for 4.5 miles the railroad ran through tunnel, open cut and on a stone viaduct above the street surface from 42d Street to the Harlem River. This work cost $6,000,000 and was paid half by the city and half by the railroads. The train service was in-.creased, and rapid transit to Harlem by this route was realized.

In ten years after Harvey started his experimental line in 1867 the elevated railroads were carrying 3,000,000 passengers a year, and their practicability and success were thoroughly demonstrated. In 1877 they attracted the attention of Cyrus W. Field, the great financier who had built the Atlantic cable. He decided to invest in the new railroads and purchased control of the entire system, embarking his whole fortune in the undertaking. It was under the stimulating influence of his genius and capital that they were completed and made into a really important transportation system.

"Dodger" Issued By Opponents of Construction of Sixth Avenue Elevated Railroad ("Another Chapter on Rapid Transit")

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