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

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

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

CHAPTER XL

THE GREATER NEW YORK

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