Ferry to Manhattan
As the clock began to tick and the population continued to grow, people looked at alternative solutions for living in crowded NYC. Gotham, as Walt Whitman referred to NYC, was the center of merchants and culture. It was during this time that another, little brother borough to NYC was transformed, Brooklyn.
According to the Jackson reading, steam ferries to Manhattan originally began in 1814. Shortly after this, “the Brooklyn Star predicted that the town ‘must necessarily become a favorite residence for gentlemen of taste and fortune, for merchants and shopkeepers of every description for artists, artisans, merchants, laborers, and persons of every trade in society'” (Jackson 27). The problem, however, with living in Manhattan was that there was no middle-ground real estate available; it was either huge mansions or low-grade slums. Brooklyn proved to be this middle-ground for those who could not afford mansions but did not want the slums. The key to all of this was the ferry system.
One of the biggest appeals to real estate in Brooklyn was the close proximity in reference to Manhattan, the city’s heart. Without the ferry system evolving, Brooklyn would have been left behind in this transformation. The development of new ferry lines greatly increased the possibility for transportation between the two boroughs. In 1836, regular ferry lines were running between the two boroughs and by 1854 it was a very efficient process. “The Union Ferry had consolidated a dozen competing lines and was providing 1,250 crossings daily at a standard one way fare of two cents” (Jackson 28). As Jackson so efficiently describes, the evolution of transportation came with the expansion of the very system making travel possible for all classes.