Then there are Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt parks in The Bronx. The city zoo and the Botanical Gardens are in Bronx Park. And in addition to all these there are more than two hundred smaller open spaces and squares scattered over the city.
[Illustration: THE TOMB OF GENERAL GRANT]
Columbia University, New York University, Fordham, the College of the City of New York, and Barnard College are among the most noted of New York's many educational institutions.
About five million people live in this wonderful city, and to supply them all with food is a tremendous business in itself. During the night special trains bring milk, butter, and eggs; refrigerator cars come laden with beef; and from the market gardens of Long Island fruits and vegetables are gathered and taken to the city during the cool of the night that they may be sold, fresh and inviting, in the morning.
[Illustration: WHERE THE SEALS LIVE IN BRONX PARK]
Great numbers of New York's inhabitants are from foreign lands. Several thousand Chinese manage to exist in the few blocks which make up New York's Chinatown. A large Italian population lives huddled together in Little Italy, as well as in other sections of the city. Thousands upon thousands of Jews are crowded into the Hebrew section on the lower east side of Manhattan. There is also a German and a French colony, as well as distinct Negro, Greek, Russian, Armenian, and Arab quarters. Most of these are in lower Manhattan, and in consequence lower Manhattan is by no means deserted when the vast army of shoppers, workers, and business men have gone home for the night.
[Illustration: THE ELEPHANT HOUSE IN BRONX PARK]
[Illustration: VISITING THE BIRDS IN BRONX PARK]
The necessity of carrying these shoppers, workers, and business men to and from their homes in the residence sections of the city and in the suburbs gradually led to the development of New York's wonderful rapid-transit system. Within the borders of Manhattan itself, horse cars soon proved unequal to handling the crowds that each day traveled north and south. So the first elevated railway was built. Then six years later, a second line was constructed. Others soon followed, not only in Manhattan but also in Brooklyn and The Bronx. Raised high above the busy streets by means of iron trestles, and making but few stops, these elevated trains could carry passengers much faster than the surface cars, and for a time the problem seemed to be solved.