| Services and Utilities |
| HOME |
| New York City |
|
|
|
Electricity
| |
![]() |
Electric Lights, Fifth Avenue, New York
Scientific American, April 21, 1894 Electric lights were introduced in New York City in 1882. |
| Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck | |
![]() |
Disorderly Wires On Lower Broadway
About To Be Cut Down Harper's Weekly July 27, 1889 Telephones were first introduced in New York City in 1877. There were 271 telephone subscribers in New York City in 1878. Electic and telephone wires were run above ground. There were no cables that allowed the wires to be consolidated. |
| Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck | |
![]() |
Street Scene in New York Harper's Weekly April 9, 1881
|
| Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck | |
|
Garbage Collection In 1900 street cleaners and rubbish cart drivers earned $2.00 per day for an eight hour day, more than any other unskilled laborer. Newly 2 million tons of waste (not counting garbage) was disposed of in 1899 at a cost of $540,000. Garbage scows dumped off Long Island and New Jersey according to the season. It was unsafe to go far out in the ocean in the winter.
"garbage was formerly dumped along with the other waste, but it showed a disagreeable tendency to float and drift, especially the partially decomposed vegetable matter, and complaints were heard from the seaside resorts and bathing places".Waste was sent to the Newark meadows and the lowlands behind Long Island City. Previous to 1900 a great deal of waste had been used as fill on Rikers Island.
| |
![]() |
|
| Munsey's 1900, collection of Maggie Land Blanck | |
| The Cart Used in New York for the Removal of Garbage | |
![]() |
|
| Munsey's 1900, collection of Maggie Land Blanck | |
| Scows Unloading Rubbish At Sea. Notice that there are men actually shoveling the garbage off the scow. | |
| RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE |