Foundations. This library stands upon the site of the old reservoir at Fifth avenue and 42d street, and has over 2,500,000 books. Among the many other libraries of importance are the Mercantile, Society, Apprentices', Cooper Union, Columbia University, New York City, New York Historical Society, and the Brooklyn libraries. There are law libraries in the postoffice building, at the Bar Association, at the Equitable Life Insurance Company, the New York Law Institute Library, etc. In 1901 Mr. Andrew Carnegie presented the city with $5,200,000 for the purpose of erecting libraries. This gift is to be used for the erection of 65 branch library buildings in various parts of the city. In 1920 there were about 100 daily newspapers, including morning, evening, and Sunday editions, and many hundred weekly, monthly, and quarterly periodicals of every kind.
Banking.—On Sept. 12, 1919, there were reported 36 National banks, with $133,700,000 capital; many State banks; cFver 50 savings banks, with over $1,500,000,000 in savings deposits; numerous safe deposit companies and trust companies. The exchanges at the United States clearing house in New York City, during the year ending Sept. 30, 1920, aggregated $252,338,249,000; an increase over those of the preceding year of $37,634,000,000. There is a Federal Reserve Bank with 47 members.
Commerce.—The imports of merchandise at the port of New York, during the year ending June, 1920, aggregated in value $2,904,648,933; exports, $3,383,638,588. Over one-half the import, and almost one-half the export trade of the United States, is carried on through this port. New York has steamship communications with the entire civilized world, with over 100 steamship lines. The city is connected with the W. of the United States by several trunk line railroads, including the Erie, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania, Baltimore and Ohio, and New York Central; and with the Great Lakes district by the Hudson river and Erie canal for eight months of the year. About three-fourths of the immigrants entering the United States land at New York, the immigrant station at Ellis Island having accommodations for 10,000 per day. There are numerous exchanges in the city, the largest being the Produce Exchange, the largest in the world. It was organized in 1861 and has a limited membership of 3,000. Other exchanges are the Stock Exchange, Maritime Exchange, Consolidated, Cotton, Metal and Mercantile Exchanges. The New York Chamber of Commerce, chartered in 1770, is the oldest commercial corporation in the country and has a membership of about 800.
Transportation.—New York City has upward of 100 street railway lines equipped with electricity. The elevated railways in Manhattan and the Bronx are united under one management, the Manhattan Railway Company, controlled by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, with four lines running N. and S. There are several elevated lines in Brooklyn, all under the Brooklyn Heights Railroad Company. Four of these begin at the bridge. In recent years the subway system, in Manhattan and Bronx as well as in Brooklyn, has been greatly extended, and in 1920 the Interborough Subway lines alone carried over 586,000,000 passengers. The subway system was built partly with public funds and is operated by the Interborough and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit companies. In spite of its tremendous expansion it is still insufficient for the needs of the city, and partly as a result of war conditions its financial condition in recent years has been insecure and unsatisfactory. The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co. went into the hands of a receiver in 1918, and the majority of the surface lines in Manhattan, all those operated by the New York Railways Company, met a like fate.
There are over 600 miles of subway and “L” tracks in the city, of which 361 miles are Interborough lines, and 258 are Brooklyn Rapid Transit lines. The Interborough subway roads total 222 miles; the Manhattan “L” system, 139 miles. The Interborough subway roads have cost over $300,000,000; the Brooklyn Rapid Transit subway roads over $193,000,000. The Interborough's share of the cost has been over $148,000,000, including $48,000,000 the company spent on the first East river tubes and the extension to Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, Brooklyn. The city has put up the rest of the cost of the Interborough subways. Of the cost of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit subways the company has borne over $69,000,000; the city, over $124,000,000. Under the dual system of rapid transit all of the lines operated by the Interborough and the Consolidated Railroad Co. (the latter a Brooklyn Rapid Transit subsidiary), including the first subway and the elevated lines of the two systems are combined in two great operating units covering four of the five boroughs. Each company has lines which operate through the so-called community center of the city, namely the section of Manhattan Island below 59th street. New York's original subway, operated by the Interborough, now denoted the First Subway, is an integral part of the dual system. But under the operat-
