Prior to 1890 Manhattan streets functioned much like parks are supposed to today. Not that they were lush green gardens (although Park Avenue was) but rather streets were thought of as public spaces and they were used by the public in various ways. They were used as town squares, as markets, they were a place where people socialized, and children played. People moved around mostly by walking but also by a diverse public transportation system of ferries, stage coach, omnibus, trains, cable cars, El's, and street cars. The average speed of a horse through city streets was 3 times the speed of an automobile through midtown today.

Bicycles
In 1868, Velocipedes, what we now call bicycles, were brought from France to New York. It's impossible to recreate the feeling of hope the first site of a man traveling on his own power as swiftly as a horse must have instilled on those who witnessed the transition from animal to mechanical transportation. A bicycle physically represented all the symbolic ideals of America's democratic freedoms. Unlike horses, bicycles didn't have to be fed, or stabled, or cared for when sick, yet they exponentially increased the distance that a person could travel in a day. Improvements like pneumatic tires, the freewheel, the safety frame, and brakes came quickly which literally led to an explosion in cycling.

In the 1890's there were 1200 makers of bicycles and parts in New York City with 83 bicycle shops within a one mile radius of lower Broadway . By comparison today there is one bike maker in New York City, no makers of parts, and less than 83 bike shops in all of Manhattan.

For a short period of time the bicycle industry was driving our nations economy. In the mid 1890's there were two patent offices. One for cycling, and another for everything else. Unfortunately, you never get a sense of this from period photographs.

Cycling organizations were responsible for early surface improvements in roads, road signs and mileage markers. But cyclists also acted as if the streets belonged to them and no one else. This pattern of selfish behavior was quickly adopted by automobile owners as cars experienced the same explosive growth as bicycles had in the previous decade. However, in fairness to the early cyclists, this has to be put in historical context. Their machines were truly something new, and rules of the road were not yet in existence.The first set of traffic rules was written by Phelps Eno in 1901 and was passed into law in 1903.

Subways
In 1904, the first line of the IRT was opened. The decision to power NYC subways by electricity seems obvious now. It wasn't, as at the time there was no precedent for such a power source. Today no one thinks of the IRT as a crowning technological achievement of an era, or a point of civic pride. But it was. And not just because of its power-source but also because of its 40-mph speed. Imagine being able to move from one end of the city 7 times faster than a horse for a nickel? And then there was the wow factor. Here's how the New York Times described it opening day.

"Finally at 7:00 PM (Oct. 271904) the IRT opened its doors to the public. Men and women who had been waiting all afternoon for this