Transportation and the Location of Cities 209
there is natural protection for ships, a protection which man has
increased by port improvements.
Some of the reasons why New York has grown great. New York,
the ¢ gateway of America,” is a most impressive example of the way
in which a great city grows up under the combined influence of a good
harbor for ocean transportation, a rich hinterland full of energetic
people, and easy routes of inland communication. The spacious and
beautiful harbor is almost unexcelled in its natural advantages, but
every year the national and city governments spend millions of dollars
dredging deeper channels, and building new piers.
The hinterland includes the factory cities of the North Atlantic
coast, the coal fields of Pennsylvania, the grain fields of the northern
Mississippi basin, the cattle ranches of the Middle West, and even the
od Ye
LT UP ARE.
‘IW YNIR WK
t EV
‘ORK
ICINIT
OF OTHF
VICIPALITIE ©
F1a. 145. New York has the advantage of a fine harbor and a river that affords anchorage for
sea-going vessels for fifteen miles from the mouth. It has the disadvantage of being on a long,
narrow island, a situation which does not permit many lines of railway track to radiate from the
rity. Note the tunnel which makes it possible to have through train service from New England
to points west and south of New York.