PLAN OF NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS
 

POPULATION DENSITY, CENTRAL AREA, 1920

4 CCORDING to the last census, nowhere in New York City except in a por-
/~\ tion of the Bronx east of the Bronx River, and in the southeasterly part
of the Borough of Queens, and the major part of the Borough of Rich¬
mond, could be found the average density of less than 5,000 to the square mile,
which so generally prevailed in 1850. On the lower east side of R/Ianhattan there
was in 1920 a considerable area containing an average of more than 200,000
people to the square mile. From another map showing population in 1900 it
■appears that in portions of this same district there were then over 300,000 to
the square mile, but during the next two decades this average was reduced by
the destruction of many tenements in order to provide approaches to the East
River bridges. The apparent decrease is also partly due to the fact that the
census figures for 1920 were given by considerably larger areas. Spots of great
population density have developed above Central Park, along the upper East
River, in the Williamsburg and Brownsville Sections of Brooklyn, and in por¬
tions of the Bronx immediately west of the Bronx River. There is still room for
a very large population, without crowding, in Eastern Bronx and Queens, and
even in portions of the Borough of Brooklyn, while nearly all of the Borough of
Richmond and very large areas in New Jersey still have fewer than 5,000 people
to the square mile.
 

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