New york city in 1872? paved streets, transportation, running water? where those things there?

Question

New york city in 1872? paved streets, transportation, running water? where those things there?

Answer 1

Paved Streets?

Yes, but not macadam or concrete, they were paved with cobblestone.

Transportation?

Horse drawn carriages (horse p**p everywhere). NYC had elevated steam powered trains.

Running water?

In 1842 the Old Croton Aqueduct was constructed. This provided running water to NYC from Westchester County. Ever since then there has been a water supply to NYC from Upstate NY.

Answer 2

Until 1898 the City of New York was only Manhattan.  Brooklyn was its own city, and Queens was three cities (Long Island City, Flushing, and Jamaica).  Staten Island was four townships.  Manhattan had many cobblestone streets south of what today would be 14 Street, not much above that.  Flushing had many cobblestone streets, the other areas not so much.  Staten Island had a single street, then called the Richmond Turnpike, that was planked, not much else that wasn't mud.  Brooklyn was spotty with cobbles.

Running water for Manhattan came from the Croton reservoir.  Most of Queens got water from the Jamaica Water Company, which still exists and serves a few small areas in Queens and Nassau County.  Staten Island used wells, as did Brooklyn.

Transportation came from stagecoach companies, with private ferries linking Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island.  Vanderbilt got his start operating a ferry between SI and Manhattan when he was just 16 years old.  There was a steam engine train operating in Manhattan and north.