A potent factor of the general improvement in this section has been the introduction of trolley roads, affording quick transit and a practically universal " transfer " system. In 1894 the elevated railway established a uniform fare of five cents from the Battery to the end of its suburban line at Tremont. This produced a vast increase in the trans-Harlem traffic: in 1893, while the ten-cent fare still prevailed, the suburban branch of the elevated road carried 5,867,848 passengers, but in 1897, after a brief trial of the five-cent rate, the number had increased to 11,145,134. Mean-

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time electric cars were being substituted for horse cars throughout the annexed territory, and also in Yonkers, Mount Vernon, and New Rochelle. In 1899 the culmination was reached by establishing «i single five-cent fare from Yonkers to New Rochelle by way of Mount Vernon, and from all these places to the Harlem River; and in addition the elevated railway instituted a transfer arrangement by which trolley passengers were carried to the Battery, or elevated passengers to Mount Vernon, Yonkers, and New Rochelle. for a total of eight cents. This remarkable cheapening of fare for the long ride is but an incident of general concessions to the public which leave

from 1842 to 1000

nothing to be desired except improvements in the service commensurate to the enormous growth in the trolley traffic. The trolley is likewise exercising a peculiar developing influence in the Hudson River municipalities, where the steepness of the ascent from the railway and from the village centers to many of the residence localities has always been a hindrance to diversified progress. Two trolley routes now cross the county: one from Yonkers through Mount Vernon to New Rochelle, the other from Tarrytown through White Plains to Mamaroneck. Nine new villages have been incorporated during the present decade: Pelham Manor and Larchmont in 1801, Mamaroneck in 1805, Pelham, North Pelham, and Ardsley in 1896, Pleasantville in 1897, and Bronxville and Croton in 1898.