In 1897, the Post Office begins sending mail from the Produce Exchange on Bowling Green to the Old General Post Office on Park Row, a distance of 3750 ft through a leased. The trip took 1 min. Eventually it took 20 minutes to get a letter from Bowling Green to Harlem. When the mail got clogged, they had to dig up the street. By 1917 the annual rental payment was $17,000 per mile for the USPS. At its peak, the system handled 95,000 letters a day, 30% of the mail in NYC. The system finally ended in 1953. The 1st package was sent by Senator Chauncey M. Depew a bible wrapped in an American flag, a copy of the Constitution, a copy of President William McKinley's inaugural speech and several other papers. The return delivery contained a bouquet of violets. Subsequent deliveries included a variety of amusing items including a large artificial peach (a reference to Depew's nickname), clothing, a candlestick and a live cat. In his autobiography, postal supervisor Howard Wallace Connelly recalled, How it could live after being shot at terrific speed from Station P in the Produce Exchange Building, making several turns before reaching Broadway and Park Row, I cannot conceive, but it did. It seemed to be dazed for a minute or two but started to run and was quickly secured and placed in a basket that had been provided for that purpose. A suit of clothes was the third arrival and then came letters, papers, and other ordinary mail matter.
