In 1871 the divergent fragments of the German people, after many futile
experiments in their history, at last attained national unity. The
Germans of New York celebrated the event with a procession which made a
deep impression upon the city. From that day forward they were no longer
held below par in popular estimation. This became manifest in the
success of their efforts in the field of social and religious work.
Thirty German churches were added to the roll before the close of the
century.

The completion of the Elevated Lines in 1879 and the Brooklyn Bridge in
1883 changed the course of history for our Lutheran congregations. For
decades the ever-increasing hosts of immigrants had been interned in
unwholesome tenements on a narrow island. Now ways of escape were found.
Wide thoroughfares led in every direction. The churches in Brooklyn and
Bronx grew rapidly in numbers and in strength.

It was hard for those of us who still held the fort on Manhattan Island
to see the congregations we had gathered with painstaking effort
scattering in every direction, especially to lose the children and the
grandchildren of our faithful families. But when we saw them in the
comfortable homes and open spaces of the suburbs, who could wish them to
return to the hopeless atmosphere of the tenements? From this time
forward the churches of the surrounding boroughs grew rapidly, largely
at the expense, however, of the churches of Manhattan.

From 1881 to the close of the century Bronx added nine churches,
Richmond five, Brooklyn and Queens thirty-two to the roll. Manhattan, it
is true, also added eleven churches, but they were all above
Forty-second Street, most of them far uptown.