SAT Inferences Question

The following text is from Yung Wing's 1909 memoir My Life in China and America. We landed in New York on the 12th of April, 1847, after a passage of ninety-eight days of unprecedented fair weather. The New York of 1847 was altogether a different city from the New York of 1909. It was a city of only 250,000 or 300,000 inhabitants; now it is a metropolis rivaling London in population, wealth and commerce. The whole of Manhattan Island is turned into a city of skyscrapers, churches and palatial residences. Based on the passage, how does Yung perceive New York to have changed between 1847 and 1909?