| History of New York City |
|---|
 Manatus Map of the New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary in the 17th century |
| Lenape and New Netherland, to 1664 New Amsterdam British and Revolution, 1665–1783 Federal and early American, 1784–1854 Tammany and Consolidation, 1855–1897 (Civil War, 1861–1865) Early 20th century, 1898–1945 Post–World War II, 1946–1977 Modern and post-9/11, 1978–present |
| See also |
| Timelines:New York City • Manhattan • Bronx • Brooklyn • Queens • Staten Island Transportation Category |
Thehistory ofNew York City (1784–1854) started with the creation of the city as the capital of the United States under theCongress of the Confederation from January 11, 1785, to Autumn 1788, and then under the United States Constitution from its ratification in 1789 until moving toPhiladelphia in 1790. The city grew as an economic center with the opening of theErie Canal in 1825; the growth of its railroads added to its dominance.Tammany Hall began to grow in influence with the support of many Irish immigrants, culminating in the election of the first Tammany mayor, Fernando Wood, in 1854. The city had become the nation's most important port and financial center and competed with Boston as the center of high culture.[1]
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With the signing of theTreaty of Paris in 1783 and the resultingwithdrawal of British troops from the city, theCongress of the Confederation moved toFederal Hall onWall Street in 1785. The firstgovernment of the United States, operating under theArticles of Confederation and Perpetual Union since its ratification in 1781, was soon found inadequate for the needs of the new nation. However, certain successes were achieved while in New York, including the passage of theNorthwest Ordinance, which laid the framework for the addition of new states into the Union.
A call for revision to the Articles was led by New YorkerAlexander Hamilton, and theAnnapolis Convention was convened with representatives from the states to discuss the necessary changes. Lacking representation from all of the states, the convention made no suggestions for changing the Articles but instead drafted a report that led to the creation of aConstitutional Convention in 1787 to create an entirely new governing document.
The city's and state's status within the new union under theUnited States Constitution written in 1787 was under question when GovernorGeorge Clinton proved reluctant to submit state power to a strong national government and was opposed to ratification. Some New York City businessmen proposedNew York City secession as an alternative to joining the union separately, but Alexander Hamilton and others argued persuasively in theFederalist Papers, published in city newspapers, for state ratification, which after much dispute finally passed in 1788.George Washington was inaugurated as the firstPresident of the United States on the balcony ofFederal Hall in 1789, and theUnited States Bill of Rights was drafted in the city. TheSupreme Court of the United States sat for the first time in New York. After 1790, Congress left for Philadelphia.
New York remained a cosmopolitan enclave within America. The new French consul gave a report in 1810:
The French consul's "fictitious capital" betokens the world of credit, on which New Yorkers' confidence has been based. TheCommissioners' Plan of 1811 imposed a surveyed grid upon all of Manhattan's varied terrain, in a far-reaching though perhaps topographically insensitive vision.
New York, with a population of 96,000 in 1810, surged far beyond its rivals, reaching a population of 1,080,000 in 1860, compared to 566,000 in Philadelphia, 212,000 inBaltimore and 178,000 in Boston. Historian Robert Albion identifies four aggressive moves by New York entrepreneurs and politicians that helped it jump to the top of American cities. Of greatest importance, it sponsored theErie Canal, which began operations in 1825, forming a continuous water route from New York north toAlbany via theHudson River, then west toBuffalo using the new canal to reach theGreat Lakes. It opened a large new market inupstate New York and the Old Northwest. New York set up an auction system that efficiently and rapidly sold imported cargoes to the highest bidder. Exporters from Britain discovered New York offered the best prices for their goods, and they increasingly ignored Boston and Philadelphia, where the local merchants tried to impose higher markups by avoiding auctions. New York began the world's first regular packet service to England with theBlack Ball Line in 1818. By 1830, it dominated the nation's merchant marine. Ambitious shippers reached beyond the natural hinterland to open large-scale coastal trade, especially one that broughtSouthern cotton to New York for export to textile mills in the Northeast and in Europe, and carried manufactured products to the South. By 1830, 40 cents of every dollar the mills paid for cotton went to New York brokers to cover the cost of shipping.[2] The main rivals, Boston Philadelphia and Baltimore, tried to compete with the Erie Canal by opening their own networks of canals and railroads; they never caught up.[3] Manufacturing was not a major factor in the city's growth in the 19th century—factories were chiefly being built in towns and smaller cities with waterfalls and fast rivers that were harnessed to generate the power, or were closer to coal supplies.
In 1792, a group of merchants made the "Buttonwood Agreement" and began meeting under abuttonwood tree onWall Street, beginning theNew York Stock Exchange, while ayellow fever epidemic that summer sent New Yorkers fleeing north to nearby healthfulGreenwich Village. In 1797,Aaron Burr took control of Tammany Hall and used it to win the state's electoral vote in the1800 presidential election.
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In 1807,Robert Fulton initiated asteamboat line from New York City to Albany, which accelerated the movement of cargo and passengers upriver. Lumber and coal were the main products brought into New York.[4] The establishment of regular steam ferries spurred the growth ofBrooklyn, which was established as a city in 1834.
On September 3, 1821, theNorfolk and Long Island Hurricane caused a storm surge of 13 ft in one hour, leading to widespread flooding south ofCanal Street, but few deaths were reported. The hurricane is estimated to have been a Category 3 event and to have made landfall atJamaica Bay, making it the only hurricane in recorded history to directly strike New York City.
In 1824, a riot occurred inGreenwich Village between Irish Protestants and Catholics, after a parade by members of theOrange Order. This was a precursor of theOrange Riots of the 1870s.
Immigrants provided a ready resource for those opposingabolition of slavery. These were often led by gangsters fromthe Bowery andFive Points. On July 7, 1834, a series of riots started, terminating in the destruction of St. Phillip's Negro Church on Center Street and generally terrorizing theFive Points area.[5]
In 1831, as the city continued to expand, the University of the City of New York, nowNew York University, was founded atWashington Square in Greenwich Village. The first of a series ofcholera epidemics began in 1832.[6] By 1835, with the epidemic past, Manhattan was in the throes of the first of its building booms.
Late on December 16, 1835, theGreat Fire of New York broke out. The temperature was below zero (F), andgale-force winds were blowing. Firemen, some called from as far away as Philadelphia, were at first helpless to battle the wind-driven fire because of icing lines and pumps. The fire leveled 50 acres (200,000 square meters) in the Financial District. Some merchandise was carried to churches that were thought to be fireproof, but several of these burned anyway. Eventually, the fire was controlled by blowing up buildings in the fire's path.
Many of the merchants who lost their stores thought they would be covered by insurance, but the tremendous losses, and, in many cases, the destruction of the insurance company headquarters in the financial district, bankrupted the insurance firms, and much of the loss was not covered.
The fires of the period and the increased need for water for industry led to the construction of theCroton Aqueductwater system between 1837 and 1842. The aqueduct brought fresh water from theCroton Dam in northernWestchester County over theHigh Bridge to the Receiving Reservoir between79th Street and86th Street andSixth andSeventh Avenues. From the Receiving Reservoir water flowed into the Distributing Reservoir, better known as theCroton Reservoir. The aqueduct opened on October 14, 1842, with great celebration. PresidentJohn Tyler, former presidentsJohn Quincy Adams andMartin van Buren, and New York GovernorWilliam H. Seward were among those in attendance.
The city's rapid development was again interrupted by thePanic of 1837. The city recovered and by mid-century established itself as the financial and mercantile capital of the western hemisphere.
TheGreat New York City Fire of 1845 destroyed 345 wooden buildings in the Financial District.
TheHudson River Railroad (which grew into theNew York Central) opened October 3, 1851; it extended theMohawk and Hudson Railroad, the first railroad built in the state, south to New York City.
The city and its nearby suburbs grew rapidly for several reasons. The natural harbor at the base of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and theNew Jersey ports atJersey City,Newark andElizabeth provided almost unlimited capacity for trading ships and protection from storms. Not until 1985 did New York lose its place as the busiest port in the world.
Other cities, like Boston, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, had good natural harbors, but New York's advantage over other cities of the Eastern Seaboard was that the Hudson River and the Erie Canal formed the only water route through theAppalachian Mountains.
The city's cosmopolitan attitude and tolerance of many different cultures encouraged many different types of immigrant groups to settle in the city. Starting in the late 1840s, the city saw increasedIrish immigration with theGreat Irish Famine andGerman immigration with theRevolutions of 1848. People who came from Ireland were poor, without knowledge of their new world; once arrived on the docks, unscrupulous landlords offered them squalid tenements that were once houses for middle-class New Yorkers. They crowded into dirty rooms, and theslums of the city became known for high rates of disease. Immigrants were skilled laborers and craftsmen; Germans settled in a new neighborhood named "Kleindeutschland" (Little Germany) and opened many shops where they worked as artisans. Many Irish immigrants were responsible for building the subway and sky-scrapers.
Raw unregulated capitalism created large middle, upper-middle and upper classes, but its need for manpower encouraged immigration into the city on an unprecedented scale, with mixed results. The famed "melting pot" was brought into being, from which multitudes have since arisen in the successful pursuit ofthe American Dream. In the mid-to-late 19th century, areas of poverty could be found in contrast between rich stretches of lowerBroadway,Washington Square,Gramercy Park and Lafayette Street (wealth that would later take up more extravagant residence on Fifth Avenue) and the squalid enclave ofFive Points (abject poverty that was later to occupy theLower East Side).
Tammany Hall's influence increased with its courting of the immigrant Irish vote, leading to the election of the first Tammany mayor,Fernando Wood, in 1854, and a trend of consolidation was beginning in the region with the three-year-oldCity of Williamsburgh joining Brooklyn in 1855, establishing it as America's third largest city.
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