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NEW_YORK_HISTORY
New York images have always stressed the big, the bright, the brassy, the busy.
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Hustle and Bustle, From Day One |
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Europe’s first contact with what would become New York City occurred in 1524, when Giovanni de Verrazano viewed New York from the base of Manhattan.
The following year, a Portuguese explorer Esteban Gomez reached the Hudson River. But it was the Dutch settled in New York first, after Henry Hudson lent his name to the world's largest tidal river.
In 1625, there were six farms, called "bouweries," in Manhattan. The next year, Governor Peter Minuet purchased Manhattan from the local Native Americans for $24 worth of trinkets. Less known is that these Indians didn’t actually own the island; they were just visiting.
Manhattan finance hasn’t changed since. By 1640, the predominately New Amsterdam was teeming with the diversity of the New World, as the tolerant Dutch welcomed all.
Rapid expansion soon pitted early Dutch Manhattanites against English Puritans who had moved to the colony. Less than tolerant, the Puritans had banned bowling and even the celebration of Christmas. While initially seen as outsiders, the prosperous and hardworking Puritans soon had the political upper hand. After an invasion by British troops in 1664, an Anglo-Dutch treaty handed the city over to the English without a shot.
Under British rule, the town was renamed and saw its population grow from 6,000 to 20,000 by the end of the 17th century. Events in Europe also brought turmoil to the city. Wars between England and France gave birth to privateering, or legalized piracy, that allowed the likes of Wall Street resident William Kidd to capture enemy ships off the coast of New York.
During this time, New York City tolerated (and in some circles encouraged) the slave trade, and a large and prosperous slave market was located on Wall Street.
As the 18th century wore on, England’s passage of restrictive acts of trade and imposition of tariffs on the American colonies brought about protest and ultimately revolution. New York City was strategically vital during the American Revolutionary War.
Early on, from Brooklyn to Harlem, George Washington's army suffered a series of defeats and barely escaped capture. The British took the city and stationed their army there. At the end of the war, Washington was sworn in as the first president on the steps of New York's Federal Hall.
New York’s stint as the United States capital was short lived. Political wrangling dictated the newly created District of Columbia would be the new nation’s capital. However, the 1792 founding of the New York Stock Exchange launched the city as a financial center.
The explosive expansion and revolutionary invention of the 19th century forever transformed New York City. The Erie Canal, in its day the world’s greatest engineering feat, had New York's ports at its terminus and strengthened the city's position as a national trade center. Later, the city commissioned Central Park, initially far north of the city proper, but designed and planned to save breathing space as the population boom moved uptown.
The American Civil War brought much sorrow and misery to New York, but also great prosperity as war profits soared. Yet, New York’s status as a Union stronghold became threatened with the passage of the nation’s first conscription act. Poor immigrants, angered that the wealthy could buy their way out of the draft, rioted.
As the century passed, New York displayed more technological marvels. A workforce, thousands strong, constructed Brooklyn Bridge—the then tallest and longest in the world. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, and soon electric streetlights illuminated lower Manhattan. The Statue of Liberty was erected and St. Patrick's Cathedral was built. At the end of the 19th century, a string of palatial mansions rose along New York's Fifth Avenue.
At the same time, economic conditions in Europe brought massive immigration, primarily consisting of Irish, German, Italian and Eastern Europeans. Immigrants worked long hours under harsh conditions and lived in unhealthy tenements. Reformers, galvanized by the success of the abolitionist movement as well as the gaining momentum of the suffragist and temperance movements, actively joined the fight to assist the immigrant poor.
By the 1920s, all of Manhattan was populated. Harlem, which had started as a Dutch farm, now attracted New York African-Americans as well as those migrating from the South. Jazz and blues and Prohibition-era speakeasies made the neighborhood an entertainment mecca for all races. African-American musicians, artists and writers together formed a movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.
On Broadway, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein and George and Ira Gershwin led the popular music industry. The hedonistic decade ended however with a crash on Wall Street, leading to the Great Depression.
A backlash against corrupt politics ushered Fiorella LaGuardia into the mayor's office, and the city began to work its way out of the Depression. Robert Moses built parks and the Rockefellers created Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center.
New York emerged from the Depression and World War II with a new fervor for industry and building. The United Nations complex started the post-war boom and was completed in the 1950s.
In 1972, a major change to the lower Manhattan skyline occurred with the completion of the World Trade Center, the 110-story structures commonly known as the "Twin Towers," or as New Yorkers tended to call them, the salt and pepper shakers. its constructed created enough landfill to create Battery Park City.
New York still attracts hordes of ambitious people.
Historian Peter Quinn, commenting on New York's nature, said the city that started with Peter Minuet's $24 purchase is still the same, and if possible, even more so: "Donald Trump would have tried to pay $22." |
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NY_ROADTRIPS
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Click on a trip below to adopt the trip. You can change the dates, add your preferences, or even rearrange the items in the Trip Plan, then plot the trip and save it as your own.
Road trips around New York
NEW YORK- FAMILY TRIP
Museums, Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty. Uncover NYC’s rush - as a Family!
For details see article on: 
NEW YORK - ART/CULTURE
Known for their Broadway performances, awesome museums and pizzazz, discover the flavor of NYC’s art/culture
NEW YORK- HISTORICAL
Churches, ports, monuments, they all speak about the richness of NYC’s history.
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