History Of New York City (1855–1897)
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New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
(1855–1897) started with the inauguration in 1855 of
Fernando Wood Fernando Wood (June 14, 1812 – February 13, 1881) was an American Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party politician, merchant, and real estate investor who served as the 73rd and 75th Mayor of New York, Mayor of New York City. ...
as the first mayor from
Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was an American political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789, as the Tammany Society. It became the main local ...
, an institution that dominated the city throughout this period. Reforms led to the New York City Police Riot of June 1857. There was chaos during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, with major rioting in the New York Draft Riots. The
Gilded Age In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...
brought about prosperity for the city's upper classes amid the further growth of a poor immigrant working class, as well as an increasing consolidation, both economic and municipal, of what would become
the five boroughs The boroughs of New York City are the five major governmental districts that comprise New York City. They are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of the State of New Y ...
in 1898. Ocean-going
steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...
s and steam railroads, developed in earlier decades, grew to take over most long-distance transport, bringing an ever-increasing stream of immigration and industrialization. File:Central Park New York City.svg, up200px, Map of Central Park. Clicking on a feature in the picture causes the browser to load the appropriate article. rect 298 925 317 989
Conservatory Water Conservatory Water is a pond located in a natural hollow within Central Park in Manhattan, New York City. It is located west of Fifth Avenue, centered opposite East 74th Street. The pond is surrounded by several landscaped hills, including Pi ...
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Conservatory Garden The Conservatory Garden is a formal garden near the northeastern corner of Central Park in Upper Manhattan, New York City. Comprising , it is the only formal garden in Central Park. Conservatory Garden takes its name from a conservatory that ...
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Harlem Meer Harlem Meer is a man-made lake at the northeast corner of New York City's Central Park. It lies west of Fifth Avenue, south of 110th Street, and north of the Conservatory Garden, near the Harlem and East Harlem neighborhoods of Manhattan. The la ...
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Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, also known as Central Park Reservoir, is a decommissioned reservoir in Central Park in the New York City borough of Manhattan, stretching from 86th to 96th Streets. It covers and holds over of water. ...
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Great Lawn and Turtle Pond The Great Lawn and Turtle Pond are two connected features of Central Park in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The lawn and pond are located on the site of a former reservoir for the Croton Aqueduct system which was infilled during the ...
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Bethesda Terrace Bethesda Terrace and Fountain are two architectural features overlooking the southern shore of the Lake in New York City's Central Park. The fountain, with its ''Angel of the Waters'' statue, is located in the center of the terrace. Bethesda T ...
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The Ramble and Lake The Ramble and Lake are two geographic features of Central Park in Manhattan, New York City. Part of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux's 1857 Greensward Plan for Central Park, the features are located on the west side of the park betwee ...
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Sheep Meadow Sheep Meadow is a meadow near the southwestern section of Central Park, between West 66th Street (Manhattan), 66th and 69th Streets in Manhattan, New York City. It is adjacent to Central Park Mall to the east, The Ramble and Lake to the nor ...
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The Pond and Hallett Nature Sanctuary The Pond and Hallett Nature Sanctuary are two connected features at the southeastern corner of Central Park in Manhattan, New York City. It is located near Grand Army Plaza (Manhattan), Grand Army Plaza, across 59th Street (Manhattan), Central ...
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Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...
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Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
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Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
rect 22 207 70 862
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...
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Central Park Zoo The Central Park Zoo is a zoo located at the southeast corner of Central Park in New York City. It is part of an integrated system of four zoos and one aquarium managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). In conjunction with the Centra ...
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Tavern on the Green Tavern on the Green is an American cuisine restaurant in Central Park in Manhattan, New York City, near the intersection of Central Park West and West 66th Street on the Upper West Side. The restaurant, housed in a former sheepfold, has be ...


Pre-Civil War


Police, gangs and violence

The new Republican Party in the late 1850s attempted to cut the power of Mayor
Fernando Wood Fernando Wood (June 14, 1812 – February 13, 1881) was an American Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party politician, merchant, and real estate investor who served as the 73rd and 75th Mayor of New York, Mayor of New York City. ...
and other pro-South Democrats by abolishing the New York City Municipal Police Department in favor of a
Metropolitan Police District The Metropolitan Police District (MPD) is the police area which is policed by the Metropolitan Police Service in London. It currently consists of the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, which excludes the City of ...
. Resistance resulted in the New York City Police Riot of 1857. While the police were busy with their feud, the Dead Rabbits Riot between two gangs in Five Points occurred in July, lasting two days, and was stopped only by intervention of the state militia. It was the worst riot in New York City up to that time. Historian
Tyler Anbinder Tyler Anbinder (born September 26, 1962) is an American historian known for his influential work on the pre-civil war period in U.S. history. Books * ''Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings and the Politics of the 1850s''. New York: O ...
says the "Dead Rabbit" name "so captured the imagination of New Yorkers that the press continued to use it despite the abundant evidence that no such club or gang existed." Anbinder notes that, "for more than a decade, 'Dead Rabbit' became the standard phrase by which city residents described any scandalously riotous individual or group." Historians such as Michael Kaplan and Elliott Gorn have argued that an intensifying highly masculine working-class male identity fostered gangs, brawling, and even homicide and rape, which was fueled by New York City taverns. The emerging male code emphasized physical courage, defiance of authority, and class pride. Irish and German immigrants brought European influences. Sexual harassment of women increased because women were more visible outside the home, as many worked in factories and shops. Women were regarded as depersonalized objects of lewd talk, and gang rapes became an opportunity for male bonding.


Staten Island Quarantine War

From 1800 to 1858,
Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...
was the location of the largest quarantine facility in the United States. Angry residents burned down the hospital compound in 1858 in a series of attacks known as the
Staten Island Quarantine War The Staten Island Quarantine War was a series of attacks on the New York Marine Hospital in Staten Island—known as "the Quarantine" and at that time the largest quarantine facility in the United States—on September 1 and 2, 1858. The attack ...
. Although there were no deaths as a result of the attack, the arsonists completely destroyed the hospital compound.


Central Park

As the population grew explosively in
Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...
after 1820, middle-class residents were drawn to the few existing open spaces, mainly cemeteries, to get away from the noises, smells, and chaotic life in the city. Landscape painter
Asher Brown Durand Asher Brown Durand (August 21, 1796 – September 17, 1886) was an American engraver and painter of the Hudson River School. Early life Durand was born in, and eventually died in, Maplewood, New Jersey (then called Jefferson Village). H ...
and writer
William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant (November 3, 1794 – June 12, 1878) was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the '' New York Evening Post''. Born in Massachusetts, he started his career as a lawyer but showed an interest in poe ...
, recalling their rural upbringing and the great parks of Europe, advocated the therapeutic value of nature in the overcrowded city. Along with architect
Andrew Jackson Downing Andrew Jackson Downing (October 31, 1815 – July 28, 1852) was an American landscape designer, horticulturist, writer, prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival in the United States, and editor of ''The Horticulturist'' magazine (1846–1852). ...
, they envisioned a great park. The state government in 1853 provided $5 million and
eminent domain Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...
powers to buy out the land owners of what became Central Park. Egbert L. Viele drew the original plans, but
Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...
and
Calvert Vaux Calvert Vaux Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, FAIA (; December 20, 1824 – November 19, 1895) was an English-American architect and landscape architect, landscape designer. He and his protégé Frederick Law Olmsted designed park ...
made the final
Greensward Plan Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
design and have received the main credit. Several American influences came together in the design. Landscaped
rural cemeteries A rural cemetery or garden cemetery is a style of cemetery that became popular in the United States and Europe in the mid-19th century due to the overcrowding and health concerns of urban cemeteries, which tended to be churchyards. Rural cemeter ...
, such as Mount Auburn in
Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
, and
Green-Wood Cemetery Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope, Brooklyn, South Slope/Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn, Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, Win ...
in
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
, provided examples of idyllic, naturalistic landscapes. The most influential innovations in the Central Park design were the multiple circulation plans for pedestrians, horseback riders, and pleasure vehicles. The crossing routes for commercial traffic were concealed in sunken roadways screened with densely planted shrub belts so as to maintain a natural setting. It was the nation's first great
urban park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...
; Olmsted taught Americans a new sensibility in park environments and urban planning as an applied science with his radically naturalistic park design.


Civil War

Prior to the Civil War, in 1861, Mayor Wood proposed that New York City secede from the United States as a neutral sovereign city-state called Free City of Tri-Insula as a way to avoid the ravages of war. Despite strong local Copperhead sympathies, the proposal was not well received. The city provided a major source of troops, supplies, equipment, and financing for the Union Army. Powerful New York politicians and newspaper editors helped shape public opinion toward the war effort and the policies of President
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
. The port of New York, a major entry point for immigrants, served as recruiting grounds for the Army. In July 1863, Irish Catholic protestors of conscription began five days of rioting. The " Draft Riots", the worst in American history, targeted blacks and wealthy Republicans. It was suppressed by artillery units of the United States Army firing
grapeshot In artillery, a grapeshot is a type of ammunition that consists of a collection of smaller-caliber round shots packed tightly in a canvas bag and separated from the gunpowder charge by a metal wadding, rather than being a single solid projectile ...
that killed and wounded hundreds of rioters. Meanwhile, the upscale membership of the New York
Union League Club The Union League Club is a private social club in New York City that was founded in 1863 in affiliation with the Union League. Its fourth and current clubhouse is located at 38 East 37th Street on the corner of Park Avenue, in the Murray Hi ...
recruited over 2,000 black men for the 20th United States Colored Infantry to help fill the quotas and to make a major contribution to African American civil rights. The neighboring
city of Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
in contrast was more pro-war. In 1865 the Metropolitan Fire District united the fire departments of New York and
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
, and was more successful than the earlier Metropolitan Police District, eventually developing into the
New York City Fire Department The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) is the full-service fire department of New York City, serving all Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs. The FDNY is responsible for providing Fi ...
.


Tourism and entertainment

New York increasingly became the national capital for the rapidly expanding tourism and entertainment industries. Steamships and railways brought not just immigrants and businessmen but tourists, and grand hotels were built for upscale visitors. New York's theater district gradually moved northward during this half century, from the
Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighbourhood, neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City, New York. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row (Manhattan), Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th ...
up Broadway through Union Square and
Madison Square Madison Square is a public square formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The square was named for Founding Father James Madison, the fourth president of the United St ...
, settling around
Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...
at the end of the 19th century.
Edwin Booth Edwin Thomas Booth (November 13, 1833 – June 7, 1893) was an American stage actor and theatrical manager who toured throughout the United States and the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespearean plays. In 1869, he founded Booth's Th ...
and
Lillian Russell Lillian Russell (born Helen Louise Leonard; December 4, 1860 or 1861 – June 6, 1922) was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, praised for her beaut ...
were among the Broadway stars. Prostitutes served a wide variety of clientele, from sailors on leave to playboys. The first nightclubs appeared in New York City in the 1840s and 1850s, including McGlory's, and the Haymarket. They enjoyed a national reputation for live music, dance, and vaudeville acts. They tolerated unlicensed liquor, commercial sex, and gambling cards, chiefly Faro. Practically all gambling was illegal in the city (except upscale horseracing tracks), and regular payoffs to political and police leadership was necessary. Prices were high and they were patronized by an upscale audience. Timothy Gilfoyle calls him "the first nightclubs." By contrast,
Owney Geoghegan Owen "Owney" Geoghegan (c. 1840 – January 19, 1885) was a lightweight bare-knuckle boxer. Geoghegan claimed the Lightweight Championship of America in 1861, and held it until his retirement in 1863. He stood and weighed between 130 and 140 po ...
ran the toughest nightclub in New York, 1880–83. It catered to a downscale clientele and besides the usual illegal liquor, gambling and prostitution, it featured nighly fistfights, and occasional shootings, stabbings, and police raids.
Webster Hall Webster Hall is a nightclub and concert venue located at 125 East 11th Street, between Third and Fourth avenues, near Astor Place, in the East Village of Manhattan, New York City. It is one of New York City's most historically significant ...
is credited as the first modern nightclub. It opened in 1886 as a "social hall", originally functioning as a home for dance and political activism events.


Gilded Age

The post-war period was noted for the corruption and graft for which Tammany Hall has become proverbial, but equally for the foundation of New York's pre-eminent cultural institutions, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
and the
Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...
. The
Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...
was a major institution of New York's independent sister city. Various older institutions merged into the
New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...
. The
New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), originally founded as the Lyceum of Natural History in January 1817, is a nonprofit professional society based in New York City, with more than 20,000 members from 100 countries. It is the fourth-oldes ...
, founded early in the century, expanded and promoted other institutions such as the
New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...
and the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...
. New York newspapers were read across the nation, particularly, the ''New York Tribune,'' edited by
Horace Greeley Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and newspaper editor, editor of the ''New-York Tribune''. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congres ...
, the voice of the new Republican Party. As immigration increased in cities, poverty rose as well. The poorest crowded into low-cost housing such as the Five Points and
Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, or Midtown West on real estate listings, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, ...
neighborhoods in Manhattan. These areas were quickly overridden with notorious criminal gangs such as the
Five Points Gang The Five Points Gang was a criminal street gang, initially of primarily Irish-American origins, based in the Five Points of Lower Manhattan, New York City, during the late 19th and early 20th century. The gang had its origin in the various I ...
and the Bowery Boys. Overcrowding spread germs; the death rates in big city
tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, E ...
s vastly exceeded those in the countryside.Tindall, George Brown and Shi, David E. ''America: A Narrative History'' (Brief 9th ed. 2012) vol 2 p. 590 Rapid outward expansion required longer journeys to work and shopping for the middle class office workers and housewives. The working class generally did not own automobiles until after 1945; they typically walked to nearby factories and patronized small neighborhood stores. The middle class demanded a better transportation system. Slow horse-drawn streetcars and faster electric trolleys were the rage in the 1880s. In the horse-drawn era, streets were unpaved and covered with dirt or gravel. However, this produced uneven wear, opened new hazards for pedestrians, and made for dangerous potholes for bicycles and for motor vehicles. Manhattan alone had 130,000 horses in 1900, pulling streetcars, delivery wagons, and private carriages, and leaving their waste behind. They were not fast, and pedestrians could dodge and scramble their way across the crowded streets. In small towns people mostly walked to their destination, so they continued to rely on dirt and gravel into the 1920s. Larger cities had much more complex transportation needs. They wanted better streets, so they paved them with wood or granite blocks. By the end of the century, American cities boasted 30 million square yards of asphalt paving, followed by brick construction. Street-level electric trolleys moved at 12 miles per hour, and became the main transportation service for middle class shoppers and office workers. Big-city streets became paths for faster and larger and more dangerous vehicles, the pedestrians beware. In the largest cities, street railways were elevated, which increased their speed and lessened their dangers. Boston built the first subway in the 1890s followed by New York a decade later.


Immigration

The flood of immigration from Europe passed first through
Castle Clinton Castle Clinton (also known as Fort Clinton and Castle Garden) is a restored circular sandstone fort within Battery Park at the southern end of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Built from 1808 to 1811, it was the first American immig ...
(opened 1855) and then through
Ellis Island Ellis Island is an island in New York Harbor, within the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York (state), New York. Owned by the U.S. government, Ellis Island was once the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United State ...
(opened 1892) in
New York Harbor New York Harbor is a bay that covers all of the Upper Bay. It is at the mouth of the Hudson River near the East River tidal estuary on the East Coast of the United States. New York Harbor is generally synonymous with Upper New York Bay, ...
, with the nearby
Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...
(formally ''Liberty Enlightening the World'') opening in 1886. Most of the new arrivals headed to destinations across the north and west, but many made New York City their destination. European immigration brought further social upheaval, and old world criminal societies rapidly exploited the already corrupt municipal machine politics of Tammany Hall. Housing, especially in the southern tip of Manhattan, became crowded with newly built
tenements A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...
and flimsy shacks in the back. Italians settled around Mulberry Street between the East Village and Lower Manhattan, in an area later to be known as "
Little Italy Little Italy is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an Urban area, urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian cul ...
." Many
Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...
-speaking East European Jews came to the
Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...
. In the
Orange Riots The Orange Riots took place in Manhattan, New York City, in 1870 and 1871, and they involved violent conflict between Irish Protestants who were members of the Orange Order and hence called "Orangemen", and Irish Catholics, along with the Ne ...
of July 1871 and 1872, Catholic Irish attempted to stop Protestant Irish from celebrating the anniversary of the
Battle of the Boyne The Battle of the Boyne ( ) took place in 1690 between the forces of the deposed King James II, and those of King William III who, with his wife Queen Mary II (his cousin and James's daughter), had acceded to the Crowns of England and Sc ...
. These resulted in more than 33 deaths and many wounded. Pioneering photojournalist
Jacob Riis Jacob August Riis ( ; May 3, 1849 – May 26, 1914) was a Danish-American social reformer, " muck-raking" journalist, and social documentary photographer. He contributed significantly to the cause of urban reform in the United States of Ame ...
documented the poor conditions of immigrant tenement dwellers in his 1890 ''
How the Other Half Lives ''How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York'' (1890) is an early publication of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s. The photographs served as a basis ...
''; he was befriended by Republican reformer
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
. Roosevelt lost his mayoral race in 1886. Reformers did win in 1894, and Roosevelt undertook a major reform of the
New York City Police Department The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...
in 1895–97 during his term as President of the Police Commissioners.


Public health

Epidemics (
typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...
,
cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...
,
diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacteria, bacterium ''Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild Course (medicine), clinical course, but in some outbreaks, the mortality rate approaches 10%. Signs a ...
, and
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
) were rampant in the city's slums. Horse manure covered the streets. In winter, when all the grime froze, walking on the sidewalks was a challenge. Dead pigs and other carcasses remained on the street for weeks. In 1894, Colonel George E. Waring Jr. introduced sanitary reforms using a large street cleaning force.


Politics


Tammany Hall

William Tweed William Magear "Boss" Tweed (April 3, 1823 – April 12, 1878) was an American politician most notable for being the political boss of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party's political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th ...
, better known as ''Boss Tweed'', had become the sole leader of Tammany Hall by 1867. From April 1870, with the passage of a city charter consolidating power in the hands of his political allies, Tweed and his cronies were able to defraud the city of some tens of millions of dollars over the next two years and eight months, most famously with the construction bill for a lavish courthouse. The efforts of reform-oriented Democratic politicians, especially Samuel J. Tilden, as well as aggressive newspaper editors aided by the biting cartoons of
Thomas Nast Thomas Nast (; ; September 26, 1840December 7, 1902) was a German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist often considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon". He was a sharp critic of William M. Tweed, "Boss" Tweed and the T ...
, helped elect opposition candidates in 1871. Tweed was convicted of forgery and larceny in 1873. Tweed's fall put an end to the immunity of corrupt local political leaders and was a precursor to
Progressive Era The Progressive Era (1890s–1920s) was a period in the United States characterized by multiple social and political reform efforts. Reformers during this era, known as progressivism in the United States, Progressives, sought to address iss ...
reforms in the city. Tammany did not take long to rebound from Tweed's fall. Reforms demanded a general housecleaning, and former county sheriff "Honest John" Kelly was selected as the new leader. Kelly was not implicated in the Tweed scandals and was a religious Catholic related by marriage to Archbishop
John McCloskey John McCloskey (March 10, 1810 – October 10, 1885) was an Catholic Church in the United States, American Catholic prelate who served as the first American-born Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Archbishop of New York from 1864 until his ...
. He cleared Tammany of Tweed's people and tightened the Grand Sachem's control over the hierarchy. His success at revitalizing the machine was such that in the election of 1874, the Tammany candidate, William H. Wickham, unseated the unpopular reformist incumbent, William F. Havemeyer, and Democrats generally won their races, delivering control of the city back to Tammany Hall.
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
, before he became president in 1901, was deeply involved in New York City politics. He explains how the machine worked: :The organization of a party in our city is really much like that of an army. There is one great central boss, assisted by some trusted and able lieutenants; these communicate with the different district bosses, whom they alternately bully and assist. The district boss in turn has a number of half-subordinates, half-allies, under him; these latter choose the captains of the election districts, etc., and come into contact with the common healers.


Reformers

Middle-class moral sensibilities were deeply opposed to prostitution and all forms of gambling. The reform movement was strongest in the 1890s. Reform was led by men such as the Reverend Charles H. Parkhurst, the leading Presbyterian pastor and president of the New York Society for the Prevention of Crime; reform mayor William L. Strong, and his police commissioner
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
. Reformers passed laws in the state legislature against any emerging gambling venue. Such laws were enforced in most small towns and rural areas, but not in New York's larger cities, where political machines controlled the police and the courts.


Economy

In 1874, nearly 61% of all U.S. exports passed through New York Harbor. In 1884, nearly 70% of U.S. imports came through New York. The eventual rise of ports on the
Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...
and on the Pacific coast reduced New York's share of imports and exports to about 47% in 1910. The city's banking resources grew 250% between 1888 and 1908, compared to the national increase of 26%. Between 1860 and 1907, the assessed value of the land and buildings on Manhattan rose from $1.7 billion to $6.7 billion. The city and its suburbs, mainly Brooklyn and
Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a neighborhood within the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; Sunnyside to the east; and Newtown Creek, which separates Queens from Greenpoint, Brook ...
, also became important in
light industry Light industry are Industry (economics), industries that usually are less Capital intensity, capital-intensive than heavy industry, heavy industries and are more consumer-oriented than business-oriented, as they typically produce smaller consum ...
. Its factories dominated the
garment industry Clothing industry or garment industry summarizes the types of trade and industry along the production and value chain of clothing and garments, starting with the textile industry (producers of cotton, wool, fur, and synthetic fibre), embellishm ...
and some
high tech High technology (high tech or high-tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the state of the art, cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the ...
nology industries of the
Second Industrial Revolution The Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution, was a phase of rapid Discovery (observation), scientific discovery, standardisation, mass production and industrialisation from the late 19th century into the early ...
such as
sewing machine Diagram of a modern sewing machine Animation of a modern sewing machine as it stitches A sewing machine is a machine used to sew fabric and materials together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolutio ...
s and
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
s. It was an important center for other hi-tech items such as
hard rubber Ebonite is a brand name for a material generically known as hard rubber or vulcanite, obtained via sulfur vulcanization, vulcanizing natural rubber for prolonged periods. Ebonite may contain from 25% to 80% sulfur and linseed oil. Its name comes ...
products and electrical goods. Petroleum and chemical works sprang up along
Newtown Creek Newtown Creek, a long tributary of the East River, is an estuary that forms part of the border between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, in New York City. River engineering#Channelization, Channelization made it one of the most heavily-use ...
,
Bayonne, New Jersey Bayonne ( ) is a City (New Jersey), city in Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey, in the Gateway Region on Bergen Neck, a peninsula between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill Van Kull to the south, and New York ...
, and other
industrial suburb An industrial suburb is a community, near a large city, with an industrial economy. These communities may be established as tax havens or as places where zoning promotes industry, or they may be industrial towns that become suburbs by urban ...
s.


Department stores

In modern major cities, the
department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...
made a dramatic appearance in the middle of the 19th century and permanently reshaped shopping habits and the definition of service and luxury. Similar developments were underway in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
and
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. New York became a regional and national destination for upscale shoppers, thanks to its development of the modern department store. London and Paris were developing department stores around the same time, and the leaders quickly adopted innovations. In 1846,
Alexander Turney Stewart Alexander Turney Stewart (October 12, 1803 – April 10, 1876) was an Irish Americans, Irish- American entrepreneur who moved to New York and made his multimillion-dollar fortune in the most extensive and lucrative dry goods store in the world ...
established his "
Marble Palace The Marble Palace () is one of the first Neoclassical palaces in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is situated between the Field of Mars and Palace Quay, slightly to the east from New Michael Palace. Design and pre-1917 owners The palace was bu ...
" on
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...
, between Chambers and Reade Streets. He offered upscale retail merchandise at fixed prices. Though it was clad in white marble to look like a
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
palazzo A palace is a large residence, often serving as a royal residence or the home for a head of state or another high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome whi ...
, the building's
cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...
construction had large
plate glass Plate glass, flat glass or sheet glass is a type of glass, initially produced in plane form, commonly used for windows, glass doors, transparent walls, and windscreens. For modern architectural and automotive applications, the flat glass is ...
windows that permitted major seasonal displays, especially in the
Christmas shopping season The Christmas season or the festive season, also known as the holiday season or the holidays, is an annual period generally spanning from November or December to early January. Incorporating Christmas Day and New Year's Day, the various celebrat ...
. Increasingly, the clientele were women from wealthy or upper-middle-class families. In 1862, Stewart built a new store on a full city block with eight floors and nineteen departments of dress goods and furnishing materials, carpets, glass and china, toys and sports equipment, ranged around a central glass-covered court. His innovations included buying from manufacturers for cash and in large quantities, keeping his markup small and prices low, truthful presentation of merchandise, the one-price policy (so there was no haggling), simple merchandise returns and cash refund policy, selling for cash and not credit, buyers who searched worldwide for quality merchandise,
departmentalization Departmentalization (or departmentalisation) refers to the process of "grouping the organizational activities and structure into departments". Division of labour creates Expert, specialists who need :wikt:coordination, coordination and the coordi ...
, vertical and horizontal integration, volume sales, and free services for customers such as waiting rooms and free delivery of purchases. His innovations were quickly copied by other department stores. In 1858,
Rowland Hussey Macy Rowland Hussey Macy Sr. (August 30, 1822 – March 29, 1877) was an American businessman who founded the department store chain Macy's. Life and career Macy was the fourth of six children born to a Quaker family on Nantucket Island, Massachuse ...
founded
Macy's Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...
as a dry goods store. Benjamin Altman and
Lord & Taylor Lord & Taylor was an American department store chain founded in 1826 by Samuel Lord. It had 86 full-line stores in the Northeastern United States at its peak in the 2000s, and 38 locations at the time of its liquidation in 2021. The Lord & Tay ...
soon competed with Stewart as New York's earliest department stores. By the 1880s New York's retail center had moved uptown, forming a stretch of retail shopping from "Marble Palace" that was called the "Ladies' Mile". By 1894 the major stores competed in the Christmas season with elaborate
Christmas window A Christmas window is a special window display prepared for the Christmas shopping season at department stores and other retailers. Some retailers around the world have become noted for their Christmas window displays, with some becoming tou ...
displays; in 1895 Macy's featured 13 tableaux, including scenes from Jack and the Beanstalk, Gulliver's Travels and other children's favorites. The department store was especially important for women; in middle-class families women took control of the purchasing, and the department stores catered to their tastes. Furthermore, ambitious young women from the middle class who wanted a career were welcomed into the clerical ranks, where they developed social skills to work with their upscale customers.


Skyscrapers and apartment buildings

New inventions facilitated the emergence of the
skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...
in the 1880s—it was a characteristic American style that was not widely copied around the world until the late 20th century. Construction required several major innovations, including the
elevator An elevator (American English) or lift (Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive traction cables and counterweight systems suc ...
and
structural steel Structural steel is steel used for making construction materials in a variety of shapes. Many structural steel shapes take the form of an elongated beam having a profile of a specific cross section (geometry), cross section. Structural steel sha ...
. The steel skeleton, developed in the 1880s, replaced the heavy brick walls that were limited to 15 or so stories in height. The skyscraper also required a complex internal structure to solve issues of ventilation, steam heat, gas lighting (and later electricity), and plumbing. The city's housing involved a wide variety of styles, but most of the attention focused on the tenement house for the working class and the apartment building for the middle class. The apartment building came first, as middle-class professionals, businessmen, and white-collar workers realized they did not need and could scarcely afford single-family dwellings in the high-cost real estate districts of the city.
Boarding house A boarding house is a house (frequently a family home) in which lodging, lodgers renting, rent one or more rooms on a nightly basis and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, or years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and ...
s were inappropriate for family;
hotel suite A suite in a hotel or other public accommodation (e.g. a cruise ship) denotes, according to most dictionary definitions, connected rooms under one room number. Hotels may refer to suites as a class of accommodations with more space than a typica ...
s were too expensive. In outlying neighborhoods there were many apartments over stores and shops, usually occupied by proprietors of small local businesses. Apartment dwellers paid rent and did not own their apartments until the emergence of cooperatives in the 20th century. Turnover was very high, and there was seldom a sense of neighborhood community. Starting with the luxurious
Stuyvesant Apartments The Stuyvesant Apartments, Stuyvesant Flats, Rutherfurd Stuyvesant Flats or simply The Stuyvesant, was an apartment building located at 142 East 18th Street between Irving Place and Third Avenue in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan in ...
that opened in 1869, and the even more lavish
The Dakota The Dakota, also known as the Dakota Apartments, is a Housing cooperative, cooperative apartment building at 1 West 72nd Street (Manhattan), 72nd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The Dakota was constru ...
in 1884, affluent tenants hired full-time staff to handle the upkeep and maintenance, as well as security. The less-lavish middle-class apartment buildings provided gas lighting, elevators, good plumbing, central heating, and maintenance men on call. Apartment buildings were built along the paths of the street railways since the middle-class tenants rode the streetcar to work, while the working class saved a nickel each way and walked. The working class crowded into tenement houses, with far fewer features and amenities. Novelist
Stephen Crane Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism an ...
in ''Maggie: A Girl of the Streets'' (1893) wrote of an Irish tenement neighborhood characterized by poverty and violence:
"Eventually they entered into a dark region where, from a careening building, a dozen gruesome doorways gave up loads of babies to the street and the gutter. A wind of early autumn raised yellow dust from cobble and swirled it against an hundred windows. Long streamers of garments fluttered from fire escapes. In all unhandy places there were buckets, brooms, rags, and bottles. In the street infants played or fought with other infants or sat stupidly in the way of vehicles. Formidable women, with uncombed hair and disordered dress, gossiped while leaning on railings, or screamed in frantic quarrels. Withered persons, in curious postures of submission to something, sat smoking pipes in obscure corners. A thousand odors of cooking food came forth to the street. The building quivered and creaked from the weight of humanity stamping about in its bowels."
Tenements were cheap and easy to build, and filled up almost the entire lot. There were typically five story walk-ups, with four separate apartments on each floor. There was minimal air circulation and sunlight. Until the Tenement House Act of 1879, newly built tenements lacked running water or indoor toilets. A law in 1901 required indoor plumbing be retrofitted to older tenements. Garbage pickup was erratic until late in the 19th century. Rent was cheap for those who could endure the dust, clutter, smells and noises; the only cheaper alternatives were squalid basement rooms in older buildings. Most of the tenements survived until the urban renewal movement of the 1950s.Raymond A. Mohl, ''The New City: Urban America in the Industrial Age, 1860-1920'' (1985) pp 47-52


Neighborhoods

Pre-war steam ferries had already made
Brooklyn Heights Brooklyn Heights is a residential neighborhood within the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Old Fulton Street near the Brooklyn Bridge on the north, Cadman Plaza West on the east, Atlantic Avenue on the south ...
into a
bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...
for affluent professionals on
Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...
and other urban areas.
Elevated railroad An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train or el for short) is a railway with the tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed from steel, cast iron, concrete, or bricks). The rai ...
s, operated by the
Manhattan Railway Company The Manhattan Railway Company was an elevated railway company in Manhattan and the Bronx, New York City, United States. It operated four lines: the Second Avenue Line, Third Avenue Line, Sixth Avenue Line, and Ninth Avenue Line. History 19 ...
, and other new public transport expanded the commuter area of New York, allowing development of
suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...
s for commuters of more modest means in
Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper We ...
and other distant areas. Plans were made for subways to still more remote
exurb An exurb (or alternately: exurban area) is an area outside the typically denser inner suburbs, suburban area, at the edge of a metropolitan area, which has some economic and commuting connection to the metro area, low housing-density, and rela ...
s such as
Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
and the
West Bronx The West Bronx is a region in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The region lies west of the Bronx River and roughly corresponds to the western half of the borough. The West Bronx is more densely populated than the East Bronx, and is clos ...
. In the late 19th century, the island's schist bedrock encouraged the
early skyscrapers The earliest stage of skyscraper design encompasses buildings built between 1884 and 1945, predominantly in the American cities of New York City, New York and Chicago. Cities in the United States were traditionally made up of low-rise buildings, ...
whose successors characterize its skyline today. The
Great Blizzard of 1888 The Great Blizzard of 1888, also known as the Great Blizzard of '88 or the Great White Hurricane (March 11–14, 1888), was one of the most severe recorded blizzards in American history. The storm paralyzed the East Coast from Chesapeake Bay ...
exposed the vulnerability of the urban infrastructure connecting those buildings, encouraging the
undergrounding An underground power line provides electrical power with underground cables. Compared to overhead power lines, underground lines have lower risk of starting a wildfire and reduce the risk of the electrical supply being interrupted by outages ...
of electric and telephone lines, and plans were made for a subway line.


Consolidation

In 1855, the
City of Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
annexed
Williamsburg Williamsburg may refer to: Places *Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia *Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City *Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California *Williams ...
and
Bushwick Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, to the northeast; Williamsburg to the northwest; the cemeteries of Highland Park to the southe ...
, forming the third most-populous city in America. In 1870,
Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a neighborhood within the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; Sunnyside to the east; and Newtown Creek, which separates Queens from Greenpoint, Brook ...
was formed in
Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
. In 1874, New York City annexed the
West Bronx The West Bronx is a region in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The region lies west of the Bronx River and roughly corresponds to the western half of the borough. The West Bronx is more densely populated than the East Bronx, and is clos ...
, west of the
Bronx River The Bronx River (), is a river that is approximately long, and flows through southeastern New York (state), New York in the United States and drains an area of . It is named after colonial settler Jonas Bronck. It originally rose in what is no ...
. The
Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a cable-stayed suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River. It w ...
, completed in 1883, epitomized the heroic confidence of a generation and drew the two cities of Brooklyn and New York inexorably together. As Brooklyn annexed the remainder of Kings County in the decade from 1886 to 1896, the issue of consolidation grew more pressing. The modern
city of Greater New York The City of Greater New York was the Merger (politics), consolidation of the New York City, City of New York with Brooklyn, western Queens County, and Staten Island, which took effect on January 1, 1898. New York had already annexed the Bronx ...
— the five boroughs — was created in 1898, with the consolidation of the cities of New York (then
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
and the Bronx) and Brooklyn with the largely rural areas of Queens and
Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...
.


See also

* Timeline of New York City, 1850s-1890s * New York City Police Riot of 1857 *
1886 New York City mayoral election Events January * January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885. * January 5– 9 – Robert Louis Stevenson's novella '' Strange Case o ...


References


Further reading

* Jackson, Kenneth D. ''Encyclopedia of New York City'' (2nd ed. 2010); a massive compendium of authoritative short articles
online and can be downloaded
* Anbinder, Tyler. "From Famine to Five Points: Lord Lansdowne's Irish Tenants Encounter North America's Most Notorious Slum." ''American Historical Review'' 107.2 (2002): 351–387
in JSTOR
* Anbinder, Tyler. ''Five Points: the 19th-century New York City neighborhood that invented tap dance, stole elections, and became the world's most notorious slum'' (Simon and Schuster, 2001). * Beckert, Sven. ''The Monied Metropolis: New York City and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie, 1850–1896'' (2001) * Broxmeyer, Jeffrey D. ''Electoral Capitalism: The Party System in New York's Gilded Age'' . (U of Pennsylvania Press, 2020) covers city and state. * Burns, Ric, and James Sanders. ''New York: An Illustrated History'' (2003), large-scale book version of Burns PBS documentary, New York: A Documentary Film an eight part, 17½ hour documentary film directed by
Ric Burns Ric Burns (Eric Burns, born 1955) is an American documentary filmmaker and writer. He has written, directed and produced historical documentaries since the 1990s, beginning with his collaboration on the celebrated PBS series '' The Civil War'' (1 ...
for
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
. It originally aired in 1999 with additional episodes airing in 2001 and 2003. * Burrows, Edwin G., and Mike Wallace. ''Gotham: a history of New York City to 1898'' (Oxford University Press, 1998), The standard scholarly survey; 1390 page
onlibe review
* Bernstein, Iver. ''The New York City Draft Riots: Their Significance for American Society and Politics in the Age of the Civil War'' (1990) * Callow, Alexander B. ''The Tweed Ring'' (1966). * Chernow, Ron. ''The house of Morgan: an American banking dynasty and the rise of modern finance'' (2001) * Chernow, Ron. ''Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.''(2007) * Ernst, Robert. ''Immigrant Life in New York City, 1825-1863'' (Syracuse University Press, 1994) * Fitzgerald, Maureen. ''Habits of Compassion: Irish Catholic Nuns and the Origins of New York's Welfare System, 1830-1920'' (University of Illinois Press, 2006) * Hershkowitz, Leo. ''Tweed's New York: Another Look''. (New York: Anchor Press, 1977); scholarly study that argues Tweed was mostly innocent
online review
* Homberger, Eric. ''Mrs. Astor's New York: Money and Social Power in a Gilded Age'' (Yale University Press, 2004) * Homberger, Eric. ''The historical atlas of New York City: A visual celebration of 400 years of New York City's history'' (Macmillan, 2005) * Laster, Margaret R., and Chelsea Bruner, eds. ''New York: Art and Cultural Capital of the Gilded Age'' (2018) * Livingston, E. H. ''President Lincoln's Third Largest City: Brooklyn and The Civil War'' (1994) * McKay, Ernest A. ''The Civil War and New York City'' (Syracuse University Press, 1990) * Quigley, David. '' Second Founding: New York City, Reconstruction, and the Making of American Democracy'' (Hill and Wang, 2004
excerpt
* Scherzer. Kenneth A. ''The unbounded community: Neighborhood life and social structure in New York City, 1830-1875'' (Duke University Press, 1992) * * Spann, Edward K. ''Gotham at War: New York City, 1860-1865'' (2002) * *


Primary sources

* Gellman, David N. and David Quigley, eds. ''Jim Crow New York: A Documentary History of Race and Citizenship, 1777-1877'' (2003) * Jackson, Kenneth T. and David S. Dunbar, eds. ''Empire City: New York Through the Centuries'' (2005), 1015 pages of excerpt
excerpt
* Still, Bayrd, ed. ''Mirror for Gotham: New York as Seen by Contemporaries from Dutch Days to the Present'' (New York University Press, 1956
online edition
* Stokes, I.N. Phelps. ''The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909 compiled from original sources and illustrated by photo-intaglio reproductions of important maps plans views and documents in public and private collections '' (6 vols., 1915–28). A highly detailed, heavily illustrated chronology of Manhattan and New York City. see
The Iconography of Manhattan Island ''The Iconography of Manhattan Island'' is a six volume study of the history of New York City by Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, published between 1915 and 1928 by R. H. Dodd in New York. The work comprehensively records and documents key events of ...
All volumes are on line free at: *
I.N. Phelps Stokes; The Iconography of Manhattan Island Vol 1. 1915
v. 1. The period of discovery (1524-1609); the Dutch period (1609-1664). The English period (1664-1763). The Revolutionary period (1763-1783). Period of adjustment and reconstruction; New York as the state and federal capital (1783-1811) *
I.N. Phelps Stokes; The Iconography of Manhattan Island Vol 2. 1916
v. 2. Cartography: an essay on the development of knowledge regarding the geography of the east coast of North America; Manhattan Island and its environs on early maps and charts / by F.C. Wieder and I.N. Phelps Stokes. The Manatus maps. The Castello plan. The Dutch grants. Early New York newspapers (1725-1811). Plan of Manhattan Island in 1908 *
I.N. Phelps Stokes; The Iconography of Manhattan Island Vol 3. 1918
v. 3. The War of 1812 (1812-1815). Period of invention, prosperity, and progress (1815-1841). Period of industrial and educational development (1842-1860). The Civil War (1861-1865); period of political and social development (1865-1876). The modern city and island (1876-1909) *
I.N. Phelps Stokes; The Iconography of Manhattan Island Vol 4. 1922
v. 4. The period of discovery (565-1626); the Dutch period (1626-1664). The English period (1664-1763). The Revolutionary period, part I (1763-1776) *
I.N. Phelps Stokes; The Iconography of Manhattan Island Vol 5. 1926
v. 5. The Revolutionary period, part II (1776-1783). Period of adjustment and reconstruction New York as the state and federal capital (1783-1811). The War of 1812 (1812-1815); period of invention, prosperity, and progress (1815-1841). Period of industrial and educational development (1842-1860). The Civil War (1861-1865); Period of political and social development (1865-1876). The modern city and island (1876-1909) *
I.N. Phelps Stokes; The Iconography of Manhattan Island Vol 6. 1928
v. 6. Chronology: addenda. Original grants and farms. Bibliography. Index.


Older books

* * * * * * * * *


Chronology

{{DEFAULTSORT:History of New York City (1855-1897) *05