A comprehensive timeline of New York City covering the last 400 years.
Created by nyctimeline on Oct 5, 2008
Last updated: 08/15/11 at 12:54 PM
A US Airways airplane crashed into the Hudson River on January 15, 2008 after geese apparently entered the engines causing them to malfunction just minutes after takeoff. Incredibly, every single passenger and crew member was rescued from the frigid waters thanks to an absolutely extraordinary and perfectly executed emergency landing procedure by the pilots. Officials believe a "double-bird strike" caused the plane to go down, meaning two birds entered the engine, completely incapacitating them. In this case, it's believed geese were the cause after a large flock apparently flew in front of the plane at the time of the strike. It went down around 46th Street in Manhattan near the USS Intrepid, though the fuselage eventually came to a rest around 23rd Street. Passengers could be seen standing on the wing of the plane and entering rescue boats and a rescue ferry almost immediately after it crashed. Hundreds of firefighters, police officers, and Port Authority officers responded to the scene. Two crews of divers were also sent to the scene, and the most urgent part of the rescue operation was over by 4:20 p.m. Temperatures at the time of the crash in the city were just about 20 degrees, with the water temperature about 40 degrees. video courtesy of Guardian.co.uk By: Steve Fink, WCBSTV.com
The last game played at Shea Stadium was a loss to the Florida Marlins on September 28, 2008. There was a "Shea Goodbye" tribute after the game in which many players from the Mets glory years appeared so that fans could pay their last respects to the players and the stadium the Mets called home for 45 years. The ceremony ended with Tom Seaver throwing one final pitch to Mike Piazza followed by a display of orange and blue fireworks.
With Andy Pettitte as the starting pitcher, the Yankees played their final game at Yankee Stadium on September 21, 2008 against the Baltimore Orioles, recording the final out at 11.43pm EDT with a 7–3 Yankee victory. Among many lasts to be recorded, a long-time standing question was answered. It was first wondered by Babe Ruth after he hit the first home run in Yankee Stadium on its opening day of April 18, 1923: “ I was glad to have hit the first home run in this park. God only knows who will hit the last. ” That person turned out to be Jose Molina, as he hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning. Other lasts were Jason Giambi recording the last hit in Yankee Stadium, driving in Brett Gardner, who scored the last run in Yankee Stadium. Mariano Rivera made the final pitch in the stadium with Cody Ransom recording the final out at first base. In the eighth inning, Derek Jeter became the final Yankee to bat in Yankee Stadium. He ended 0–5 for the night after being hit by a pitch on his hand in the previous day's game. Public tours of Yankee Stadium, which had resumed in early October, continued until November 23, 2008. November 9, 2008 was the last day the public tours included Monument Park and the retired number area; on November 12, 2008 workmen began removing the memorials from Monument Park, beginning with the memorial for Babe Ruth, which were to be moved to the new Yankee Stadium across the street.
A final design for the tower was formally unveiled on June 28, 2006. To satisfy security issues raised by the New York City Police Department a 187-foot (57 m) concrete base was added in April of that year. The final design included plans to clad the base in glass prisms to address criticism that the base looked like a "concrete bunker." Contrasting with Libeskind's plan, the final design tapers the corners of the base outward as they rise. Its designers stated that the tower will be a "monolithic glass structure reflecting the sky and topped by a sculpted antenna." Commenting on a completion date, Larry Silverstein stated "By 2012 we should have a completely rebuilt World Trade Center more magnificent, more spectacular than it ever was." On April 26, 2006, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved a conceptual framework that enabled foundation construction to begin while a formal agreement was drafted on the following day, the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Empire State Building. Construction began with a formal ceremony that took place when the construction team arrived. It is projected that steel for the building will be visible above ground in 2008, with a topping out in 2011. The building is projected to be ready for occupancy at some point in 2012. The Freedom Tower had been expected to reach rooftop level by the end of 2010 with topping out expected by 2011. However in an 2 October 2008 follow-up report by Ward, the estimated completion of the tower was pushed back to some time between the second and fourth quarter of 2013 with a total budget of $3.1 billion and the use of 46,000 tons of steel
The September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 Islamist terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the building. Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying at least two nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C. There are no survivors from any of the flights.
Silicon Alley is a nickname for an area with a concentration of Internet and new media companies in Manhattan, New York City. Originally, the term referred to the cluster of such companies extending from the Flatiron District down to SoHo and TriBeCa, but as the location of these companies spread out, it became a general term referring to the dot com industry in New York City as a whole. The term was in most common use in the late 1990s, when companies such as Agency.com, Razorfish, Medscape, and The Mining Company (now About.com), became success stories with successful private buyouts or IPOs. The first publication to cover Silicon Alley was @NY, an online newsletter founded in the summer of 1995 by Tom Watson and Jason Chervokas. The first magazine to focus on the venture capital opportunities in Silicon Alley, AlleyCat News co founded by Anna Copeland Wheatley and Janet Stites, was launched in the fall of 1996. Courtney Pulitzer branched off from her @The Scene column with @NY and created Courtney Pulitzer's Cyber Scene and her popular networking events Cocktails with Courtney. Silicon Alley Reporter started publishing in October 1996. It was founded by Jason Calacanis and was in business from 1996-2001. @NY, print magazines, and the attending media coverage by the larger New York press helped to popularize both the name, and the of New York City as a dot-com center.
The events leading up to the blackout began at 8:37 p.m. EDT on July 13 with a lightning strike at Buchanan South, a substation on the Hudson River, tripping two circuit breakers in Westchester County. The Buchanan South substation converted the 345,000 volts of electricity from Indian Point to lower voltage for commercial use. A loose locking nut combined with a tardy upgrade cycle ensured that the breaker was not able to reclose and allow power to flow again. It became a domino effect with every strike of lightening all happening within one hour. Because of the power failure, LaGuardia and Kennedy airports were closed down for about eight hours, automobile tunnels were closed because of lack of ventilation, and 4,000 people had to be evacuated from the subway system. Con Ed called the shutdown an "act of God," enraging Mayor Abraham Beame, who charged that the utility was guilty of "gross negligence." In many neighborhoods, veterans of the 1965 blackout headed to the streets at the first sign of darkness. As a result of the 1977 blackout, the operating entities in New York fully investigated the blackout, its related causes, and the operator actions. They implemented significant changes, which are still in effect today, to guard against a similar occurrence.
Philippe Petit (born August 13, 1949) is a French high wire artist who gained fame for his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers in New York City on August 7, 1974. He used a 450-pound cable to do so and also a custom-made 26-foot (7.9 m) long, 55-pound balancing pole. Tight-rope walker, unicyclist, magician and pantomime artist, Philippe Petit was also one of the earliest modern day street jugglers in Paris in 1968. He juggled and worked on a slack rope with regularity in Washington Square Park in New York City in the early 1970s. Petit is one of the Artists-in-Residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Other famous structures he has used for tightrope walks include Notre Dame de Paris, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Louisiana Superdome, the Hennepin County Government Center, and between the Palais de Chaillot and the Eiffel Tower. Petit currently lives in Woodstock, New York. A documentary film named Man on Wire by UK director James Marsh dealing with Petit's WTC performance won both the World Cinema Jury and Audience awards at the Sundance Filmfestival 2008.
Philippe Petit (born August 13, 1949) is a French high wire artist who gained fame for his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers in New York City on August 7, 1974. On August 7, 1974, shortly after 7:15 a.m., Petit stepped off the South Tower and onto his 3/4" 6×19 IWRC steel cable. The 25-year-old Petit made eight crossings between the mostly-finished towers, a quarter mile above the sidewalks of Manhattan, in an event that lasted about 45 minutes. During that time, in addition to walking, he sat on the wire, gave knee salute and, while lying on the wire, dialogued with a gull circling above his head. Port Authority Police Department Sgt. Charles Daniels, who was dispatched to the roof to bring Petit down, later reported his experience: I observed the tightrope 'dancer'—because you couldn't call him a 'walker'—approximately halfway between the two towers. And upon seeing us he started to smile and laugh and he started going into a dancing routine on the high wire....And when he got to the building we asked him to get off the high wire but instead he turned around and ran back out into the middle....He was bouncing up and down. His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again....Unbelievable really....[E]verybody was spellbound in the watching of it. Petit was warned by his friend on the South tower that a police helicopter would come to pick him off the wire. A rain had begun to fall and Petit decided he had tempted the gods long enough, so he decided to give himself up to the police waiting for him on the South tower. He was arrested once he stepped off the wire. The police – provoked by his taunting behaviour while on the wire – handcuffed him behind his back and roughly pushed him down a flight of stairs. This he later described as the most dangerous part of the stunt. His audacious high wire performance made headlines around the world. When asked why he did the stunt, Petit would say "When I see three oranges, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk."
During the post-World War II period, the United States thrived economically, with increasing international trade. At the time, economic growth in New York City was concentrated in Midtown Manhattan, with Lower Manhattan left out. To help stimulate urban renewal, David Rockefeller, with support from his brother, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, suggested that the Port Authority should build a "world trade center" in Lower Manhattan. The complex came to consist of seven buildings, but its most notable features were the main twin towers. Each of the WTC towers had 110 stories.
Originally to be called "Flushing Meadow Park Municipal Stadium" – the name of the public park on which it was built – but a movement was launched to name it in honor of William A. Shea, the man who brought National League baseball back to New York. Earlier, New York City official Robert Moses tried to interest Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley in this site as the location for a new Dodger stadium, but O'Malley refused, unable to agree on ownership and lease terms. Preferring to pay construction costs himself in order to own the stadium outright, O'Malley wished to exert total control of its revenue from parking, concessions, and other events. The City, by contrast, wanted to build the stadium, rent it, and retain these ancillary revenue rights as a means of paying off its construction bonds. Additionally, O'Malley wanted to build his new stadium in Brooklyn, while Moses insisted on Flushing Meadows. When Los Angeles offered O'Malley what the City of New York wouldn't—complete and absolute ownership of the facility—he left for southern California in a preemptive bid to install the Dodgers there before a new or existing major league franchise could beat him to it. After 29 months and $28.5 million, Shea Stadium opened on April 17, 1964, with the Mets losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates, led by Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski, 4-3 before a crowd of 50,312. Shea was a circular stadium, with the grandstand forming a perfect circle around the field and ending a short distance beyond the foul lines. The remainder of the perimeter was mostly empty space beyond the outfield fences. This space was occupied by the bullpens, scoreboards, and a section of bleachers beyond the left field fence. The stadium boasted 54 restrooms, 21 escalators and seats for 57,343. It was big, airy, sparkling, with a massive 86' x 175' scoreboard. Also, rather than the standard light towers, Shea had lamps along its upper reaches, like a convoy of semis with their brights on, which gave the field that unique high-wattage glow. Praised for its convenience, even its "elegance," Shea was actually deemed a showplace. Shea was originally designed to convert from a baseball field into a rectangle field suitable for football using two motor-operated stands that allow the field level seats to rotate on underground railroad tracks. After the New York Jets football team moved to Giants Stadium in New Jersey in 1984, the Mets took over operation of the stadium and retrofitted it for exclusive baseball use. As part of the refitting, Shea Stadium's exterior was painted blue, and neon signs of baseball player silhouettes were added to the windscreens between 1986 and 1988.
At 9:40 a.m. on Saturday, July 28, 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomber, piloted in thick fog by Lieutenant Colonel William F. Smith, Jr., crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building, between the 79th and 80th floors, where the offices of the National Catholic Welfare Council were located. One engine shot through the side opposite the impact and fell on a nearby building; the other plummeted down an elevator shaft. The resulting fire was extinguished in 40 minutes. Fourteen people were killed in the incident. Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver survived a plunge of 75 stories inside an elevator, which still stands as the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall recorded.
The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achieving world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries and to provide a platform for dialogue. The UN was founded as a successor to the League of Nations, which was widely considered to have been ineffective in its role as an international governing body, as it had been unable to prevent World War II. The term "United Nations" was first used by Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt,[2] in the 1942 Declaration by United Nations, which united the Allied countries of WWII under the Atlantic Charter, and soon became a term widely used to refer to them. Declarations signed at wartime Allied conferences in 1943 espoused the of the UN, and in 1944, representatives of the major Allied powers met to elaborate on the plans at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference. Those and later talks outlined the organization's proposed purposes, membership, organs, and in regards to peace, security, and cooperation.
http://www.un.org/
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres between 48th and 51st streets in New York City. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue. Rockefeller Center was named after John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who leased the space from Columbia University in 1928 and developed it from 1930. He took on the enormous project as the sole financier, on a 24-year lease (with the option for three 21-year renewals for a total of 87 years) for the site from Columbia; negotiating a line of credit with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and covering ongoing expenses through the sale of oil company. It was the largest private building project ever undertaken in modern times. Construction of the 14 buildings in the Art Deco began on May 17, 1930 and was completed on November 1, 1939 when he drove in the final (silver) rivet into 10 Rockefeller Plaza.
The GE Building is an Art Deco skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of the Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan. Known as the RCA Building until 1988, it is famous for housing the headquarters of the television network NBC. At 850 feet (259 m) tall, the 70-story building is the 9th tallest building in New York City and the 32nd tallest in the United States. The building is sometimes referred to as 30 Rock, a reference to its address at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The GE Building is one of the most famous and recognized skyscrapers in New York. Some of the building's nicknames include The Slab and 30 Rock. The latter is also the title of the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, which follows the cast and crew of a fictional SNL-esque television show filmed inside the building.
The names "Radio City" and "Radio City Music Hall" derive from one of the complex's first tenants, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Radio City Music Hall was a project of Rockefeller; Samuel Roxy Rothafel, who previously opened the Roxy Theatre in 1927; and RCA chairman David Sarnoff. RCA had developed numerous studios for NBC at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, just to the south of the Music Hall, and the radio-TV complex that lent the Music Hall its name is still known as the NBC Radio City Studios.
Excavation of the site began on January 22, 1930, and construction on the building itself started symbolically on March 17—St.Patrick's Day —per Al Smith's influence as Empire State, Inc. president. The project involved 3,400 workers, mostly immigrants from Europe, along with hundreds of Mohawk iron workers, many from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal. According to official accounts, five workers died during the construction. Governor Smith's grandchildren cut the ribbon on May 1, 1931
As construction was completed on May 28, 1930, the added height of the spire allowed the Chrysler Building to surpass 40 Wall Street as the tallest building in the world and the Eiffel Tower as the tallest structure. It was the first man-made structure to stand taller than 1,000 feet (305 m).
Three phrases—Black Thursday, Black Monday, and Black Tuesday—are used to describe this collapse of stock values. All three are appropriate, for the crash was not a one-day affair. The initial crash occurred on Black Thursday (October 24, 1929), but it was the catastrophic downturn of Black Monday and Tuesday (October 28 and 29, 1929) that precipitated widespread panic and the onset of unprecedented and long-lasting consequences for the United States. The collapse continued for a month.
The group was founded in St. Louis, Missouri by Russell Markert in 1925, and originally performed as the "Missouri Rockets". Markert had been inspired by the John Tiller Girls in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1922, and was convinced that "If I ever got a chance to get a group of American girls who would be taller and have longer legs and could do really complicated tap routines and eye-high kicks... they'd knock your socks off!" The group was brought to New York City by Samuel Roxy Rothafel to perform at his Roxy Theatre and renamed the "Roxyettes." When Rothafell left the Roxy Theatre to open Radio City Music Hall, the dance troupe followed and later became known as the Rockettes. The group performed as part of opening night at Radio City Music Hall in 1932. In 1936, the troupe won the grand prize at the "Paris Exposition de Dance." The Rockettes are a well-known precision dance company performing out of the Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, New York City. During the Christmas season, the Rockettes have performed five shows a day, seven days a week, for 75 years. Perhaps their best-known routine is an eye-high leg kick in perfect unison in a chorus line, which they include at the end of every performance. To become a Rockette, a dancer must be at least 18 years old, between 5 feet 6 inches (1.71 metres) and 5 feet 10.5 inches (1.82 metres) tall, and proficient in tap, jazz, ballet, and modern dance. The Rockettes have long been represented by the American Guild of Variety Artists, and won a month-long strike in 1967. The Rockettes did not allow African-Americans into the dance line until 1987. The justification for the policy against hiring African-Americans was that they would distract from the consistent look of the dance group.
The Harlem Renaissance had a profound impact not only on African-American culture but also on the cultures of the African diaspora as a whole. Afro-Caribbean artists and intellectuals from the British West Indies were part of the movement. Moreover, many French-speaking black writers from African and Caribbean colonies who lived in Paris were also influenced by the Harlem Renaissance. Across the cultural spectrum (literature, drama, music, visual art, dance) and also in the realm of social thought (sociology, historiography, philosophy), artists and intellectuals found new ways to explore the historical experiences of black America and the contemporary experiences of black life in the urban North.
The original Yankee Stadium is a stadium located in The Bronx in New York City, New York. It served as the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Yankees from 1923 through 2008. Located at East 161st Street and River Avenue, the stadium has a capacity of 57,545 and hosted 6,581 Yankees regular season home games during its 85-year history. It was also the former home of the New York Giants football team, as well as the host of twenty of boxing's most famous fights and three Papal masses. The stadium's nickname, "The House That Ruth Built" comes from the iconic Babe Ruth, the baseball superstar whose prime years coincided with the beginning of the Yankees' winning history. The first game at the stadium was held on April 18, 1923, with the Yankees beating the Boston Red Sox 4-1. The final game at the stadium was held on September 21, 2008, with the Yankees beating the Baltimore Orioles 7-3.
Time magazine was launched in midtown by two Yale graduates named Henry Luce and Britton Hadden. It was the first weekly magazine of it's time. Hadden and Luce began their publishing careers at Yale Daily News. T-I-M-E stands for "The International Magazine of Events." For many decades the magazine's cover has always been a single person. The first issue featured Joseph G. Cannon on the cover. Cannon was the retired "Speaker of the US House of Representatives."
In a Greenwhich Village basement, DeWitt and Lila Acheson Wallace founded Reader's Digest. It is considered to be one of the best-selling consumer magazines in the US, despite declining circulation over the years.
At noon, a horse-drawn wagon passed by lunchtime crowds on Wall Street in New York City. The wagon then stopped across the street from the headquarters of the J.P. Morgan Inc. bank at 23 Wall Street, on the Financial District's busiest corner. Inside, 100 pounds (45 kg) of dynamite with 500 pounds (230 kg) of heavy, cast-iron sash weights exploded in a timer-set detonation, sending the slugs tearing through the air. The horse and wagon were vaporized. The bomb claimed mostly messengers, stenographers, clerks and brokers as its victims. It caused over $2 million in property damage and wrecked most of the interior spaces of the Morgan building. Overall 38 people were killed and over a hundreds more were injured. It wasn't immediately obvious that the explosion was an act of terrorism; by 3:30pm, the board of governors of the New York Stock Exchange met and decided to open for business the next day. Crews cleaned up the area overnight, making the next-day opening possible but also removing physical evidence that might have been used in determining the culprit. The Wall Street attack was unusual in that it was detonated in a public place, evidently targeting financial workers and institutions. Officials blamed anarchist and communist elements, fueling the ongoing Palmer Raids. The Washington Post went so far as to call the bombing an "act of war." The bombing caused renewed investigation into the activities and movements of foreign radicals, stimulating the development of the U.S. Justice Department's General Intelligence Division of the Bureau of Investigation (forerunner of the FBI). The case was investigated for over three years; in the end, the perpetrators were not by the Bureau of Investigation. The FBI, decades later, said "the best evidence and analysis since that fateful day of September 16, 1920, suggests that the Bureau's initial thought was correct—that a small group of Italian Anarchists were to blame. But the mystery remains.
New York City became the most populous city in the world in 1925, overtaking London, which had reigned for a century.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York maintains a vault that lies 86 feet (26 m) below sea level, resting on Manhattan bedrock. By 1927, the vault contained ten percent of the world's official gold reserves. Currently, it is reputedly the largest gold repository in the world (though this cannot be confirmed as Swiss Banks do not report their gold stocks) and holds approximately 5,000 metric tons of gold bullion ($160 billion as of March, 2008), more than Fort Knox. The gold is owned by many foreign nations, central banks and international organizations. When the foreign governments sell to each other, the bars are simply moved from one government's cages to another. The Federal Reserve Bank does not own the gold but serves as guardian of the precious metal, which it protects at no charge as a gesture of good will to other nations.
The Woolworth Building, at 57 stories, is one of the oldest—and one of the most famous—skyscrapers in New York City. It was dubbed the Cathedral of Commerce for its soaring vertically and Gothic - inspired architecture. More than ninety years after its construction, it is still one of the fifty tallest buildings in the United States as well as one of the twenty tallest buildings in New York City. The construction cost was $13,500,000 and Woolworth paid in cash. On completion, the Woolworth building overtook the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower as the world's tallest building; it opened on April 24, 1913. The building is a National Historic Landmark, having been listed in 1966.
Grand Central Terminal (GCT, often popularly called Grand Central Station or simply Grand Central) is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Built by and named for the New York Central Railroad in the heyday of American long-distance passenger trains, it is the largest train station in the world by number of platforms. Although the terminal has been properly called "Grand Central Terminal" since 1913, many people continue to refer to it as "Grand Central Station". Technically, "Grand Central Station" is the name of the nearby post office, as well as the name of a previous rail station on the site, and is also used to refer to a New York City subway station at the same location.
Designed by McKim, Mead and White, it was larger than the ancient Roman baths of Caracalla on which it had been modeled. The best-known and first to bear the name is New York City's Penn Station. The station opened September 8, 1910 for Long Island Rail Road trains via the new tunnel under the East River. Pennsylvania Railroad trains began using it November 27, supplementing and eventually replacing the old New York City-area terminal across the Hudson River at Exchange Place in Jersey City. The name was adopted by the PRR on March 1, 1909. Penn Station covered nearly 8 acres, and sat atop an even larger network of underground rail tracks and platforms. The original Pennsylvania Station was an outstanding masterpiece of the Beaux-Arts style and one of the architectural jewels of New York City. The station's air rights were optioned in the 50's. The option was executed soon after. The option called for the demolition of the head-house and train shed, to be replaced by an office complex and a new sports complex. The tracks of the station, which were located well below street level, would remain untouched. Demolition began in October 1963. The station is located in the underground levels of Pennsylvania Plaza, an urban complex at 8th Avenue and 31st Street in Midtown Manhattan, and is owned by Amtrak. Serving 600,000 passengers a day (compared to 140,000 across town at Grand Central Terminal) at a rate of up to a thousand every 90 seconds, it is the busiest passenger transportation facility in the United States and by far the busiest train station in North America.
The Plaza Hotel in New York City is a landmark 19-story luxury hotel with a height of 250 feet (76 m) and length of 400 feet (120 m) that occupies the west side of Grand Army Plaza, from which it derives its name, and extends along Central Park South in Manhattan. Fifth Avenue extends along the east side of Grand Army Plaza. The hotel's main entrance faces the southern portion of Grand Army Plaza; commemorating the Union Army in the Civil War. Grand Army Plaza is in two sections, bisected by Central Park South.
The New Year’s Eve Ball first descended from a flagpole at One Times Square, constructed with iron and wood materials with 100 25-watt bulbs weighing 700 pounds (320 kg) and measuring 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter. At first, it dropped 1 second after midnight. Each year on New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square in Manhattan, New York City, a time ball made of crystal and electric lights is raised to the top of a pole on the One Times Square building and then lowered to mark the coming of the New Year. The Ball descends 77 feet (23 meters) over the course of a minute, coming to rest at the bottom of its pole at 12:00am. Toshiba's Times Square billboard directly below the Ball counts down to midnight as well. Every year up to one million people gather in Times Square to watch the Ball drop, and an estimated 1 billion watch video of the event, 100 million of them in the United States.
The first underground line of the subway opened on October 27, 1904, almost 35 years after the opening of the first elevated line in New York City, which became the IRT Ninth Avenue Line. The oldest structure still in use today opened in 1885 as part of the Lexington Avenue Line, and is now part of the BMT Jamaica Line in Brooklyn. The oldest right-of-way, that of the BMT West End Line, was in use in 1863 as a steam railroad called the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Rail Road. The Staten Island Railway, which opened in 1860, currently utilizes R44 subway cars, but it has no links to the rest of the system and is not usually considered part of the subway proper.
Most New Yorkers don't look nor do they expect to find art in various subway stations. But at the time of the IRT installation, in 1904, the terra cotta art work on the walls served a specific purpose. At the time when the Broadway line began operating, there was a flood of tens of thousands of immigrants from Eastern Europe and many if not most, were illiterate. Designers of the subway developed the tile patterned art works to uniquely distinguish each station so that passengers would recognize where to get off.
The Flatiron Building, which when constructed was called the Fuller Building, was one of the tallest buildings in New York City upon its completion in 1902 and is considered one of the first skyscrapers. The building, at 175 Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, sits on a triangular island block at 23rd Street, Fifth Avenue, and Broadway, anchoring the south (downtown) end of Madison Square. The building, which took its name from the shape forced on it by the triangular lot it was built on[2] – the Flatiron block, so called because it was shaped like a clothes iron – was officially named the Fuller Building after George A. Fuller, founder of the company that financed its construction two years after his death.[3] Locals took an immediate interest in the building, placing bets on how far the debris would spread when the wind knocked it down. Today, the Flatiron Building is frequently seen on television commercials and documentaries as an easily recognizable symbol of the city.
The Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Monument commemorates Union Army soldiers and sailors who served in the American Civil War. It is located at 89th street and Riverside Drive in Riverside Park in the Upper West Side of New York City. It was dedicated on Memorial Day, 1902. The white marble monument was designed after a public competition by architects Charles and Arthur Stoughton. The ornamental features were carved by Paul E. Duboy (1857-1907) who also was the architect of The Ansonia. The monument takes the form of a peripteral Corinthian temple with a high cylindrical rusticated cella, that carries a low conical roof like a lid., ringed by twelve Corinthian columns. Plinths at the entrance to the raised terrace are incised with the names of the New York volunteer regiments and the battles in which they served, as well as Union generals.
The Astor Library was created by John Jacob Astor, an immigrant who became the wealthiest man in America. When he died in 1848, he left $400,000 in his will for the establishment of a library in New York City. The Astor Library opened the following year, 1849. Although it was not a circulating library, it was a major reference library for research. An early benefactor of the New York Public Library was New York governor and presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden, who left the bulk of his fortune -- about $2.4 million -- to "establish and maintain a free library and reading room in the city of New York." At the time of Tilden's death in 1886, New York already had two important libraries: the Astor Library, and the Lenox Library. By 1892, both the Astor and Lenox libraries were experiencing financial difficulties. Almost as if fate would have it, John Bigelow, a New York attorney, and Tilden trustee, formulated a plan to combine the resources of the financially-strapped Astor and Lenox libraries with the Tilden bequest to form "The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations". Bigelow's plan, signed and agreed upon on May 23, 1895, was hailed as an example of private philanthropy for the public good. he newly established library consolidated with The New York Free Circulating Library in February, 1901, and the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie donated $5.2 million to construct branch libraries, with the requirement that they be maintained by the City of New York. Later in 1901 the New York Public Library signed a contract with the City of New York to operate 39 branch libraries in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island.
In 1898, the modern City of New York was formed with the consolidation of Brooklyn (until then an independent city), Manhattan and outlying areas. Manhattan and the Bronx, though still one county, were established as two separate boroughs and joined together with three other boroughs created from parts of adjacent counties to form the new municipal government originally called "Greater New York".
Just before the former president, Ulysses S. Grant died, he had spent the last years of his life in New York and indicated his desire to be buried there. In 1897 a vast neoclassical structure - the largest mausoleum in America. The interior of the tomb was modeled on the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte in Paris. It was erected in Morningside Heights along Riverside Drive overlooking the Hudson. It swiftly became a popular destination are for carriages making leisurely trips along Riverside Drive.
In 1890 William Waldorf Astor decided to raze the family mansion on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street and commissioned Henry J. Hardenbergh to build the largest, most luxurious hotel in the world. The 13 story Waldorf Hotel, with 450 rooms, opened in 1893 and was instantly the talk of the town. Its success inspired John Jacob Astor, William’s cousin, who owned the other half of the block, to demolish his house and build an adjacent connected hotel. The Astoria, also designed by Hardenbergh, was combined with the Waldorf in 1897 to form the Waldorf-Astoria. The hotel was not just for travelers—in its 40 public rooms the fashionable society of New York gathered, dined, and entertained. The staff numbered nearly as many as the 1,500 guests that registered daily in its 1,300 rooms. Hardenbergh built many of New York’s grand hotels and apartment buildings of that era. The Waldorf-Astoria was influential in advancing the status of women, who were admitted singly without escorts. The corridor connecting the two buildings became an enduring symbol of the combined Waldorf and Astoria hotels, represented by the quirky "=" the Waldorf=Astoria uses instead of a hyphen in its official logo. In 1929 the original Waldorf-Astoria was demolished to make way for the Empire State Building.
Located at the mouth of the Hudson River in New York Harbor, is the location of what was at one time the main entry facility for immigrants entering the United States. Made of brick, stone and steel the entire facility was comprised of 34 buildings in all including its own powerstation, a 125- bed hospital as well a police and fire department. By 1907 there more than eleven thousand men, women and children passing through Ellis Island in a single day. 1907 was the peak year for immigration at Ellis Island with 1,004,756 immigrants processed. The all-time daily high also occurred this year on April 17 which saw a total of 11,747 immigrants arrive. Those with visible health problems or diseases were sent home or held in the island's hospital facilities for long periods of time. Then they were asked 29 questions including name, occupation, and the amount of money they carried with them. Generally those immigrants who were approved spent from three to five hours at Ellis Island. However more than three thousand would-be immigrants died on Ellis Island while being held in the hospital facilities. Some unskilled workers and immigrants were rejected outright because they were considered "likely to become a public charge." About 2 percent were denied admission to the U.S. and sent back to their countries of origin for reasons such as chronic contagious disease, criminal background, or insanity. Ellis island was sometimes known as "The Island of Tears" or "Heartbreak Island" because of those 2% who were not admitted after the long transatlantic voyage.
www.nps.gov/elis
was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thompson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric. Morgan's process of taking over troubled businesses to reorganize them was known as "Morganization". Morgan reorganized business structures and management in order to return them to profitability. His reputation as a banker and financier also helped bring interest from investors to the businesses he took over. Morgan's house on Madison Avenue was the first electrically lit private residence in New York. Morgan was scheduled to travel on the maiden voyage of RMS Titanic, but canceled at the last minute. The Titanic was owned and operated by the White Star Line, and Morgan had his very own private suite and promenade deck on the ship.
Fund-raising for the pedestal, led by William M. Evarts, was going slowly, so Hungarian-born publisher Joseph Pulitzer (who established the Pulitzer Prize) opened up the editorial pages of his newspaper, The World, to support the fund raising effort in 1883. Pulitzer used his newspaper to criticize both the rich, who had failed to finance the pedestal construction, and the middle who were content to rely upon the wealthy to provide the funds. His campaign was an important contribution to the effort, but ultimately Senator Evarts and the American Committee he headed raised the majority of funds for the pedestal. The construction of the statue was completed in France in July 1884. The cornerstone of the pedestal, designed by American architect Richard Morris Hunt, was laid on August 5, 1884, but the construction had to be stopped by lack of funds in January 1885. It was resumed on May 11, 1885 after a renewed fund campaign by Joseph Pulitzer in March 1885. Thirty-eight of the forty-six courses of masonry were yet to be built. Used as a lighthouse, the original torch fatally disoriented birds The statue arrived in New York Harbor on June 17, 1885 on board the French frigate Isère. To prepare for transit, the Statue was reduced to 350 individual pieces and packed in 214 crates. (The right arm and the torch, which were completed earlier, had been exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, and thereafter at Madison Square in New York City.) Financing for the pedestal was completed on August 11, 1885 and construction was finished on April 22, 1886. When the last stone of the pedestal was swung into place the masons reached into their pockets and showered into the mortar a collection of silver coins. Built into the pedestal's massive masonry are two sets of four iron girders, connected by iron tie beams that are carried up to become part of Eiffel's framework for the statue itself. Thus Liberty is integral with her pedestal. The statue, which was stored for eleven months in crates waiting for its pedestal to be finished, was then re-assembled in four months. On October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty was unveiled by President Grover Cleveland in front of thousands of spectators. (Cleveland, as Governor of the State of New York, had earlier vetoed a bill by the New York legislature to contribute $50,000 to building of the pedestal.) The Statue of Liberty functioned as a lighthouse from 1886 to 1902. At that time the U.S. Lighthouse board was responsible for its operation. There was a lighthouse keeper and the electric light could be seen for 24 miles (39 km) at sea. As a lighthouse, it is the first to use electricity; there was also an electric plant on the island to generate power for the light.
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