Irving Simpson1 May 2011History 141American Urbanization & New York CityPower Point

Irving Simpson1 May 2011History 141American Urbanization & New York CityPower Point

New York Harbor • Remarkable natural harbor, easily one of the best natural harbors in the world

• New York Harbor is the estuarial terminus of the Hudson River

• The Hudson River Valley was formed through glacial action in the last great glacial period

• The Hudson River is tidal and navigable 134 miles inland past Albany to Troy, New York

• Discovery of New York Harbor in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano

• Encountered a canoe party of Lenape people while taking on fresh water at The Narrows between the Upper and Lower New York Bay

• Did not enter the Upper Bay (inner harbor)• Verrazano Narrows Bridge (completed

1964)spans between Brooklyn and Staten Island near the site of his discovery

• Discovery of the Hudson River in 1609• Henry Hudson entered the Upper Bay and

sailed upriver• He was an English explorer sailing for the

Dutch East India Company• Searching for the Northwest Passage• Claimed New York for the Netherlands

• Dutch establish permanent settlement in 1624• Fort Amsterdam established on the lower tip of

Manhattan in 1626• Settled Manhattan, Governors Island and

adjacent Brooklyn• Peter Stuyvesant, director general of the Dutch

colony, built a wharf on the Manhattan side of the East river

• British gained control of colony in 1664

New York: A Documentary: Episode 1Overviews of NY Harbor and environs

New York: City of Commerce• Became a thriving and growing slave port• Large number of slaveholders• Important slave market• Increased immigration, especially Irish and

German in mid-1700’s• Post-revolution New York

• Temporary political capital of the United States

• Permanent commercial capital• Founding of the New York Stock Exchange

on Wall Street in 1792• All of Manhattan is laid out with a city street

grid in 1811• An optimistic perception of future growth

and success• The Inception of Industrialization

• Alexander Hamilton's extraordinary early vision

• Saw past an agrarian future• Envisioned an economy based not

on plantations and slave labor, but on commerce, manufacturing, and hard work

• Founded Bank of New York• First Secretary of the Treasury• Helped New York become the

financial center that it is• Erie canal boosted the New York economy• New York was larger than all the other

American ports combined by 1841• Growing destination for the wealthy and

ambitious

New York: A Documentary: Episode 1

• New Amsterdam was founded on the mercantile principle of profit by the Dutch West India Company

• The sole concern of the original colony was to make money

• Dutch shipped pelts, lumber, and agricultural products from the Hudson River Valley to the colonies and Europe

• The port continued to grow in size and importance• English control began 1664

• Renamed city New York

Map of New Amsterdam 1660

Erie Canal • Erie Canal route• Joined the Hudson River to Lake Eire at Buffalo, NY• Followed the Mohawk Valley between the Catskill

and Adirondack Mountains• New York’s great geographic advantage was to have

a path through the mountains, joining the Eastern seaboard to the Mid-west and Great Lakes

• Building the Eire Canal• Construction began 1817 at Rome, NY• Progress proceeded slowly• Then sped up with the introduction of mechanical

stump pullers and additional labor• Eastern 250 miles opened in 1823, between

Brockport and Albany• The western section had to rise over the Niagara

Escarpment to finish at Buffalo• The 363 mile canal was finished October 26, 1825 to

great fanfare• DeWitt Clinton helped to finance the canal as

Governor of New York with $7 million in allocated funds

• The canal was often referred to as “Clinton’s Folly” or “Clinton’s Ditch”, but he was vindicated in a big way

• Economic Impact• Increased the wealth and prominence of NYC• Dramatically increased trade through the Port of New

York, including huge exports of grain to Europe and huge influx of immigrants from Europe

• Caused the Mid-west and Great Lakes to boom as they now had an outlet for production and a path for the western flow of people

• Towns and cities grew up along the canal and throughout the Great Lakes

• Drove the development of and interest in new technology and advanced engineering

New York: A Documentary: Episode 1The Mohawk Valley cuts a natural path through the mountains from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes

Eire Canal Lock

Central Park• Conceived as a great park befitting a great city, New York

• A grand park as in Paris (Bois de Boulogne) or London (Hyde Park), for carriage rides and such

• The “common” folk also needed a place to escape the noise and crowds of the metropolis

• Not a part of the “Plan of 1811” (the Manhattan Grid), the plan had to be amended and property purchased (at a cost of $5 million)

• Central Park Commission sponsored a landscape design contest in 1857• Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux won the contest with a design

known as the “Greensward Plan”• The design leaned toward idyllic, naturalistic landscapes and planned,

dramatic vistas, while insulating pedestrians from traffic and city intrusions• The design underscored Olmsted and Vaux’s desire build a place that would

reflect their social consciousnesses and commitments to egalitarian ideals and provide space where classes could mix and not feel excluded

• Construction of Central Park• As a trained architect, Vaux realized much of the constructed elements• It was a huge project building hundreds of structures and employing

thousands of laborers, especially the newly immigrated• Ten million cartloads of rocks and worthless soil were dispatched, 18,500

cubic yards of topsoil was imported to enrich the dirt, and more than four million trees, shrubs, and plants were added to the park.

• Central Park was completed in 1873

New York: A Documentary: Episode 2

Panorama of Central Park

Angel of the Water, Bethesda Fountain, 1873

Walt Whitman• Walt Whitman was a poet with an ear for his time and a voice in tune with the

changing and growing city of New York and the fractured country• He was often odd and irreverent, and untraditional, and even scandalous• He has become one of the preeminent literary voices in America, speaking to

and for Americans, in his day and beyond• Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was born on Long Island, NY and

died in Camden, New Jersey• Whitman left school at age 11 to apprentice in the newspaper and publishing

business, and worked variously as a journalist, editor, and teacher• Leaves of Grass, the classic poetry collection, became his life’s work, being

published in expanding and evolving editions over a lifetime• The first edition was published May 15, 1855; he paid the publication

expenses and even set much of the type• Whitman was inspired by an essay, The Poet, by Ralph Waldo Emerson

calling for a unique poet to arise to write about the new country's virtues and vices.

• In review of the first edition, Emerson said "I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed”

• Many did not agree, finding it salacious and indecent• Whitman published as many as nine editions between the first and the

“deathbed edition” in 1891 and the book expanded from an initial twelve poems to almost 400

• During the Civil War, Whitman spent several years working in Washington D.C.• He was moved and disturbed by the injured and dying soldiers, visiting

them and nursing them in his free time• He wrote poems and published essays and articles about his experience• He wrote impassioned work about Lincoln and his assassination

• He suffered a stroke in 1873 and never fully recovered• He spent his last years in Camden, NJ living with and being near his

family• He is buried in Camden and received huge recognition at his death

New York: A Documentary: Episode 2

Walt Whitman, 1887

Walt Whitman, age 37, from Leaves of Grass

Walt Whitman, 1887

New York Draft Riots• Racial Tensions

• Chronic unease between working class blacks and whites• Political antipathy

• Republicans representing pro-war, pro-Lincoln, abolitionist, middle and upper class

• Democrats representing anti-war, anti-Lincoln, pro-slavery, working and lower class, immigrant

• Worries about Emancipation Proclamation and more blacks in the workforce

• Press bolstered immigrant fears of black competition for jobs• Stricter Draft Laws in March 1863

• Included all males 20 – 35 years, unmarried males 35 – 45• Lottery exemption for those with a substitute or payment of $300• Deep resentment felt within Irish community for inequalities• First day of lottery, Saturday, July 11, 1863, was uneventful

• Riot• Second day of lottery, Monday, July 13, 1863, sees violence

erupt• Rioters started attacking military, governmental, and

symbolic targets, including police superintendent, John Alexander Kennedy, who was beaten badly

• Mob ransacked and burned the Colored Orphan House• New York Militia and other troops were away fighting in

Gettysburg and could not help stem the mounting violence• Violence escalates over next few days with many beatings and

lynchings of blacks by majority Irish Mobs• Riots repressed by return of militia and military

• After the riots black population in Manhattan fell to ten thousand, lowest since 1820

New York: A Documentary: Episode 2Rioters and Federal troops clash

John Alexander Kennedy (1803-1873)

Is NYC Still the Center of the Universe?• NY was not always at the apex of American commerce

• Philadelphia and Boston were leading economically at the time of independence

• New Orleans was a strong competitor for top trading center in the early 19th century

• NY was always an economic contender, with a great port, superior location, and growing capital markets

• Early dominance was due to leadership and ability to envision, realize, and profit from the economic future of the country

• Eire Canal allowed NY to control supply to Europe• “Triangle trade” allowed domination of cotton trade between the

South and Europe• Profited from commercialization of technology• Dominated media, advertising, and finance

• NY co-opts economic success and progress from other regions• Steel from Pittsburgh, automobiles from Detroit, motion pictures

from Los Angeles, and oil from Houston• Maintained its economic hegemony even with regional competition• Concentrates wealth as a national financial center

• NY’s fundamental advantages are weakening in light of the digital information age

• Proximity to Europe less vital with e-commerce in e-space• Expansion of media outlets, including internet, prevent

monopolization and control of media market• Financial dominance eroded by regional venture capital outlets

servicing the high-tech digital entrepreneurs and industry• The failure of the AOL/Time Warner merger is indicative of the failure of

old thinking in a new age, the rules have changed• NY may not have the competitive advantage it once had, especially now

that business is not as dependant on centralization, consolidation, and aggregation of critical mass, as it once wasTime Warner Center, Columbus Circle, NY

Formerly the AOL Time Warner Center

Chicago: Up and Coming• Chicago was incorporated on Lake Michigan in 1834• Quickly becomes a transportation hub

• Linked to New York and the Atlantic through the Great Lakes and Eire Canal

• Railroad hub becoming the nation's trans-shipment and warehousing center

• Illinois and Michigan Canal linked Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River

• Fastest growing city in the world by last decade of 19th century

• 20th century urbanism started in Chicago• Driven by post-Civil War boom and great commercial

and industrial expansion• Chicago became a place for doing business and

making money• Great Chicago Fire, 1871

• Destroyed much of the core of the city• Rebuilding started immediately using the most modern

systems and materials• Telephone switchboard• Electric Lamps and trolley cars• Steel-frame construction and skyscrapers with

elevators• Real estate values soared in city center

• Tall buildings allowed collection of more rent and higher revenues

• The property became much more valuable• Fire codes demanded expensive non-wood

construction in the city center• Residential neighborhoods moved away from the

center where building codes were less restrictive and housing was cheaper

• The 20th century “downtown” was born in Chicago

The world's first skyscraper, Chicago, 1884

Chicago: Considering Culture• Beautifying Chicago by adding parks

• Olmstead planned most of the parks• Group of eight parks joined by parkways• Intended for the general public as antidotes to the

nervous, inhospitable city• Green refuge and chunks of healthy natural

landscape• Rest of Chicago grew up on the endless street grid with a

laissez-faire attitude towards planning and construction, not the most direct path to a beautiful city

• City elite yearned for a more refined city like they found in the capitals of Europe, not the hodge-podge of their own metropolis

• World’s Columbian Exposition 1892, the Chicago World’s Fair

• Planned on the site of Olmstead’s un-built Jackson Park

• Master plan of site was also by Olmstead• Project brought together many of the finest architects

and designers of the day• Contained unique features such as the world’s first

Ferris wheel at 250 feet in diameter• White City

• The popular nickname of the exposition as all the buildings were painted white

• Combination of naturalistic, formal landscaping combined with grand buildings in the classical style

• Reminiscent of the grand European capitals• Utilized classical design elements and size

constraints to unify the overall impression in counterpoint to Chicago’s skyscrapers and mish-mash planning

• The elegant design gave Americans a new vision of what was possible and a new urban model to follow

Images of the White City at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition

Chicago: Keep On Keeping On• City Beautiful movement

• A national and international movement in architecture and urban planning

• Proposed using Beaux-Art and neoclassical architecture to promote beautification and monumental grandeur for the greater good of society

• Gained prominence through many projects• National Mall in Washington D.C.• Grand railroad stations• Numerous municipal civic centers• Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 was inception

• Burnham Plan for Chicago• Burnham was a prominent architect in Chicago and

driving force in the design of the Chicago World’s Fair• In 1906, the Merchant’s Club commissioned him to

produce a visionary plan for the city• Plan encompassed a 60 mile radius and addressed: the

city layout, a new civic center, highways, railroads, greenbelts, urban parks, lakefront parks, and more

• Some aspects were implemented but many were ignored

• Imagined a stately “Metropolis of the Middle West”• Height restrictions as a metaphor for business versus style

• Burnham never addressed skyscrapers or height restrictions in the Plan

• Michigan Avenue was to be rebuilt as a grand avenue with a 120 foot height restriction and uniform cornice line

• Before construction started the height restriction was raised to 200 feet, then 400 feet, then the sky’s the limit

• The buildings were built, the avenue was not• The moral is: high land values trump directed

development, always, it seems