New York City

North America

Quote

"I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline. Particularly when one can't see the details. Just the shapes. The shapes and the thought that made them. The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. What other religion do we need? And then people tell me about pilgrimages to some dank pesthole in a jungle where they go to do homage to a crumbling temple, to a leering stone monster with a pot belly, created by some leprous savage. Is it beauty and genius they want to see? Do they seek a sense of the sublime? Let them come to New York, stand on the shore of the Hudson, look and kneel. When I see the city from my window - no, I don't feel how small I am - but I feel that if a war came to threaten this, I would throw myself into space, over the city, and protect these buildings with my body."

-- Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

Appearance

The Great Seal of the State of New York

The current version of the State Seal was last modified in 1882 to depict New York State's commitment to liberty and justice, its enduring optimism and its faith in the strength of the human spirit.

The Seal is dominated by the figures of two goddesses. To the left is the Goddess of Liberty. Holding a pole, on which rests a Liberty Cap, she represents the right of people to live independently and free from oppression and tyranny. The Goddess on the right, blindfolded and holding the scales of justice, symbolizes the State's pledge of impartial, fair and equal treatment under the law for all its citizens. Together, these figures stand as a testament to the twin ideals of liberty and justice for all.

Above, an eagle rests atop a globe. Facing west, the eagle symbolizes opportunity and optimism and represents New York's unique position in the world as the economic and commercial bridge between the East and the West -- the old world and the new.

Below, the banner exclaims "Excelsior" -- the State motto representing our continuous search for excellence and belief in a strong, bright and ever better future.

Content from the NY State Budget Office web site -- March 11, 2010.

Climate

Under the Köppen climate classification, using the 0 °C (32 °F) January isotherm, New York City itself experiences a humid subtropical climate (Cfa), and New York is thus the northernmost major city on the North American continent with this categorization. The suburbs to the north and west lie in the transition zone from a humid subtropical (Cfa) to a humid continental climate (Dfa). The area averages 234 days with at least some sunshine annually, and averages 58% of possible sunshine annually, accumulating 2,400 to 2,800 hours of sunshine per annum.

Winters are cold and damp, and prevailing wind patterns that blow offshore minimize the moderating effects of the Atlantic Ocean; yet the Atlantic and the partial shielding of the Appalachians keep the city warmer in the winter than inland North American cities located at similar or lesser latitudes such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis.

The average temperature in January, the area's coldest month, is 32.1 °F (0.1 °C). However, temperatures in winter could for a few days be as low as 10 °F (−12 °C) and as high as 50 °F (10 °C). Spring and autumn are unpredictable and can range from chilly to warm, although they are usually mild with low humidity. Summers are typically hot and humid with a July average of 76.5 °F (24.7 °C). Nighttime conditions are often exacerbated by the urban heat island phenomenon, and temperatures exceed 90 °F (32 °C) on average of 17 days each summer and can exceed 100 °F (38 °C).

The city receives 49.7 inches (1,260 mm) of precipitation annually, which is fairly spread throughout the year. Average winter snowfall for 1981 to 2010 has been 26.7 inches (68 cm), but this usually varies considerably from year to year. Hurricanes and tropical storms are rare in the New York area, but are not unheard of and always have the potential to strike the area. Extreme temperatures have ranged from −15 °F (−26 °C), recorded on February 9, 1934, up to 106 °F (41 °C) on July 9, 1936.

Economy

The economy of New York City is the biggest regional economy in the United States and the second largest city economy in the world after Tokyo. Anchored by Wall Street, in Lower Manhattan, New York City is one of the world's two premier financial centers, alongside London and is home to the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, the world's largest stock exchanges by market capitalization and trading activity. New York is distinctive for its high concentrations of advanced service sector firms in fields such as law, accountancy, banking and management consultancy.

The financial, insurance, health care, and real estate industries form the basis of New York's economy. The city is also the most important center for mass media, journalism and publishing in the United States, and is the preeminent arts center in the country. Creative industries such as new media, advertising, fashion, design and architecture account for a growing share of employment, with New York City possessing a strong competitive advantage in these industries. Manufacturing, although declining, remains consequential.

The New York Stock Exchange is by far the largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization of listed companies. The NASDAQ electronic exchange has the most companies listed and is second largest in the world by market capitalization of listed companies.

The New York metropolitan area had an estimated gross metropolitan product of $1.28 trillion in 2010. The city's economy accounts for the majority of the economic activity in the states of New York and New Jersey.

Real estate and corporate location

Real estate is a significant factor in the city of New York's economy. In 2006 the total value of Manhattan property was $802.4 billion. The Google building, 111 Eighth Avenue is the property with the highest-listed market value in the city, at $1.8 billion in 2006. The UK consulting firm Mercer, in a 2009 assessment "conducted to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments", ranked New York City 49th worldwide in quality of living; the survey factored in political stability, personal freedom, sanitation, crime, housing, the natural environment, recreation, banking facilities, availability of consumer goods, education, and public services including transportation.

Some of the most expensive office space in the United States is located in New York City. 450 Park Avenue was sold on July 2, 2007, for $510 million, about $1,589 per square foot ($17,104/m²), breaking the barely month-old record for an American office building of $1,476 per square foot ($15,887/m²) set in the June 2007 sale of 660 Madison Avenue. Manhattan had 353.7 million square feet (32,860,000 m²) of office space in 2001.

Midtown Manhattan is the largest central business district in the world. New York City has long been the leading business center in the United States, but with the city's fiscal crisis in the 1970s a new trend began to develop resulting in corporate headquarters and subsidiaries gradually moving to the suburbs and other regions.

In 2005 there were 602 stand-alone headquarter operations for major companies in the city. Many international corporations are headquartered in the city, including more Fortune 500 companies than any other city. It is also the home of Jet-Blue Airways, headquartered in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens.

Out of the 500 U.S. corporations with the largest revenues in 2010, as listed by Fortune magazine in May 2011, 45 had headquarters in New York City and another 12 elsewhere in New York state (total 57). In the 1997 Fortune 500, 46 corporations had New York City headquarters, out of 61 corporations headquartered in New York state. However, these corporations might not have been incorporated in New York City or the New York state, because of better tax advantages in other states. Over 50 percent of U.S. publicly traded corporations and 60 percent of the Fortune 500 companies are incorporated in the state of Delaware. Many of these corporations have their headquarters in New York City.

In the May 2008 Fortune 500 list, reflecting the year before the global financial crisis of 2007-2010, five of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies in New York City were classified as securities firms (reflecting the importance of Wall Street), but two years later, none were. Two of the securities firms (Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley) had converted themselves into commercial banks, while different banks had absorbed either the organization or the post-liquidation assets of the other three firms (Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers).

Finance

The New York Stock Exchange, located on Wall Street, and the NASDAQ are the world's first and second largest stock exchanges, respectively, when measured by average daily trading volume and overall market capitalization. Financial services account for more than 35 percent of the city's employment income.

New York City has been a leading center of finance in the world economy since the end of World War I. As of August, 2008 the city's financial services industry employs 344,700 workers. Manhattan is home to six major stock, commodities and futures exchanges: American Stock Exchange, International Securities Exchange, NASDAQ, New York Board of Trade, New York Mercantile Exchange, and New York Stock Exchange. This contributes to New York City being a major financial service exporter, both within the United States and globally.

The 344,700 workers in the finance industry collect more than half of all the wages paid in Manhattan, although they hold fewer than one of every six jobs in the borough. The pay gap between them and the 1.5 million other workers in Manhattan continues to widen, causing some economists to worry about the city’s growing dependence on their extraordinary incomes. Those high salaries contribute to job growth, but most of this job growth occurs in lower-paying service jobs in restaurants, retail and home health care and not many jobs in highly paid areas.

Since the founding of the Federal Reserve banking system, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in Manhattan's financial district has been where monetary policy in the United States is implemented, although policy is decided in Washington by the Federal Reserve Bank's Board of Governors. The New York Fed is the largest, in terms of assets, and the most important of the twelve regional banks. It is responsible for the second district, which covers New York State and the New York City region, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The New York Fed is responsible for conducting open market operations, the buying and selling of outstanding US Treasury securities.

In 2003, Fedwire, the Federal Reserve's system for transferring balances between it and other banks, transferred $1.8 trillion a day in funds, of which about $1.1 trillion originated in the Second District. It transferred an additional $1.3 trillion a day in securities, of which $1.2 trillion originated in the Second District. The New York Federal Reserve is the only regional bank with a permanent vote on the Federal Open Market Committee and its president is traditionally selected as the Committee's vice chairman. The bank also has the largest gold repository in the world, larger even than Fort Knox. Its vault is 80 feet (25 m) beneath the street and holds $160 billion worth of gold bullion.

Information technology

High-tech industries like software development, gaming design, and Internet services are also growing; New York is the leading international internet gateway in the United States, with 430 Gbit/s of international internet capacity terminates, because of its position at the terminus of the transatlantic fiber optic trunkline. By comparison, the number two U.S. hub, Washington/Baltimore, has 158 Gbit/s of internet terminates. More than two-thirds of New Yorkers have Internet in their homes.

According to New York’s Economic Development Corporation, telecom carriers, cable companies, Internet service providers and publishers were a $23 billion industry in 2003. This represents over three percent of the city’s economy. The sector employs 43,000 city residents.

In 2006 Google moved into 311,000 square feet (28,900 m2) of office space in the second-largest building in New York City, at 111 Eighth Avenue in Manhattan. The location is one of the most important "telecom hotels" in the world, a giant networking facility adjacent to the Hudson Street/Ninth Avenue fiber highway, one of the most critical Internet arteries in the world. Employing more than 500 people, it is Google's largest engineering complex outside of company headquarters. Google products engineered in the New York offices include Maps, Docs, Checkout, Blog search, and Mobile search. Google's large investment in its New York operations has led to speculation about new multimedia initiatives by the company.

The Health Care and Biomedical Industries

Research and medical services drive New York's healthcare industry. The city has the most post-graduate life sciences degrees awarded annually in the United States, 60,000 licensed physicians, and 127 Nobel laureates with roots in local institutions. New York receives the second-highest amount of annual funding from the National Institutes of Health among all U.S. cities.

The major publicly traded biopharma companies include Bristol Myers Squibb, ImClone Systems, OSI Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Regeneron, CuraGen, and Alexion Pharmaceuticals. Pfizer shifted 1,000 jobs to New York City from New Jersey, Missouri, Michigan and California in 2003. According to the Partnership for New York City, New York institutions create more biotechnology-related patents than any other metropolitan area in the United States.

Health care industry employs approximately 565,000 people in New York City, according to the U.S. Census, making it the city's 2nd largest employer, after government. In New York, the 565,000 people work at more than 70 hospitals, and the city's 20 public hospitals served 1.5 million people in 1998 alone.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing accounts for a significant share of employment. Garments, chemicals, metal products, processed foods, and furniture are some of the principal products. The food-processing industry is the most stable major manufacturing sector in the city. Food making is a $5 billion industry that employs more than 19,000 residents, many of them immigrants who speak little English. Chocolate is New York City's leading specialty-food export, with $234 million worth of exports each year.

There are over 233,000 manufacturing jobs in more than 10,000 New York City industrial businesses, with the highest concentration of industrial employment in Manhattan. This includes manufacturing, warehousing, utilities, and transportation. Manufacturing jobs average $41,000 annually (NYS DOL, 2nd Qtr 2005), about $10,000 more than comparable jobs in retail or restaurants. The manufacturing sector has the highest percentage of first-generation immigrants making up 64% of the workforce (NYC Dept. City Planning) and African Americans comprising 78% of the production workforce (2004 American Community Survey).

These are small businesses, with an average size of 21 employees (NYS DOL, 2nd Qtr 2005). Examples of goods manufactured in the city include Broadway costumes, custom-made cabinets, croissants for hotels, and wooden crates for shipping fine art. These items are labor-intensive and require collaboration between the end-user and the manufacturer. In recent years, as real estate and globalization pressures have increased, the remaining manufacturers have become more design-oriented and single customer-focused. To boot, production methods have become cleaner and more technology-driven.

Despite the adaptability of New York manufacturers, there remain looming challenges to the sector’s survival. A 2003 city-sponsored survey of the industrial sector identified three major local challenges to retaining businesses: 1) high cost of real estate; 2) high costs of doing business; and, 3) uncertainty about land use policy.

A 12,900-square-foot (1,200 m2) biodiesel plant run by Tri-State Biodiesel, LLC will begin construction in the Bronx in 2010. The facility will process used cooking oil collected by TSB from over 2000 New York restaurants with methanol and a catalyst to create biodiesel fuel. More than 1 million US gallons (3,800 m3) of waste oil could be collected in Brooklyn every year according to a 2004 Cornell study. The fuel produces 78 percent less carbon-dioxide emissions than standard diesel.

Trade

City of New York is unique among American cities for its large number of foreign corporations. One out of every ten private sector jobs in the city is with a foreign company. Often this makes the perspective of New York’s business community internationalist and at odds with Washington’s foreign policy, trade policy, and visa policy.

Since 2000, China has been New York's leading growth market for exports. The New York Metropolitan Region is home to more than half of the 32 largest Chinese companies with offices in the United States. These companies represent a broad array of industries including shipping, steel, energy and manufacturing firms, and services. Many have chosen to open headquarters in New York in anticipation of eventual listing on the respective New York stock exchanges and entering U.S. capital markets. New York City currently boasts seven Chinese daily newspapers, two Chinese language television stations, and the largest Chinese neighborhood in the United States. New York area airports provide 12 daily flights to Hong Kong and five to Beijing, the most flights out of the eastern half of the United States.

In one measure of how international New York City's economy is, data compiled by the agents Knight Frank show foreign owners make up 34% of sales in the city's prime residential market. New York ranks ahead of Paris, where such sales account for 27%, Hong Kong (13%), and Sydney (9%). London, however, is the most cosmopolitan world city in terms of property ownership; more than 51% of homes there worth more than £2m ($3.8m, EU3m) sold in 2005 have gone to overseas buyers from Russia, the Middle East and elsewhere.

International shipping has always been a major part of the city's economy because of New York's natural harbor, but with the advent of containerization most cargo shipping has moved from the Brooklyn waterfront across the harbor to the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in New Jersey. Some cargo shipping remains; for example, Brooklyn still handles the majority of cocoa bean imports to the United States.

Media

New York is by far the most important center for American mass media, journalism and publishing. The city is the number-one media market in the United States with 7% of the country’s television-viewing households. Three of the Big Four music recording companies have their headquarters in the city. One-third of all independent films are produced in the Big Apple. More than 200 newspapers and 350 consumer magazines have an office in the city. The book publishing industry alone employs 25,000 people. For these reasons, New York is often called "the media capital of the world." It is also home to PBS stations WLIW and WNET. WNET's headquarters are in Manhattan, and WLIW's headquarters are in Plainview, New York, which is located on Long Island.

Film

The city's television and film industry is the second largest in the country after Hollywood.

Film is a growing sector; according to the Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting New York City attracted over 250 independent and studio films in 2005, an increase from 202 in 2004 and 180 in 2003. More than a third of professional actors in the United States are based in New York. The city's movie industry employs 100,000 New Yorkers, according to the Office, and about $5 billion is brought by the industry to the city's economy every year. The Kaufman-Astoria film studio in Queens, built during the silent film era, was used by the Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields. It has also been the set for The Cosby Show and Sesame Street. The recently constructed Steiner Studios is a 15 acre (61,000 m²) modern movie studio complex in a former shipyard where The Producers and The Inside Man, a Spike Lee movie, were filmed.

Silvercup Studios revealed plans in February 2006 for a new $1 billion complex with eight soundstages, production and studio support space, offices for media and entertainment companies, stores, 1,000 apartments in high-rise towers, a catering hall and a cultural institution. The project is envisioned as a "vertical Hollywood" designed by Lord Richard Rogers, the architect of the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Millennium Dome in London. It is to be built at the edge of the East River in Queens and will be the largest production house on the East Coast. Steiner Studios in Brooklyn would still have the largest single sound-stage, however. Kaufman Studios plans its own expansion in the future.

Miramax Films, a Big Ten film studio, is the largest motion picture distribution and production company headquartered in the city. Many smaller independent producers and distributors are also in New York. It is the home of HIT Entertainment, headquartered in the Upper East Side area in Manhattan.

A Letter from Hanneman

What a damnable job you've set me to, Mr. Pieterzoon

Digging the Kindred history of New York from the miasma of lies that occlude it is like digging one specific Blattella germanica from the hive of a Nosferatu. With this body of work, I consider our boon equal and therefore erased. You will also note that I have used no euphemistic language herein. I am not a writer of propaganda. Where I found facts, I recorded them duly. Where I found clues, I presented the most probable outcome. Where I found lies, I noted them as such. I have no doubt that you can tell lies from truth -- which I mean in the most functional of connotations -- but thought it would be best to make it plain that I'm not attempting to confound you.

The document I've assembled comes from a variety of sources, primary when I could find them and secondary when I could not. I attribute each authority with his proper contribution, and in most cases have transcribed from recorded tapes or written correspondence.

-- John Hanneman

Childe of Marshall Bilton

Childe of Julius Abrogard

History

Written documentation of the history of New York City began with the first European visit to the area by Giovanni da Verrazzano, in command of the French ship La Dauphine, when he visited the region in 1524. It is believed he sailed into Upper New York Bay, where he encountered native Lenape, returned through The Narrows, where he anchored the night of April 17, and then left to continue his voyage. He named the area of present-day New York City Nouvelle-Angoulême (New Angoulême) in honor of Francis I, King of France and Count of Angoulême.

European settlement began on September 3, 1609, when the Englishman Henry Hudson, in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, sailed the Half Moon (Dutch: Halve Maen) through The Narrows into Upper New York Bay. Like Christopher Columbus, Hudson was looking for a westerly passage to Asia. He never found one, but he did take note of the abundant beaver population. Beaver pelts were in fashion in Europe, fueling a lucrative business. Hudson's report on the regional beaver population served as the impetus for the founding of Dutch trading colonies in the New World, among them New Amsterdam, which would become New York City. The beaver's importance in New York City history is reflected by its use on the city's official seal.

The Dutch West Indies Company transported African slaves to the post as trading laborers. By the late 17th century, 40 percent of the settlement were African slaves. They helped build the fort and stockade, and some gained freedom under the Dutch. After the English took over the colony and city they called New York in 1664, they continued to import slaves from Africa and the Caribbean. In 1703, 42 percent of the New York households had slaves; they served as domestic servants and laborers but also became involved in skilled trades, shipping and other fields. By the 1770s slaves made up less than 25 percent of the city's population. The city's strategic location and status as a major seaport made it the prime target for British seizure in 1776. General George Washington lost a series of battles from which he narrowly escaped, and the British Army controlled the New York City until late 1783. The city briefly served as the new nation's capital in 1789–90. The opening of the Erie Canal gave excellent steamboat connections with upstate New York and the Great Lakes, along with coastal traffic to lower New England, making the city the preeminent port on the Atlantic Ocean. The arrival of rail connections to the north and west in the 1840s and 1850s strengthened its central role,

Beginning in the mid-19th century, waves of new immigrants arrived from Europe, dramatically changing the composition of the city and serving as workers in the expanding industries. Modern New York City traces its development to the consolidation of the five boroughs in 1898 and an economic and building boom following the Great Depression and World War II. Throughout its history, New York City has served as a main port of entry for many immigrants, and its cultural and economic influence has made it one of the most important urban areas in the United States and the world.

Before the "New World"

{As told by Melissa Sturges, deceased, Mohegan historian and ductus of the Sky Night Blue pack, late 1997}

Before the Sabbat -- before the Europeans -- what is called New York existed. Near the Atlantic, the Mahican and Munsee tribes were strong, while further inland the tribes that would make up the Iroquois Confederacy were more prevalent: the Mohawks, Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, and Cayuga. This was in the late sixteenth century; the Iroquois Confederacy formed around 1570, supposedly with the decision of Hiawatha to abandon cannibalism after being convinced by Dekanawidah.

Before the Europeans came, Cainites were few and far between in North America. The Lupines were more prominent then, with many hailing from the native tribes of "Indians," as you would refer to them. But while the Lupines were not the same sort of blight as Cainites, they brought with them their own problems. They are a stupid, savage race, prone to more violence than even the most barbaric of the native tribes. I have spoken with elders who knew them, and they were almost always described as half man and half beast, rather than men who take the form of beasts.

When the first few Cainites surfaced in America, wise members of the tribes thought them to be spirits in flesh bodies, or warriors of the past returned from the afterlife. A few suspected that they were soldiers who were left behind by their fellows and left to starve, which was why they returned to feed upon blood. Make no mistake -- these first Cainites were of the native stock, but note even the elders could remember an appearance of such creatures before the turn of the seventeenth century. I don't mean to suggest that they were everywhere, but most of the moieties had seen or heard of one by then, though few had dealt with them personally.

Like the Lupines, these Cainites were hungry and brutal, not sophisticated like the Cainites of tonight. They were always mad with blood-lust, and their rage made them great foes. As many as a dozen men would have to work together to bring one down. A few of the wiser clans could trick these "orenda" into fights with the Lupines, hoping to escape from the fray because the Cainites and the Lupines even back then were grave enemies. Few of the Iroquois had enough experience with the Cainites or knowledge of or access to the Lupines to resort to this, and tales of these haunts traveled as the tribes did.

The Cainites of that time hunted their former tribes as the tribes hunted the rabbit and beaver. Remember that the Iroquois were mostly sedentary -- they practiced agriculture and sheltered themselves in longhouses. These were not nomadic Indians, like one would see roving the plains in a cowboy movie. That made dealing with Cainites especially hard for them. They couldn't simply leave, as they had too much invested in their communities. Many members of afflicted tribal communities even tried to placate the Cainites, leaving meat outside the longhouse entrances and posting a guard to listen for the sounds of feeding while the rest of the housemates slept. In this, I believe more than a few of the stories of Cainites passed down are little more than legends. It is far more likely that a wolf or fox or other animal would have come to eat these offerings than a Cainite in animal form. Still, we are not an ignorant people, and the ways of animals are different from men -- and the undead.

The first Cainites anyone remembers by name came not from the local area, but as wanderers from another tribe. Most assume that they came from the Sauk or Fox tribes, which were located near what are tonight Wisconsin and the shores of the northern Mississippi River. They bore names like Shining Deer, Clear Bear, and the preeminent among them, Pale Wolf. While the Iroquois recognized these Cainites for what they were, they were surprised by how relatively calmly they acted. These were nothing at all like the ravaging night-fiends who haunted their settlements. Rather, they were the same sort of creature, but of a different mindset. These Cainites explained the difference between themselves and the Beast-driven monsters who sometimes tormented them. They taught certain natives about the nature of Cainites, about the balance of Man and Beast, and the struggle between them that happened nightly.

For this reason, I suspect that these Cainites might have fled the formation of your Camarilla in Europe before it became a very solid entity -- this sort of explanation is certainly not in keeping with even the early Sabbat beliefs, but neither do they seem concerned about Traditions or similar rules. Either that, or they were members of the whispered Inconnu. Perhaps they were simply uncomplicated by the concerns of the sects.

The result, of course, was the exposure of the indigenous people to the Curse of Caine. While the shadow history of Europe is rife with the Damned, North America remained free from the passage of Cainites until, at the very earliest, the end of the sixteenth century. And while I cannot claim with certainty that the undead came from somewhere else, I can support it with details. Pale Wolf, for example: He is regarded in numerous stories as the leader, the elder, or the one to whom other Cainites deferred. While I have no details about his appearance, his name suggests that he was among the undead before he made his appearance to the native folk. If the Cainite condition is not a curse from the Christian God, it certainly did not originate among the Iroquois. There have not always been Cainites in the region of New York. The Cainites came here from somewhere else.

American Prehistory to 1664

The area that would eventually encompass modern day New York City was inhabited by the Lenape people. These groups of culturally and linguistically identical Native Americans traditionally spoke an Algonquian language now referred to as Unami. Early European settlers would refer to bands of Lenape by the Unami place name for where they lived, such as: "Raritan" in what is now called Staten Island and New Jersey, "Canarsee" in what is now known as Brooklyn, and "Hackensack" in modern New Jersey across the Hudson River from current-day Lower Manhattan. Eastern Long Island neighbors were culturally and linguistically more closely related to the Mohegan-Pequot peoples of what is now known as New England who spoke the Mohegan-Montauk-Narragansett language. These peoples all made use of the abundant waterways in the New York City region for fishing, hunting trips, trade, and occasionally war. Place names such as Raritan Bay and Canarsie, are derived from Lenape names. Many former paths created by the indigenous peoples are today main thoroughfares, such as Broadway in Manhattan. The Lenape developed sophisticated techniques of hunting and managing their resources. By the time of the arrival of Europeans, they were cultivating fields of vegetation through the slash and burn technique, which extended the productive life of planted fields. They also harvested vast quantities of fish and shellfish from the bay. Historians estimate that at the time of European settlement, approximately 5,000 Lenape lived in 80 settlements around the region. European settlement began with the founding of a Dutch fur trading post in Lower Manhattan, later called New Amsterdam (Nieuw Amsterdam) in the southern tip of Manhattan in 1624-1625.

The Coming of the Europeans

{Commentary From Hanneman}

Early histories of the European settlement as it relates to the Kindred are as scarce as one might think. I have found a few scraps here and there, but these are obviously biased by the writers. While I'm inclined to forgive much of Ms. Sturges' generality as folklore, I am not so open-minded here. Please see my notations.

In the Year of Our Lord 1626

Soon thereafter, most likely in 1626, construction of Fort Amsterdam began. Later, the Dutch West Indies Company imported African slaves to serve as laborers; they helped to build the wall that defended the town against English and Indian attacks. Early directors included Willem Verhulst and Peter Minuit. Willem Kieft became director in 1638, but five years later was embroiled in Kieft's War against the Native Americans. The Pavonia Massacre, across the Hudson River in present day Jersey City resulted in the death of 80 natives in February 1643. Following the massacre, eleven Algonquian tribes joined forces and nearly defeated the Dutch. Holland sent additional forces to the aid of Kieft, leading to the overwhelming defeat of the Native Americans and a peace treaty on August 29, 1645.

On May 27, 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was inaugurated as director general upon his arrival, and ruled as a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. The colony was granted self-government in 1652 and New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city February 2, 1653. The very first mayors (burgemeesters) of New Amsterdam, Arent van Hattem and Martin Cregier, were appointed in that year.

Fort Orange and New Amsterdam

{From the journal of Frits Kuyper}

New York did not begin as an English colony, as many lax individuals might believe. It was originally a Dutch outpost known as For Orange, which later grew into Albany. About a year after the Fort Orange settlement was established, the Dutch traders who had financed the colonization built a new settlement -- New Amsterdam -- at the very tip of Manhattan Island. The whole matter was put to rest with the "purchase" of the New Amsterdam site from the local savages at a cost of 60 guilders. Settling apparently became the vogue of the time, as the industrious Dutch established several other settlements along the Hudson River.

Of course, the Dutch, driven by the financial well-being of their motherland, had no real impetus to make any long-term investments in this "New World." Their motives with the Hudson settlements were commercial as opposed to agricultural. As a result, settlement was broad, but not deep.

I trust that any student of the Cainite condition will immediately recognize these circumstances as ideal. Certainly, no Cainites traveled with Captain Hudson on his journey for the Dutch East India Company in 1609, but they were almost without question aware of his explorations. Indeed, when our ambitious Hudson sailed forth from discovering the river that bears his name, he stopped at Dartmouth, England on the return to Holland. There, the English government warned him and the English crewmen aboard his ship that it would be wise to refrain from future expeditions in the name of countries other than their own.

This certainly comes as no surprise, especially when one understands that wealth served so popularly as motive during the Age of Exploration. One need look only a brief distance beneath the surface to find evidence of the Children of Caine making Mr.Hudson's acquaintance. On the follow-up journey, which established the presence of the Hudson Strait, Hudson sailed with the financial aid of five noblemen, 13 independent merchants (among them a Tremere) and the estimable Moscovy Company and Dutch East India Company.

{Commentary From Hanneman}

While I dispute the validity of one of the thirteen merchants being Tremere (finding no record of such and raising an eyebrow at the convenience of the number 13), I would draw Mr. Pieterzoon's attentions to the Muscovy Company. A coalition of English merchants created by the explorer Sebastian Cabot, the Muscovy Company was a joint-stock company (until 1630, according to record) that was granted monopoly over commerce with Russia. No doubt the company financed Hudson's voyage as they had in the past, in the interest of finding a more expeditious route to Russia. Among the stockholders in this venture were two Russian Brujah, two English Ventrue, an English Tremere, an Irish Toreador, and one Hardestadt the Younger or Elder; I cannot be certain which.

Bravo, Mr. Pieterzoon. Were this not a project of such broad scale, I would almost think you were trying to impress me with the achievements of your lineage.

Accuse me of keeping you humble if you must, but I note that later trade and exploration voyages that record financial aid by this Hardestadt were also used for the purposes of smuggling Kindred who had aroused the ire of various elders in the Old World. I wouldn't suggest that Mr. Hardestadt was providing enterprising Sabbat passage to the New World quietly while he blustered for the Camarilla at greater volume in the Old World. I will suggest, however, that your sire or grandsire was probably trading favors for his fellows, shipping their unruly childer overseas in exchange for considerations the likes of which I can only speculate.

I would also note that Kuyper's journal makes refer ence to a Nosferatu by the name of Nostoket who claimed to be Prince of Fort Orange. The duration of this claim to domain remains uncommented upon, except for a note that this Nostoket is noticeably not renowned as the Prince of Albany, meaning the domain probably passed to another by the time Fort Orange became Rensselaerswyk or, later, Albany.

Parenthetically, 60 guilders is somewhere in the vicinity of 26 dollars.

The British and the American Revolution: 1664 – 1783

In 1664, the English conquered the area and renamed it "New York" after the Duke of York. At that time, African slaves comprised 40 percent of the small population of the city. Some had achieved freedom under the Dutch and owned 130 acres of farms in the area of present-day Washington Square. The Dutch briefly regained it in 1673, renaming the city "New Orange", before permanently ceding the colony of New Netherland to the English for what is now Suriname in November 1674. Some place names originated in the Dutch period, most notably Flushing (Dutch town of Vlissingen), Harlem (Dutch town of Haarlem) and Brooklyn (Dutch town of Breukelen). Few buildings, however, remain from the 17th century. The oldest recorded house still in existence in New York City, the Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House in Brooklyn, dates from 1652.

The new English rulers of the formerly Dutch New Amsterdam and New Netherland renamed the settlement New York. As the colony grew and prospered, sentiment also grew for greater autonomy. In the context of the Glorious Revolution in England, Jacob Leisler led Leisler's Rebellion and effectively controlled the city and surrounding areas from 1689–1691, before being arrested and executed.

By 1700, the Lenape population of New York had diminished to 200. By 1703, 42 percent of households in New York had slaves, a higher percentage than in Philadelphia or Boston. The 1735 libel trial of John Peter Zenger in the city was a seminal influence on freedom of the press in North America. It would be a standard for the basic articles of freedom in the declaration of independence.

By the 1740s, with expansion of settlers, 20 percent of the population of New York were slaves, totaling about 2500 people. After a series of fires in 1741, the city became panicked that blacks planned to burn the city in a conspiracy with some poor whites. Historians believe their alarm was mostly fabrication and fear, but officials rounded up 31 blacks and 4 whites, who over a period of months were convicted of arson. Of these, the city executed 13 blacks by burning them alive, and hanged 4 whites and 18 blacks.

In 1754, Columbia University was founded under charter by George II of Great Britain as King's College in Lower Manhattan. After the revolution, it was renamed Columbia University, after the symbol for freedom.

The Stamp Act and other British measures fomented dissent, particularly among Sons of Liberty who maintained a long-running skirmish with locally stationed British troops over Liberty Poles from 1766 to 1776. The Stamp Act Congress met in New York City in 1765 in the first organized resistance to British authority across the colonies. After the major defeat of the Continental Army in the Battle of Long Island, General George Washington withdrew to Manhattan Island, but with the subsequent defeat at the Battle of Fort Washington the island was effectively left to the British. Despite all this, New York was very loyalist, with New York becoming a British stronghold for the whole war.

New York City was greatly damaged twice by fires of suspicious origin during British military rule. The city became the political and military center of operations for the British in North America for the remainder of the war, and a haven for Loyalist refugees. Continental Army officer Nathan Hale was hanged in Manhattan for espionage. In addition, the British began to hold the majority of captured American prisoners of war aboard prison ships in Wallabout Bay, across the East River in Brooklyn. More Americans lost their lives from neglect aboard these ships than died in all the battles of the war. British occupation lasted until November 25, 1783. George Washington triumphantly returned to the city that day, as the last British forces left the city.

"Where It Belongs"

{From a letter to William Wolcott, great-grand-childe of Prince Mithras of London, dated 1664}

A masterstroke!

Upon this writing I have learned that Governor Stuyvesant has surrendered without a fight to the English fleet in the harbor. I have always felt, pardon my frankness, that you Ventrue were overestimated. It would seem quite the contrary. Whomsoever it was who put the devil on the shoulder of the admiral who makes these decisions is to be commended.

Needless to say, I am enthused. New Amsterdam is now where it belongs under English rule. To whom shall the domain of prince fall? Or would you prefer to let that be a matter decided by we colonials ourselves?

Forgive me, I am being droll. I shall quiet this excitement.

With Regards,

Heyn

{Commentary From Hanneman}

The signatory, Heyn, is Bernhard Heyn, an exiled Toreador from Munster. It appears that Heyn was subject to a blood hunt for his anarch sympathies, but context prevents me from determining whether this means anarch in its modem context, or if he was one of the howling mob who formed the Sabbat in its early incarnation. He seems eloquent enough, if a bit effete. In any event, I suspect it is no matter: Read on.

{From a letter to Bernhard Heyn, dated 1669}

Bernhard,

I understand the Walloons have had a bit of trouble accepting their new masters. How fare your concerns in New York? The duke will be king in just a few short years... Your concerns regarding the Bishop of New York echo all the more gravely here. London is home to the

Camarilla, and so shall be the colonies. I understand that ever more of this loathsome Sabbat encroaches upon the king's soil. I appreciate your efforts to keep me apprised and I assure you that you will be rewarded handsomely in the end. Prince Heyn... it has a pleasant sound to it. Very traditional.

For the time being, keep your wits about you. I have done a bit of research on this Ecaterina and it turns out that she is quite old and potent. You have done well in not exposing yourself to her, but the road to taking that burgeoning gem from her is playing the Jyhad more masterfully than she does. This should be accomplished with greater ease than I initially suspected, but not if she becomes aware of your desires. Ecaterina is an expatriate herself, driven from Bulgaria or Romania or some such barbarian land because of her participation in the Anarch Revolt. She is that old.

Sincerely,

Wolcott

{Commentary From Hanneman}

I have no date on the arrival of this Ecaterina (her sobriquet: the Wise), but she could not have been present for too long before 1664, the date of Heyn's original letter, or he would have mentioned her then, I presume. It's possible that Heyn overlooked her earlier, but he's vain, not fool hardy.

The Duke of York, James, ascended to the English throne to become James II in 1685. Note also that London burned almost to its last timber in 1666.

{From a letter to William Wolcott, dated 1671}

Ecaterina has the support of veritable throngs of Kindred -or, I should say, Cainites, for her Sabbat is an overwhelming foe indeed. Still, I have remained in the shadows. At times I wonder how long it shall take for this ruse to play itself out, but then I bite my tongue, knowing that we have forever.

I hesitate to bring this up to you, but my accounts are in arrears. Months ago I corresponded with Oxford, who claimed new money would be transferred to the account but that has yet to happen. Would you kindly put a word in his ear?

With Regards,

Heyn

{Commentary From Hanneman}

Here, it grows a bit confusing. It appears that the English Ventrue have written off New York, or at least made it less of a priority. While they no doubt suspected the sheer volume of Sabbat traveling to the New World, they maintained a political edge in almost every settle ment in the American colonies. The reference to Oxford, I took to mean a Toreador seneschal of the time, though a Gangrel named Joseph of Oxford remains an unlikely possibility.

Given these assumptions, it appears that Wolcott and his cabal had hung Heyn out to dry. They no doubt considered him a puppet beforehand, fit to claim domain in a colony while they pulled his strings, but the obvious supremacy of Ecaterina probably convinced them not to devote any more resources to the city. They had nothing to lose - Heyn had already been exiled from his own home, and it's obvious that none of this was happening with any visibility. The dark horse who would be prince simply couldn't go the distance, and his allies abandoned him. Until...

{From a letter to Bernhard Heyn, dated 1673}

William Wolcott is dede [sic] and so are you!

{Commentary From Hanneman}

Instead of a signature, this letter bears a smudged and stylized black hand-print, about the size of a child's. This symbol has been associated with the Camorra criminal organization of Italy, but the group isn't known to have been formally in Italy until the nineteenth century. Still, the Camorra is assumed to have originated in Spain as early as the fifteenth century. A possible connection between this criminal organization and the ghost of Cromwell's anti-royalists cannot be ruled out; political assassination is a hallmark of the mortal world far more than the undead.

Infinitely more probable, however, is that the would be political alliance between the lesser "nobles" of Mithras' domain were exposed and addressed by the Sabbat, whose moniker "the Black Hand" is not unknown to you. I have heard a Lasombra historian claim that a member of his clan "cemented" the supremacy of the Sabbat at this pivotal point in history, but I cannot know whether or not he referred to this event, some bolstering of Ecaterina's position, or providing a route for Sabbat reinforcements to arrive (see below).

This is the last we hear of Heyn. Whether he went underground or was destroyed, staked, driven from New York or any number of other possibilities is unknown.

Also in 1673, a Dutch fleet attacked New York, bringing with it an appreciable number of Sabbat Cainites fleeing to the New World. While the Dutch of New York welcomed the fleet with open arms, the Sabbat no doubt welcomed the reinforcements, fairly firmly securing the city as a Sabbat domain with sheer numbers. For fifteen months, New York tried to reestablish itself as New Amsterdam, but that once again ended in a bloodless turnover of power to the English. By this point, however, with regard to the Kindred, the damage had been done.

I have also procured a few peripheral documents from Camarilla members in New York at the time, but none of them indicate affairs that would affect the political climate of the city. I can provide these to you for your edification, should you so wish.

At this time, I would estimate the number of Kindred in New York at the end of the seventeenth century to be around 20. The city had maybe 10,000 residents at that time. Communication and secularism being less then than they are now, I believe this to be too many Kindred to be easily sustainable, but not so many as to be absurd. I also suspect that the Bishop of New York had some sort of understood dominion over those Kindred dwelling among the Indian tribes as well as those of nearby but smaller communities.

1784 – 1854

With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and the resulting withdrawal of British troops from the city in that year, led to the Congress of the Confederation moving to Federal Hall on Wall Street in 1785. The first government of the United States, operating under the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union since its ratification in 1781, was soon found inadequate for the needs of the new nation. However, certain successes were achieved while in New York, including the passage of the Northwest Ordinance, which laid the framework for the addition of new states into the Union.

A call for revision to the Articles was led by New Yorker Alexander Hamilton, and the Annapolis Convention was convened with representatives from the states to discuss the necessary changes. Lacking representation from all of the states, the Convention made no suggestions for changing the Articles but instead drafted a report that led to the creation of a Constitutional Convention the following year to create an entirely new governing document.

The city's and state's status within the new union under the United States Constitution written in 1787 was under question when the Governor George Clinton proved reluctant to submit state power to a strong national government, and was opposed to ratification. Some New York City businessmen proposed New York City secession as an alternative to join the union separately, but Alexander Hamilton and others argued persuasively in the Federalist Papers published in city newspapers for state ratification, which after much dispute finally passed in 1788. George Washington was inaugurated as the first President on the balcony of Federal Hall in 1789, and the United States Bill of Rights drafted in the city. The Supreme Court of the United States sat for the first time in New York. After 1790, Congress left for Philadelphia.

In 1792, a group of merchants made the "Buttonwood Agreement" and began meeting under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street, beginning the New York Stock Exchange, while a yellow fever epidemic that summer sent New Yorkers fleeing (north) to nearby healthful Greenwich Village.

In 1797, Hamilton's great rival, Aaron Burr, became head of Tammany Hall and turned it increasingly toward politics to support him in the 1800 presidential election.

In 1807, Robert Fulton initiated a steamboat line from New York City to Albany.

New York remained a cosmopolitan enclave within America. The new French consul gave a report in 1810 that remains perfectly familiar: "its inhabitants, who are for the most part foreigners and made up of every nation except Americans so to speak, have in general no mind for anything but business. New York might be described as a permanent fair in which two-thirds of the population is always being replaced; where huge business deals are being made, almost always with fictitious capital, and where luxury has reached alarming heights... It is in the countryside and in the inland towns that one must look for the American population of New York State." (quoted by Fernand Braudel, The Perspective of the World, 1984 p 406).

The French consul's "fictitious capital" betokens the world of credit, on which New Yorkers' confidence has been based. The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 imposed a surveyed grid upon all of Manhattan's varied terrain, in a far-reaching though perhaps topographically insensitive vision.

On September 3, 1821 the Norfolk and Long Island Hurricane caused a storm surge of 13 ft in one hour, leading to widespread flooding south of Canal Street, but few deaths were reported. The hurricane is estimated to have been a Category 3 event and to have made landfall at Jamaica Bay, making it the only hurricane in recorded history to directly strike what is now New York City.

In 1824, a riot occurred in Greenwich Village between Irish Anglicans and Catholics, after a parade by members of the Orange Order. This was a precursor of the Orange Riots of the 1870s.

On October 26, 1825 the Erie Canal was completed, forming a continuous water route from the western Great Lakes to the Atlantic and north to Lake Champlain; it helped the city grow further by increasing river traffic upstate and to the Midwest.

The establishment of regular steam ferries, starting with Robert Fulton's Fulton Ferry in 1814, spurred the growth of Brooklyn, which was established as a city in 1834.

In 1831, as the city continued to expand, the University of the City of New York, now New York University, was founded at Washington Square in Greenwich Village. By 1835, Manhattan was in the throes of the first of its building booms, unfazed by the summer of cholera in 1832.

Late on December 16, 1835 the Great Fire of New York broke out. The temperature was below zero (F), and gale force winds were blowing. Firemen, some called from as far away as Philadelphia, were at first helpless to battle the wind driven fire due to icing lines and pumps. The fire leveled most of the city below Canal Street. Some merchandise was carried to churches that were thought fireproof, but several of these burned anyway. Eventually the fire was controlled by blowing up buildings in the fire's path.

Many of the merchants who lost their stores thought they would be covered by insurance, but the tremendous losses, and, in many cases, the destruction of the insurance company headquarters in the financial district, bankrupted the insurance firms and much of the loss was not covered.

The fires of the period, and the increased need for water for industry, led to the construction of the Croton Aqueduct water system between 1837 and 1842. The aqueduct brought fresh water from the Croton Dam in northern Westchester County over the High Bridge to the Receiving Reservoir between 79th Street and 86th Street and Sixth and Seventh Avenues. From the Receiving Reservoir water flowed into the Distributing Reservoir, better known as the Croton Reservoir. The Aqueduct opened on October 14, 1842, with great celebration. President John Tyler, former presidents John Quincy Adams and Martin van Buren, and New York State Governor William H. Seward were among those in attendance.

The city's rapid development was again interrupted by the Panic of 1837. But the city recovered and by mid-century established itself as the financial and mercantile capital of the western hemisphere.

The Hudson River Railroad (which would grow into the New York Central) opened October 3, 1851; it extended Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, the first railroad built in the state, south to New York City.

Immigration - Growth & Change

The city and its nearby suburbs grew rapidly for several reasons. The natural harbor at the base of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the New Jersey ports at Newark and Elizabeth provided almost unlimited capacity for trading ships and protection from storms. Not until 1985 did New York lose its place as the busiest port in the world.

Other cities, like Boston, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, had good natural harbors, but New York's advantage over other cities of the Eastern Seaboard was that the Hudson River and the Erie Canal formed the only water-level route through the Appalachian Mountains.

The city's strong entrepreneurial spirit discouraged family connections that would have stifled innovation and economic ambition. The city's cosmopolitan attitude and tolerance of many different cultures encouraged many different types of immigrant groups to settle in the city.

Starting in the late 1840s, the city saw increased Irish immigration with the Great Irish Famine and German immigration with the Revolutions of 1848. People who came within the new wave from Ireland were wretchedly poor people without any knowledge of their new world; once arrived on the docks, unscrupulous landlords got them to rent squalid tenements which were once upon a time rich houses for middle-class new-yorkers. They crowded into poky dirty rooms, and the slums of the city became to be known for the high rate of disease and dying people.

Prostitution and violence rose all over Manhattan; crime gave birth to the myth of street gangs in New York, and the Nativist movement was going to grow in violence and power. On the other side, German immigrants were skilled laborers and craftsmen, who settled in a new neighborhood named "Kleindeutschland" (Little Germany) and opened many shops where they worked as artisans.

Raw unregulated capitalism created large middle, upper-middle and upper classes, but its need for manpower encouraged immigration into the city on an unprecedented scale, with mixed results. The famed melting pot was brought into being, from which multitudes have since arisen in the successful pursuit of "the American Dream". But countless others failed to rise, or entire generations were forced to plow themselves under for their children or grandchildren to rise.

In the mid-to-late 19th century these antipodes could be found in the contrast between rich stretches of lower Broadway, Washington Square, Gramercy Park and Lafayette Street (wealth that would later take up more extravagant residence on Fifth Avenue) and the almost unbelievably squalid enclave of Five Points (abject poverty later to occupy the Lower East Side).

Tammany Hall's influence increased with its courting of the immigrant Irish vote, leading to the election of the first Tammany mayor, Fernando Wood, in 1854, and a trend of consolidation was beginning in the region with the three-year-old City of Williamsburgh joining Brooklyn in 1855, establishing it as America's third largest city.

The Dead Rabbits Riot of 1857

On the evening of July 4, 1857, while the rest of New York was celebrating Independence Day, members of the Dead Rabbits led a coalition of street gangs from the Five Points, with the exception of the Roach Guards with whom they had been fighting, into The Bowery to raid a clubhouse occupied by the Bowery Boys and the Atlantic Guards. They were confronted outside the building by their rivals and were driven back after vicious street fighting, the Five Pointers retreating to Paradise Square. Some fighting continued as far away as Pearl and Chatham Streets, in the northern half of Park Row, but no police were dispatched. With the exception of a few nearby Metropolitan patrolmen, who were seriously injured, each police faction claimed the responsibility lay with the other. Police inactivity caused the situation to escalate in the next few hours.

The following morning, the Five Pointers returned to the Bowery with the Roach Guards and attacked the Green Dragon, a popular Broome Street resort and meeting place for the Bowery Boys and other local criminals. They managed to surprise the Bowery gangsters inside the building and, armed with iron bars and large paving blocks, they proceeded to wreck the bar room, rip up the floor of the dance hall and drink all the alcohol in the place. News of the incident quickly reached the Bowery Boys, who then called upon other gangs of the Bowery to join them and confronted the Five Pointers at Bayard Street where one of the largest street gang battles in the city's history occurred.

At around 10:00 a.m., in the midst of savage fighting, a lone patrolman used his club to move through the gangsters in an attempt to take the ring leaders into custody. He was knocked down and attacked by the crowd however, stripped of his uniform and beaten with his own nightstick. He managed to crawl back to the sidewalk and, wearing only his cotton drawers, he ran towards the Metropolitan headquarters on White Street, where he informed the precinct of the fighting before he collapsed. A small police squad was sent out to break up the fighting but, upon reaching Center Street, the gangs turned against the police, who were forced to retreat after several officers were injured. They made a second attempt, this time fighting their way into the mob, and arrested two men believed to be the leaders. The gangsters responded by storming into the low houses lining Bowery and Bayard Streets, forcing out the residents, and climbed to the rooftops where they proceeded to shower the Metropolitan officers with stones and brick bats until they fled from the area.

When the police left without their prisoners, the fighting stopped for a few moments. This temporary truce lasted only an hour or two as fighting resumed near The Tombs, supposedly brought about by a group of women from the Five Points who had provoked the Dead Rabbits into attacking the Bowery gangs. Bringing reinforcements with them, the participants were estimated at between 800–1,000 and armed with bludgeons, paving stones, brick bats, axes, pitchforks and other weapons. Several hundred other criminals also arrived in the area, mostly burglars and thieves, who were not affiliated with either side and simply took the opportunity for looting. Attacking homes and shops all along the Bowery as well as Bayard, Baxter, Mulberry and Elizabeth Streets, residents and store owners were forced to barricade their buildings and protect themselves with pistols and muskets.

Fighting continued until early afternoon when a larger police force arrived, sent by Police Commissioner Simeon Draper, and marched in close formation towards the mob. After hard fighting, they cleared the streets, forcing both the Dead Rabbits and the Bowery Boys into the buildings and to the rooftops once again. The police followed the gangsters, using their clubs at every opportunity, and began arresting large numbers of men. Some refused to surrender to police such as one man who, while fighting police, fell off the roof of a Baxter Street tenement fracturing his skull. He was promptly killed by Bowery gangsters on the ground who stomped him to death. Two leaders of the Dead Rabbits were finally arrested by police, despite heavy resistance by gang members, who took them to a nearby police precinct followed by a group of Bowery Boys.

In spite of this, fighting resumed as soon as the police left. Barricades were set up with push carts and stones from which gangsters fired weapons, hurled bricks and used clubs against their enemies. One of these, a giant Dead Rabbit, stepped in front of his barricade used his pistol to kill two Bowery Boys and wound two others despite heavy fire. He was finally knocked unconscious by a small boy, whose brother was fighting with the Bowery Boys, crawling along the barricade and hitting him with a brick bat from behind.

The police returned to the area but were unable to re-enter, forced to retreat several times with heavy losses, and that evening called upon Captain Isaiah Rynders to use his influence to stop the battle. Rynders, then the political boss of the Sixth Ward, was long associated with the underworld and it was thought he could force them to stop. He agreed and, upon his arrival between 6:00–7:00 p.m., he addressed the gangsters from the barricades. Though he tried to reason with them by telling them the futility of fighting amongst themselves, they refused to listen, and Rynders was forced to escape in the company of his henchmen when the mob responded by throwing rocks at him. He then traveled to the Metropolitan Police Headquarters where he advised Draper to call in the military. Meanwhile, fires had been set to two or three houses while residents remained under siege by looters and thugs.

The Aftermath of the Riots

During the two-day rioting eight men were killed and between thirty to a hundred others injured, roughly half of these requiring to be hospitalized. It was believed that many gang members were carried off by their friends and, over the next few days, those who were killed in the fighting were buried in cellars, hidden passageways and other locations in the Five Points and Paradise Square. Indeed, many known "sluggers" from both sides were noticeably absent from the area following the riot. According to underworld legend, these sites would be used for secret burials by street gangs for the next several decades.

Afterwards, occasional violence against Bowery Boys who ventured into the Five Points was reported, although none of these attacks reached the levels seen during the riots. The most serious of these incidents occurred the day following the riot when a group of Bowery Boys fought members of the Kerryonians in Center Street; however they were chased back to the Bowery and Chatham Square by the time police arrived.

Sporadic fighting continued for another week, most being confined in German-American neighborhoods in the East Side and the East River by younger criminals emulating the Irish gangs. Many of the Five Points gangs, most notably the Dead Rabbits, resented the implications made by police and newspapers that they had been committing criminal acts. The gang went so far as to have the New York Times print a statement denying such claims.

New York City during the American Civil War: 1861 – 1865

The Early War Years

New York City had long been the largest, and in many ways, most influential city in the United States. By 1860, its population was a wide variety of diverse cultures, views, opinions, and politics. As Southern states began seceding with the election of Lincoln, New Yorkers in general supported the war effort, but there were several notable early exceptions.

The city and the state had strong economic ties to the South; by 1822 half of of the city's exports were related to cotton, which also fed the upstate and New England textile mills. Mayor Fernando Wood won reelection to a second term, serving from 1860 to 1862. He was one of many New York Democrats who were sympathetic to the Confederacy, called 'Copperheads' by staunch Unionists. In January 1861, Wood suggested to the City Council that New York City secede as the "Free City of Tri-Insula", to continue its profitable cotton trade with the Confederacy. Wood's Democratic machine was concerned to maintain the revenues and jobs in the city (which depended on Southern cotton), which also supported the patronage system.

Politically, the city was dominated by Democrats, many of whom were under the control of a political machine known as Tammany Hall. Led by William "Boss" Tweed, the Democrats were elected to numerous offices in New York City, and to the state legislature and judges' seats, often through illegal means. From 1860 to 1870, Tweed controlled most Democratic nominations in the city, while Republicans tended to dominate upstate New York. Lincoln supporters formed the Union League to support the war effort and the president's policies.

A series of U.S. Army forts, most constructed prior to the war, housed garrisons of Union troops to protect New York Harbor and the city from possible Confederate attack, but none occurred. Fort Lafayette, Fort Schuyler, and several others eventually were used to hold hundreds of Confederate prisoners of war. The Army established or expanded several large military hospitals, including MacDougall Hospital and De Camp General Hospital, to serve the growing numbers of wounded and ill soldiers. Among the military innovations coming from New York City was the "Wig-Wag Signaling" system, tested in New York Harbor by Major Albert J. Myer.

Riker's Island was used as a military training ground for both white and United States Colored Troops during the Civil War; the latter were authorized in 1863. New soldiers were trained at "Camp Astor", named for the millionaire John Jacob Astor III, who provided funding for the army. Among the early regiments trained at Camp Astor were the Anderson Zouaves, commanded by Col. John Lafayette Riker, a descendant of the family who had owned the island.

The New York Navy Yard, established in 1801 in Brooklyn, was a major facility for the construction and repair of Union Navy ships. By the second year of the Civil War, the Yard had expanded to employ about 6000 men. In addition to government factories, hundreds of small private businesses throughout the New York area—such as the National Arms Company— provided military accoutrements, supplies, sundries, and items of use and comfort to the soldiers.

The Call for Volunteers: Despite pockets of objections to Lincoln's call for volunteers to serve in the Union army shortly after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, New Yorkers in general rushed to join the army or to raise financial and other support for the new troops.

In one three-month period in early 1861, the city raised $150,000,000 for the war effort. By the end of May 1861, New York had raised 30,000 men for the volunteer army, including the "New York Fire Zouaves" (11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment) under a personal friend of Lincoln, Elmer Ellsworth. Troops paraded down Broadway to cheers and shouts as they left for the war. Over the course of the war, the city would send off over 100,000 troops collected from around the state. (based on New York State records, New York City raised over 150,000 volunteers, not including the tens of thousands of militia called up during emergencies during the war. In addition, 30 to 50,000 sailors joined the Navy at New York City.)

Beside the Fire Zouaves, other regiments raised in New York City became prominent in the Union army, including the 1st U.S. Sharpshooters (under Col. Hiram Berdan), the 9th New York (Hawkins' Zouaves), and the 10th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment ("National Guard Zouaves").

In 1862, George Opdyke was elected as mayor of New York City, succeeding Fernando Wood. A staunch supporter of Lincoln since before the war, Opdyke worked hard to raise and equip more state troops, and to prevent commercial panics on Wall Street as the Union's war successes waxed and waned. Under his leadership, recruiting efforts were renewed, particularly targeted at the vast supply of immigrants.

The New York City Draft Riots (July 13 to July 16, 1863): New York's economy was tied to the South; by 1822 nearly half of its exports were cotton shipments. In addition, upstate textile mills processed cotton in manufacturing. New York had such strong business connections to the South that on January 7, 1861, Mayor Fernando Wood, a Democrat, called on the city's Board of Aldermen to "declare the city's independence from Albany and from Washington"; he said that it “would have the whole and united support of the Southern States.” When the Union entered the war, New York City had many southern sympathizers.

The city was also a continuing destination of immigrants; since the 1840s, most were from Ireland and Germany. In 1860, nearly 25% of the New York City population was German-born, and many did not yet speak English. During the 1840s and 1850s, journalists had published sensational accounts, directed at the working class, dramatizing the "evils" of interracial socializing relationships and marriages; reformers joined the effort. Newspapers carried derogatory portrayals of blacks and ridiculed "black aspirations for equal rights in voting, education, and employment". Pseudo-scientific lectures on phrenology were popular, although countered by doctors. At the time, some areas of the city, such as Lower Manhattan, had mixed populations of residents.

The Democratic Party political machine of Tammany Hall had been working to enroll immigrants as U.S. citizens so they could vote in local elections, and had strongly recruited Irish, most of whom already spoke English. In 1863, with the war continuing, Congress passed a law to establish a draft for the first time, as more troops were needed. In New York City and other locations, the new citizens learned that they were expected to register for the draft to fight for their new country. Black men were excluded from the draft as they were not considered citizens, and wealthier white men could pay for substitutes. Free black men and immigrants competed for low-wage jobs in the city.

While New York political offices, including the mayor, were held by Democrats, the election of Abraham Lincoln as president had demonstrated the rise in Republican political power nationally. The Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 alarmed much of the working class in New York, who feared that freed slaves would migrate to the city and add further competition to the labor market. There had already been tensions between black and white workers since the 1850s, particularly at the docks. In March 1863, white longshoremen had refused to work with blacks and rioted, attacking 200 black men. In this area of the city, there were a variety of interracial venues of brothels and bars, and neighborhoods were mixed in terms of residents. Men also competed as hacks, craftsmen and in other jobs.

Monday - July 13th, 1863: There were reports of rioting in Buffalo, New York, and certain other cities, but the first drawing of numbers on July 11, 1863 occurred peaceably in New York City. The second drawing was held on Monday, July 13, 1863, ten days after the Union victory at Gettysburg. At 10 a.m., a furious crowd of around 500, led by the Black Joke Engine Company 33, attacked the assistant Ninth District Provost Marshal's Office, at Third Avenue and 47th Street, where the draft was taking place. The crowd threw large paving stones through windows, then burst through the doors and set the building ablaze. When the fire department responded, rioters broke up their vehicles. Others killed horses pulling streetcars and smashed the cars. To prevent other parts of the city being notified of the riot, the rioters cut telegraph lines. Many of the rioters were Irish laborers who feared having to compete with emancipated slaves for jobs.

Since the New York State Militia had been sent to assist Union troops in Pennsylvania, the New York City Police Department was the only force to try to suppress the riots. The police superintendent, John A. Kennedy, arrived at the site on Monday to check on the situation. Although not in uniform, he was recognized by people in the mob who attacked him. Kennedy was left nearly unconscious, having had his face bruised and cut, his eye injured, lips swollen, and his hand cut with a knife; he was beaten to a mass of bruises and blood all over his body. Police drew their clubs and revolvers, and charged the crowd, but were overpowered. The police forces were badly outnumbered and unable to quell the riots; but they kept the rioting out of Lower Manhattan below Union Square. Immigrants and others in the "Bloody Sixth" Ward, around the seaport and Five Points area, refrained from getting involved in the Draft Riots.

The Bull's Head hotel on 44th Street, which refused to provide alcohol to the mob, was burned. The mayor's residence on Fifth Avenue, the Eighth and Fifth District police stations, and other buildings were attacked and set on fire. Other targets included the office of the New York Times. The mob was turned back at the Times office by staff manning Gatling guns, including Times founder Henry Jarvis Raymond. Fire engine companies responded, but some of the firefighters were sympathetic to the rioters, since they too had been drafted on Saturday. Later in the afternoon, authorities shot and killed a man as a crowd attacked the Armory at Second Avenue and 21st Street. The mob broke all the windows with paving stones ripped from the street.

Rioters turned against black people as their scapegoats and the primary target of their anger. Many immigrants and the poor viewed free black men as competition for scarce jobs, and worried about more slaves being emancipated and coming to New York for work. Some rioters thought slavery was the cause of the Civil War. The mob beat, tortured and or killed numerous black people, including one man who was attacked by a crowd of 400 with clubs and paving stones, and then lynched (hanged) him from a tree and set fire to his body.

The Colored Orphan Asylum at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue, which then provided shelter for 233 children, was attacked by a mob about 4 in the afternoon. It was a "symbol of white charity to blacks and of black upward mobility." A mob of several thousand, including many women and children, looted the building of its food and supplies. However, the police were able to secure the orphanage for enough time to allow the orphans to escape before the building was burned down.

Throughout the areas of rioting, mobs attacked and killed at least 100 black people, and destroyed their known homes and businesses, such as James McCune Smith's pharmacy at 93 West Broadway, believed to be the first owned by a black man in the United States. While removed from the midtown area of the riots, white longshoremen used the chaos of events to "remove all evidence of a black and interracial social life from the area near the docks. White dockworkers attacked and destroyed brothels, dance halls, boarding houses, and tenements that catered to blacks; mobs stripped the clothing off the white owners of these businesses.

Tuesday - July 14th, 1863: Heavy rain fell on Monday night, helping to abate the fires and sending rioters home, but the crowd returned the next day. Commerce in the city was halted, with workers joining the crowd. Rioters attacked the homes of notable Republicans, including the activist Abby Hopper Gibbons, among others. Governor Horatio Seymour arrived on Tuesday and spoke at City Hall, where he attempted to assuage the crowd by proclaiming the Conscription Act was unconstitutional. General John E. Wool, Commander of the Eastern District, brought approximately 800 troops in from forts in the New York Harbor and from West Point. He also ordered the militias to return to New York.

Wednesday - July 15th & Thursday - July 16th, 1863: The situation improved on Wednesday, when assistant provost-marshal-general Robert Nugent received word from his superior officer, Colonel James Barnet Fry, to suspend the draft. As this news appeared in newspapers, some rioters stayed home. But some of the militias began to return and used harsh measures against the remaining mobs.

Order began to be restored on Thursday, after a peaceful rally of 5,000 at Old St. Patrick's Cathedral to hear Archbishop Hughes. The New York State militia and some federal troops were returned to New York, including the 152nd New York Volunteers, the 26th Michigan Volunteers, the 27th Indiana Volunteers and the 7th Regiment New York State Militia from Frederick, Maryland, after a forced march. In addition, the governor sent in the 74th and 65th regiments of the New York State Militia, which had not been in federal service, and a section of the 20th Independent Battery, New York Volunteer Artillery from Fort Schuyler in Throgs Neck. The NYSM units were the first to arrive. By July 16, there were several thousand Federal troops in the city. A final confrontation occurred on Thursday evening near Gramercy Park. According to Adrian Cook's analysis in his Armies of the Streets (1974), twelve people died on the last day of the riots in skirmishes between rioters and the police and army, including one African American, two soldiers, a bystander, and two women.

The Aftermath of the Draft Riots: The exact death toll during the New York Draft Riots is unknown, but according to historian James M. McPherson (2001), at least 120 civilians were killed. At least eleven black men were killed by lynching. Violence by longshoremen against black men was especially fierce in the docks area.

The most reliable estimates indicate that at least 2,000 people were injured. Herbert Asbury, the author of the 1928 book Gangs of New York, upon which the 2002 film was based, puts the figure much higher, at 2,000 killed and 8,000 wounded, but this figure is not widely accepted and is considered myth. Total property damage was about $1–5 million ($15 – $75 million in 2011, adjusted for inflation). The city treasury later indemnified one-quarter of the amount. The historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote that the riots were "equivalent to a Confederate victory". Fifty buildings, including two Protestant churches and the Colored Orphan Asylum, burned to the ground.

During the riots, landlords had driven blacks from their residences, as they feared their buildings being destroyed. As a result of the violence against blacks, hundreds left New York, including James McCune Smith, moving to Williamsburg, Brooklyn (still a separate city) and New Jersey. The white elite in New York organized to provide relief to black riot victims, helping them find new work and homes. The Union League Club and the Committee of Merchants for the Relief of Colored People provided nearly $40,000 to 2500 victims of the riots. By 1865 the total black population had dropped to under 10,000, the lowest it had been since 1820. The white working class riots had changed the demographics of the city and exerted their control in the workplace; they became "unequivocally divided" from blacks.

On August 19, the government resumed the draft in New York. It was completed within 10 days without further incident. Fewer men were drafted than had been feared by the working class: of the 750,000 selected nationwide for conscription, only about 45,000 went into service.

While the rioting mainly involved the working class, middle and upper-class New Yorkers had split sentiments on the draft and use of federal power or martial law to enforce it. Many wealthy Democratic businessmen sought to have the draft declared unconstitutional. Tammany Democrats did not seek to have the draft declared unconstitutional, but helped pay the commutation fees for those who were drafted. In December 1863, the Union League Club gained permission to raise a regiment of black soldiers, outfitted and trained them, and saw the thousand men off with a parade through the city to the Hudson River docks in March 1864; a crowd estimated at one hundred thousand watching the procession led by police and members of the Union League Club.

New York City's support for the Union cause continued, however grudgingly, and gradually Southern sympathies declined in the city. New York banks eventually financed the Civil War, and the state's industries were more productive than the entire Confederacy. By the end of the war, more than 450,000 soldiers, sailors and militia had enlisted from New York State, which was the most populous at the time. A total of 46,000 military men from New York State died during the war, more from disease than wounds.

The Effects of the New York Media on the Civil War: New York City had a number of widely read and influential newspapers and periodicals, whose influence was felt across the country. Horace Greeley, one of the founders of the Republican Party, developed his New York Tribune into America's most influential newspaper from 1840 through 1870. Greeley used it to promote the Whig and Republican parties, as well as anti-slavery and other reform movements. Greeley, who during the secession crisis of 1861 had espoused a hard line against the Confederacy, became a voice for the Radical Republicans during the war, in opposition to Lincoln’s moderation. By 1864 he had lost much of his control over the newspaper, but wrote an editorial expressing defeatism regarding Lincoln’s chances of reelection. As his editorials were reprinted across the country, his pessimism was widely read.

The New York Herald, under owner James Gordon Bennett, Sr., regularly criticized Lincoln's administration and policies, although Bennett and his paper strongly supported the Union. He had endorsed John C. Breckinridge early in the 1860 presidential campaign, then shifted to John Bell. In 1864, Bennett promoted George B. McClellan against Lincoln, but officially endorsed neither candidate.

In addition to the powerful newspapers, New York City was the site of the printing presses of several other important periodicals, such as Harper's Weekly, Frank Leslie's Illustrated News, and New York Illustrated News. The political cartoonist Thomas Nast became a well-known commentator on the war, and his efforts helped stir patriotism and fervor for the Union. Field war correspondents and artists such as Alfred Waud provided the public with first-hand accounts from the Northern armies.

Two journalists for the Brooklyn Eagle conspired to exploit the financial situation during the early part of 1864, a plot known as the Civil War gold hoax. On May 18, two New York City newspapers, the New York World and the New York Journal of Commerce, wrote articles suggesting 400,000 more men were to be drafted into the Union army. Share prices soon fell on the New York Stock Exchange when investors began to buy gold, and its value increased 10%. Officials finally traced the source of the story to the two men from the rival Brooklyn newspaper and arrested them.

Thomas W. Knox, a veteran journalist for the New York Herald, published a series of scathing attacks on General William Tecumseh Sherman and his men. These contributed to speculation over Sherman's sanity. Knox printed important information related to the Vicksburg Campaign that led to his being charged, tried, and found guilty of disobedience of orders, although he was acquitted on espionage charges.

The Shadow of Election Day Sabotage in 1864: Secret agents from the Confederacy operated in New York City throughout the war, providing information on troop strengths, political views, shipments, etc. to the government in Richmond. Some of these agents planned an act of terrorism for Election Day in November 1864, to burn down several leading city hotels. The plot was initially foiled due to a double agent who turned over communications to Federal officials, and to a massive military presence that deterred the plotters. Election Day passed without incident. But, on November 25, the saboteurs finally struck, setting fires at several hotels and other leading landmarks, including P. T. Barnum's museum, which had been rebuilt following the Draft Riots the year before. The city's firefighters extinguished most of the blazes, and the majority of the conspirators escaped to Canada.

The Gilded Age of Gotham

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 preeminent cultural institutions, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Opera, the American Museum of Natural History, while the Brooklyn Museum was a major institution of New York's independent sister city.

New York newspapers were read across the continent as editors James Gordon Bennett, Sr., Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst battled for readership.

The flood of immigration from Europe passed first through Castle Clinton (opened 1855) and then through Ellis Island (opened 1892) in New York Harbor, under the eye of the Statue of Liberty (1886).

The new European immigration brought further social upheaval, and old world criminal societies rapidly exploited the already corrupt municipal machine politics of Tammany Hall, while local American barons of industry further exploited the immigrant masses with ever lower wages and crowded living conditions. In a city of tenements packed with cheap foreign labor from dozens of nations, the city was a hotbed of revolution, syndicalism, racketeering, and unionization. In response, the upper classes used partisan hand-outs, organized crime groups, heavy handed policing and political oppression to undermine groups which refused to be co-opted. Groups such as anti-capitalist labor unions, native American patriot organizations such as the American Protective Association, and reformers of all stripes were fiercely repressed, while crime lords that became too independent disappeared.

Hundreds of thousands of people came to Castle Garden (and later to Ellis Island) during this period. Many of them were Irish Catholics, others English or German; Italians settled around Mulberry Street between the East Village and Lower Manhattan, in an area later to be know as "Little Italy." A number of East European Jews came to the Lower East Side and Jewtown, escaping persecutions and Pogroms. New York was the most crowded city in the world. Two out of three New Yorkers in the 1890's were living in poor housing buildings, the infamous tenements.

Epidemics of typhus, cholera, diphtheria and tuberculosis were rampant in the city's slums, hiding in the rookeries. Horse manure and human wastes were in the streets. In winter, when all the grime froze, walking on the sidewalks was impossible. Animals and livestock such as pigs and horses died and remained on the street. In 1894 Colonel George E. Waring, Jr. introduced sanitary reforms.

William Marcy Tweed, 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 muckraking newspaper accounts and the biting cartoons of Thomas Nast helped in the election of opposition candidates in 1871, resulting in Tweed's conviction for forgery and larceny in 1873. Tweed's fall put an end to the total immunity of corrupt local political leaders, and was a precursor to the rise of Progressive Era reforms in the city.

In the Orange Riots of July 1871 and 1872, Catholic Irish attempted to stop Protestant Irish from celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne. These resulted in more than 33 deaths and many wounded.

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 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.

Prewar steam ferries had already made Brooklyn Heights into a bedroom community for affluent professionals on Wall Street and other urban areas. Elevated railroads operated by the Manhattan Railway Company, and other new public transport expanded the commuter area of New York, allowing development of suburbs for commuters of more modest means in Upper West Side and other distant areas. Plans were made for subways to still more remote exurbs such as Harlem and the West Bronx.

Organized crime came with the Italian immigrants in the 1880s. The Black Hand is regarded by many scholars to be the first example of organized crime in modern Western World. Born in New York slums as a form of parallel power, engaged in extortion, Black Hand later paved the way for the Mafia.

Muckraking pioneering photojournalist Jacob Riis documented the poor conditions of immigrant tenement dwellers in his 1890 "How the Other Half Lives"; he was befriended by mutual admirer, fellow progressive and future United States President Theodore Roosevelt, who, after losing in the mayoral race in 1886, undertook a major reform of the New York City Police Department in 1895-1897 during his term as President of the Police Commissioners.

In the late 19th century, the island's schist bedrock helped facilitate the early development of the highrises which characterize New York's skyline today.

Annexation and Consolidation of the Five Boroughs

In 1855, the City of Brooklyn annexed Williamsburg and Bushwick, forming what became the third-most-populous city in America.

In 1870, Long Island City was formed in Queens.

In 1874, New York City annexed what is today the West Bronx, west of the Bronx River. The Brooklyn Bridge 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 five boroughs — was created in 1898, with the consolidation of the cities of New York (then Manhattan and the Bronx) and Brooklyn with the largely then-rural areas of Queens and Staten Island.

1898 – 1945

The Sabbat Histories of New York

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Location

Introduction: The geography of New York City is characterized by its coastal position at the meeting of the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean in a naturally sheltered harbor. The city's geography, with its scarce availability of land, is a contributing factor in making it one of the most densely populated cities in the United States. Environmental issues are chiefly concerned with managing this density, which also explains why New York is among the most energy efficient and least automobile-dependent cities in the United States. The city's climate is temperate.

New York City is located on the coast of the Northeastern United States at the mouth of the Hudson River in southeastern New York state. The New York Harbor, with its deep waters and sheltered bays, helped the city grow in significance as a trading city. Much of New York is built on the three islands of Manhattan, Staten Island, and western Long Island, making land scarce and encouraging a high population density.

The Hudson River flows from the Hudson Valley into New York Bay, becoming a tidal estuary that separates the Bronx and Manhattan from Northern New Jersey. The Harlem River, another tidal strait between the East and Hudson Rivers, separates Manhattan from the Bronx.

The boroughs of New York City straddle the border between two geologic provinces of eastern North America. Brooklyn and Queens, located on Long Island, are part of the eastern coastal plain. Long Island is a massive moraine which formed at the southern fringe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the last Ice Age. The Bronx and Manhattan lie on the eastern edge of the Newark Basin, a block of the Earth's crust which sank downward during the disintegration of the super-continent Pangaea during the Triassic period. The Palisades Sill on the New Jersey shore of the Hudson River exposes ancient, once-molten rock that filled the basin. Tough metamorphic rocks underlie much of Manhattan, providing solid support for its many skyscrapers.

The city's land has been altered considerably by human intervention, with substantial land reclamation along the waterfronts since Dutch colonial times. Reclamation is most notable in Lower Manhattan with modern developments like Battery Park City. Much of the natural variations in topography have been evened out, particularly in Manhattan. The West Side of Manhattan retains some hilliness, especially in Upper Manhattan, while the East Side has been considerably flattened. Duffy's Hill in East Harlem is one notable exception to the East Side's relatively level grade.

The city's land area is estimated to be 321 square miles (831.4 square kilometres). However, a more recent estimate calculates a total land area of 304.8 square miles (789.4 square kilometres). The highest natural point in the city is Todt Hill on Staten Island, which at 409.8 ft (124.9 m) above sea level is the highest hill on the Eastern Seaboard south of Maine. The summit of the ridge is largely covered in woodlands as part of the Staten Island Greenbelt.

The Five Boroughs

The Inner Borough

-- Manhattan

The Outer Boroughs

Maps of New York City

-- New York City Street Map
-- New York Subway Map

Population

City (8,336,697) - Estimated 2012 census
Metro Area (18,897,109) - 2011 census
Combined Statistical Area (22,085,649) - 2011 census

Theme & Mood

Theme: The theme of New York by Night is a worldly rebirth and renewal. The city is as close to a clean slate as it can be, and it merely awaits the Kindred bold or powerful enough to tum its undead assets to their advantage. Without potent elders to stand in their way, even the rankest fledglings among the Kindred have a chance at proving themselves and making a place among the society of the undead. Note also that this is a temporal renewal. With so much power up for grabs, certain Kindred will no doubt have to temper their desires for physical importance with their own spiritual and moral inclinations. Will characters resort to slander? Lies? Betrayal? Murder? Characters with disposable morals will probably have an easier time ascending the hierarchy, but at what cost? Will that hierarchy support monstrous fiends? Few of the characters included in this book would want to see a weak or indulgent prince claim the city as his domain -what would have been the point of ousting the Sabbat if a nominally Camarilla terror abuses his position? At the same time, the Kindred cannot deny their predatory or parasitical nature. When the sun sets, a vampire shall be prince of the city, and a vampire's basic needs transcend sect, clan and other political concerns. Whether one pledges support to the Camarilla or Sabbat, one must still drink vitae to survive.

Mood: The mood in New York is one of cynical optimism. While that may seem an oxymoron at first, consider the roles of the city's Kindred. The Sabbat has been brought low, but it knows that, given enough opportunity, it could claim New York again. The Camarilla has afresh prize, but the Kindred who have already made their havens there know how bad it can be, while most of the Kindred new to the city have come for some reason, and it's probably not because the elders in their former cities liked them so much. New York's undead pray for the best while preparing for the worst.

Consider also the position of the city's almost 20,000,000 mortal residents. So some secret vampiric power tide has shifted -so what? Just as the average New Yorker's life doesn't change radically when Salomon Smith Barney appoints anew vice president, neither does the average New Yorker's life change when a new Lick seizes power in that realm. This isn't to say that mortals are irrelevant. Quite the contrary: More than most other cities, the line distinguishing the Kindred from the kine is more pronounced here. Consider those moral questions above, this time with mortal involvement. What's the extinguishing of one mortal life to a would-be prince maddened by power? Indeed, it could be the one act of atrocity that sends her to wassail.

Monuments

-- Ellis Island
-- Liberty Island
-- World Trade Center site -- Formerly known as "Ground Zero"

All the Beautiful Monsters

-- Vampires of New York from 1999 to 2022
-- Vampires of New York from 2022 Onward
-- Character Creation

Websites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City

New York City

Contents

Quote

Appearance

The Great Seal of the State of New York

Climate

Economy

Real estate and corporate location

Finance

Information technology

The Health Care and Biomedical Industries

Manufacturing

Trade

Media

Film

A Letter from Hanneman

History

Before the "New World"

American Prehistory to 1664

The Coming of the Europeans

In the Year of Our Lord 1626

Fort Orange and New Amsterdam

The British and the American Revolution: 1664 – 1783

"Where It Belongs"

1784 – 1854

Immigration - Growth & Change

The Dead Rabbits Riot of 1857

The Aftermath of the Riots

New York City during the American Civil War: 1861 – 1865

The Early War Years

The Gilded Age of Gotham

Annexation and Consolidation of the Five Boroughs

1898 – 1945

The Sabbat Histories of New York

Location

Population

Theme & Mood

Monuments

All the Beautiful Monsters

Websites

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