New York City

Major metropolis situated at the southern tip of Manhattan Island and the western tip of Long Island in the state of New York.[1]

Originally populated by the Lanape Indians and founded as a Dutch trading colony called New Amsterdam in 1609, incorporated as a city on February 2, 1653. In 1664, the area was conquered by the British and renamed it New York for the Duke of York. Under British rule, New York grew rapidly as a trading port in the early 1700s. With the United States victory over the British in the American Revolution in 1785, New York City was made the national capital until it was moved to Philadelphia in 1790.[1]

The city began to expand greatly in the early 19th century. The street grid of Manhattan was established in 1811 and the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 connected the the Atlantic port of New York City to the agricultural markets up the Hudson River to the Great Lakes.[1]

In 1845, the Irish Potato Famine began to bring thousands of immigrants from Ireland and by 1860, the Irish composed more than a quarter of the city's population. By the 1850s, New York City was becoming the largest railroad center in the country.[1]

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ABOVE: New York City, 1873, lithograph restored by Adam Cuerden.[2]

Brasada Spur: In September of 1872, Rufus Elgree remarked that telgrams Bart Maverick had sent seemed to indicate that he knew every multi-millionaire in Chicago and New York.[3]

Today, New York City is the second-largest city in the world, only exceeded by Tokyo, Japan.[4]

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