Building the Brooklyn Bridge was dangerous work. The project took at least 20 lives. Among the dead was John A. Roebling, the bridge’s designer, who contracted tetanus after his foot was hit by a boat at the Fulton Ferry landing in 1869. Unlike Roebling, most of the casualties were not celebrated men. Since some deaths went unrecorded, we will never know exactly how many men died constructing “The Great East River Bridge.”

While Fred E. French's development Tudor City flourished, the perils of private-sector redevelopment emerged at French’s next major project, Knickerbocker Village, located on the Lower East Side near the Manhattan Bridge. When his plans, which included the demolition of the infamous “Lung Block,” faltered in the Depression economy, he was left holding 14.5 acres of tenement property, optioned at about $14 psf. In 1933, French went hat-in-hand to the federal government’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation to beg for millions to realize his dream. Federal officials provided only enough for part of the project: two massive perimeter blocks that, at 12 stories, rose high above the surrounding tenements, yet covered just about half the land. The project achieved a density of 800 people per acre. NYCHA’s first Chair, Langdon Post, called Knickerbocker Village “new types of slums,” but the tenants disagreed after repairs were made to the hastily-built buildings.

48 Henry Street, July 1967.

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Brooklynites have long known that Emily Warren Roebling was a key player in the building of their bridge, which was the longest, tallest suspension bridge in the world when it opened on May 24, 1883. Still, the naming of “Emily Warren Roebling Way” comes as Roebling herself enjoys a moment in the limelight. Last Thursday, the bridge celebrated its 135th birthday, which generated fresh discussions of Roebling’s essential role in the project.

51 Market Street, ca. 1978. This four-story building, also known as the William and Rosamond Clark House, was constructed in 1824-25 by an unknown architect. Designed for William Clark, a grocer, the building is an early example of the Late Federal style on the Lower East Side. The home was erected at a time when the neighborhood was an affluent residential area. While the structure may not appear particularly architecturally distinguished today, the building was one of the first to be designated after the Landmark Commission was created in 1965.

Henry Street, south side between Oliver and Catherine Street, Manhattan, showing P.S. #1, 1920. One of four public schools in New York City that have used the name“P.S. 1”, the C.B.J. Snyder designed school was completed in 1897. When opened it served the largely Italian immigrant neighborhood. Subsequent immigration waves included Polish and Russian Jews during and after World War I and later Puerto Ricans and Chinese students. It is believed that this school had the very first rooftop playground. Famous alum include singers Luther Vandross and Eddie Cantor, as well as actors Jimmy Durante and Robert Loggia. Fun fact: This school's origins date to the New York Free School 1, founded in 1809, which predates even the city's Board of Education, set up in 1842.

Oak and New Chambers Streets, decorated for St. Vincent’s festival, October 27, 1935. Buildings along both streets were razed between 1950 and 1953, ahead of the construction of the Alfred E. Smith Houses. The Municipal Building is visible in the background, as are the elevated tracks of the combined Second and Third Avenue Lines.

Railroad sheds at Pier 21 on the East River, March 30, 1937. Berenice Abbott's photo captures the pier shed of the Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio Railroads at Pier 21 with the Brooklyn Bridge immediately above and Manhattan Bridge in the background. The pier was removed in the late 1960s.

A 5-story structure, No. 68 (second from the corner), was supposed to have been the first place where stereopticon and shadow views were first shown. It also is reputed to have had the first public meeting rooms on this thoroughfare.

Pagoda Theater, 1964. The Pagoda Theater, which was designed in 1963, was the last new building in New York's Chinatown created by the Chinatown-born architect Poy Gum Lee. Opened in 1964, the theater was the first Chinese language movie theater in the neighborhood built expressly for that purpose (the other three had been converted into theaters). The theater was rendered in a Chinese-influenced, modern style with a three-tiered pagoda at the corner. The auditorium sat just under 500 patrons. The opening of the theater was celebrated with a dragon dance through the nearby streets of Chinatown. The theater closed in the late 1980s and was razed and replaced in the early 1990s with a 15-story commercial structure.

One of the finest of the Greek Revival churches in Manhattan, it has been attributed to Minard Lafever because of the beauty of its detail. The porch is recessed between wide flanking sidewalls, as is the case with St. John's in the Village, only this church is simple distyle in antis of the Doric order.

Shearith Israel Graveyard ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1683 STYLE: Graveyard This small graveyard is what remains today of the early burial ground of the Sephardic Jewish congregation, Shearith Israel. It was established on this site in the Seventeenth Century and thus represents one of the oldest cemeteries within the City. Handsome headstones are here interspersed by marble sarcophagus with simple flat-slab tops. One little monument is surmounted by a small pyramidal stone cap. The unique quality of this small plot lies not only in the simplicity of its early tombs but in its forgotten aspect, surrounded by houses, a reminder of our earliest history.

Construction on the South Street Pumping Station, across South Street from the Long Island Railroad Freight Depot at East River Pier 32; undated photo. A May 1885 report in the Babylon Budget detailed construction of the new depot at piers 32 and 33, "which promises to be the handsomest and most substantial on the whole riverfront." The report further quoted from the Fishing Dispatch trade publication, claiming the depot's construction had been driven by a fourfold increase in freight traffic. Pier 32 was also used for Ferry Service to Long Island City. At the turn of the century, the facing block on South Street was transformed as four buildings, Nos. 191-194, were razed for the construction of the fire department's South Street Pumping Station, completed in 1909. Around the same time, the East River piers were renumbered. By 1922, freight storage for the Pennsylvania and Long Island railroads had expanded to occupy the area between the Pier 22 (formerly 30-31), at foot of Roosevelt Street, and Pier 25 (formerly 33), at the foot of Oliver Street. Most of the piers in this area were removed by 1977.

Saint James Roman Catholic Church ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1835-37 STYLE: Greek Revival, Church St. James Church is a fine example of Greek Revival architecture. It has recessed porch with two columns on either side of the porch are enclosed stairs with their own doors opening on to the street. The entire front is crowned by a low gable pediment. One of the principal contributions of the Greek Revival in this country was its modification of the classic temple form.

Chatham Branch, NYPL, ca. 1903. Chatham Square Branch was the first of twelve Carnegie libraries designed by McKim, Mead & White. Completed in 1903, the structure remains one of the most intact Carnegie libraries (interior and exterior) in the city. The Chinatown-located library has served that community nearly since its opening. The library began a circulating Chinese language collection in 1911. Today the Chinese Heritage Collection, a unique collection of materials in English and Chinese, is housed on the lower floor.

Brooklyn Bridge ca. 1903 Opened in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge ushered in the era of the new metropolis, closing the chapter had been a compact unified, "walking" city. Extended routes of daily travel and multiple neighborhoods for dwelling, working, shopping, entertainment, and all other aspects of the urban quotidian became the norm for most New Yorkers thereafter. As the first twisted-steel cable (the cables measure 15 3/4" in diameter) bridge and the first span bridge of such prodigious length, the Brooklyn Bridge inaugurated a new era of modern bridge building. All bridges built after it- the Manhattan and Williamsburg, the George Washington, the Golden Gate, and others - derived much of their engineering methods from this project. Additionally, the Brooklyn bridge, referred to when it opened as the "Eighth Wonder of the World," facilitated metropolitan consolidation; this, in turn, contributed to a widening sense of regional identity, underscoring the commercial and sociological importance of the bridges themselves. In the 1840s, German-born engineer John Roebling developed a cable made of twisted steel wire, the strongest and most resilient technique ever devised for this kind of bridge construction. The new cable enabled the construction of the longest bridge ever known. Improved methods for sinking the pneumatic caissons - the huge airtight boxes of compressed air provided for workers excavating beneath the river beds- were developed during this project. In 1869, while John Roebling was trying to determine the location of the Brooklyn tower, his leg was crushed by an incoming ferry. Roebling died from the resulting gangrene. He was succeeded as project director by his son, Colonel Washington A. Roebling. In the summer of 1872, Washington became incapacitated by decompression illness, also known as the bends or caisson disease. His wife, Emily Warren Roebling, oversaw the last ten years of the bridge's construction in what may be a unique instance of a woman in the bridge world. It became and remains a major New York City icon.

Bridge Cafe 279 Water Street Architect unknown 1794 Adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge, the Bridge Café is the district’s only extant wood-frame building. The building originally housed a grocery and a wine and porter bottler, and was initially only two-and-a-half stories high with a peaked roof. In 1888, the exterior was altered: its peaked roof was removed and the façade was covered with novelty Victorian-era siding. At present, the façade is painted brick red with black trim. The building has retained its commercial use for over 200 years. In fact, the Bridge Café was the oldest continuously running tavern in New York City until it closed in 2012 after Superstorm Sandy. Former Mayor Edward Koch was a regular customer in the 1970s. The owners are currently repairing the building and are hoping to re-open the Café in 2016. The Bridge Café is located in the New York City and State and National Register of Historic Places South Street Seaport historic districts.

"Market Street, east side, north from Madison, to and including Henry Streets. The Manhattan Bridge is seen in the background." - P.L. Sperr, September 9, 1927.

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the most iconic symbols of New York. Try imagining the skyline without the looming Gothic towers. Now try to imagine no bridges over the East River to connect the separate cities of Brooklyn and Manhattan and having to rely on overcrowded, unreliable, and generally unsafe ferries. This was the reality of 1850s New York. Yet the Brooklyn Bridge almost didn’t happen. Amid rumors of curses on the designer’s family, corruption, and death came amazing technological innovations and people doing incredible things. The idea of putting a bridge across the East River wasn’t a new idea even in 1850. Plans were discussed, made, and scrapped regularly with strident opposition on basically every element, including the very big question of whether it was even possible to traverse the East River. And, if it was, then at 1,600 feet across, it’d be the longest span of bridge in the world at that time. To say that German immigrant John A. Roebling was born to meet this challenge would be a gross overstatement and cliche, but in this case it seems to work. He had created new forms of steel cables that aided his designs of technically brilliant bridges in Cincinnati and Niagara Falls. In 1867, his plans for the “East River and Brooklyn Bridge” (its previous official name) were accepted by the Tammany Hall-controlled New York Bridge Company and he was named Chief Engineer. But, on June 28, 1869, as John A. Roebling was measuring possible locations for the towers of the bridge near the Fulton Ferry, a boat hit his foot and crushed his toes. Within a month, he died of tetanus. His son and partner, 32 year-old Washington Roebling, overcame his grief and took over his father’s position as the Chief Engineer, determined to finish what they had started. This would not be the last tragedy or death that would befall the Roebling family, or the construction of the bridge. Under Washington Roebling’s supervision the construction began in earnest on January 2, 1870. The first step was building caissons, which are watertight structures with a series of airlocks to provide dry underwater space for workers to dig the foundation into solid rock. Roebling and his men worked in conditions described by Master Mechanic E.F. Farrington: ” The temperature in the caissons was about 80 \[degrees], and the workmen, with half-naked bodies, seen in dim, uncertain light brought vividly to life Dante’s ‘Inferno’.” But beyond bringing to life poetic masterpieces, there were far more real problems to contend with – fires and explosions plagued the caissons as did the deadly “caisson disease” now known as “the bends” or more technically, decompression sickness. During the construction of the bridge, over one hundred men contracted and were killed or severely debilitated by caisson disease, including Washington Roebling. S. A. (Silas A.) Holmes (1819 or 20-1886). New York Caisson nearly down. 1872. Museum of the City of New York. 57.15.4. In early 1872, after working 12 straight hours in the caisson, Roebling rose to the surface from the compressed air too quickly and according to some reports, promptly passed out. This began his lifelong battle with the disease that would cause him pain, partial paralysis, temporary loss of his voice and sight, and all sorts of other terrible symptoms that led him to be an invalid for rest of the construction of the bridge and most of his life, forcing him to become bedridden, threatening his position as Chief Engineer. However, all was not lost. Using a telescope from the bedroom window of his house on 106 Columbia Street in Brooklyn, Washington would give notes and directions to his wife Emily to take to the engineers on the bridge. Emily had taught herself the math and science to help her husband throughout the project, and now she was using her knowledge to oversee construction while also speaking to distributors, politicians, and all levels of workers, making so many important decisions that it was not long before some begin to think of her as the de facto Chief Engineer, going so far as to believe she was the true intelligence behind the bridge’s design and completion. Indeed, even the New York Times gave her credit right after the bridge opened (and keep in mind, this was at the height of the Gilded Age, when it was still debated if women could even actually learn). But another 11 years passed as the bridge inched slowly toward completion. There was fraud with sub par material, political and public outcry about the bridge being constantly delayed, and constant newspaper columns complaining about it going over budget. (For an 1878 article titled “Are We Wasting Money?” that suggests that destroying the towers of the bridge would really be, in fact, the best way to proceed, click here.). Adding to the drama was a last minute move by Mayor Seth Low to dismiss Washington Roebling from his position as Chief Engineer, due to his inability to personally oversee the...

St. James Roman Catholic Church, 1938. This fieldstone Greek Revival church (right) was built between 1835-37 and is the second-oldest Catholic church building in Manhattan. Despite its status as a New York City Landmark, the church was closed in 1983 due to deterioration and concerns that its roof could collapse. The structure was damaged in a 2011 fire, but remains intact. In the middle ground, the two-level elevated tracks of the Second and Third Avenue elevated lines run above New Bowery (St. James Place), between Franklin Square and the split at Chatham Square. In the far background, the elevated tracks of the IRT City Hall Spur are visible over Park Row.

"Chinatown Today," a 1973 mural by Alan Okada, viewed from Pike Street.; ca. 1978. Okada's mural was one of several produced by the City Arts Workshop, a community organization promoting the representation of the neighborhood's communities of color through the arts, especially murals. "Chinatown Today," appeared on the eastern wall of No. 107 East Broadway, above a vacant lot along Pike Street. After Edmund Vincent Gillon's photo, the single-story Hong Kong Supermarket opened on this lot. In May 2009, a fire at the supermarket caused heavy damage to the buildings abutting this corner, leading to the demolition of No. 107. By then, however, Okada's mural had been painted over.

Christmas trees for sale outside Gogel's Delicatessen. December 23, 1941.

Opposite Mulberry Bend ca. 1898 This stretch of East Broadway was enjoying a revival of sorts after the 1892 demolition of the adjacent notorious slum, the Mulberry Bend. Here the well-dressed families and closed shops- one with a sign in Hebrew- suggests that it is Saturday and families are milling about after attending synagogue. Lazarus Levy- the proprietor of the shop at 30 East Broadway- was among twelve and a half pages of Levys listed in the 1898 city directory. He moved his business to East Houston Street within the year.

Oliver Street Baptist Church ARCHITECT: Isaac Lucas DATE: 1844-45 STYLE: Greek Revival The Oliver Street Baptist Church is a fine local expression of Greek Revival architecture stated in its simplest terms and it uses inexpensive materials which nevertheless produce an overall effect of great dignity. The recessed portico with its two handsome Ionic columns is flanked on either side by plain wall surfaces relieved only by the introduction of simple panels. This composition is crowned by a well proportioned low-angled gable (pediment). The sidewalls have full length windows which light the aisles and the galleries above them.

174 South Street, 1934. No. 174, a four-story brick building which sat directly under the Brooklyn Bridge, was the home where Al Smith, four-time New York State Governor, was born in 1873.

The Manhattan Bridge opened to the public on the morning of December 31, 1909. It was the third suspension bridge built to span the East River, joining the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges. At the beginning of construction, its name was “Bridge No. 3” but that didn’t stick. In the end, the city opted for something simple, christening the bridge Manhattan

Presbyterian Church of the Sea and Land, May, 1924.

Did you ever wonder about how historic City records make their way to the Municipal Archives? Did you assume that all the documents, photographs, maps, ledgers, plans, etc. in the Archives had been dutifully maintained in their “creating” City offices, and then carefully transferred to their permanent home at 31 Chambers Street?

My Archive Spring 2019 "One day in 2002 I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge with my two little kids. We stopped to take photos on the bridge. I had just started to shoot film again with my old camera and had loaded up a black and white roll. The bridge was pretty empty, as it was not too long after 9/11, and the bridge was less crowded in general back then. I bent down to be more eye level with my son who wanted to try the camera." —Meredith Marciano

Row of buildings on South Street between James Slip and Roosevelt Street, April 1, 1937. In the background: the Wall Street skyline, with 60 Wall Tower (left), 40 Wall Street (middle) and the top of the Singer Tower on Broadway (right). The South Street buildings were razed in 1950 for the construction of NYCHA's Governor Alfred E. Smith Houses, which opened on April 1, 1953 — sixteen years to the day after this photo was taken.

William and Rosamond Clark House ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1824-25 STYLE: Federal The William and Rosamond Clark House is one of New York City’s few remaining late Federal houses still retaining a significant range of rich architectural details of the period. Above the windows are their original paneled lintels on the first three floors. The lintels are more elaborate than is usual, being enriched with both panels and rosettes. The basement windows are framed with a rusticated architrave composed of alternating smooth and textured blocks of stone. Most of the exterior ironwork is original.

Part of a fleet, Sludge Vessel Coney Island was built in the late 1930s during an era of wastewater treatment modernization aimed at keeping sewage out of the City’s rivers and harbor and improving public health. Back then, the vessels carried sludge out into the ocean, but since the 1990s they’ve sailed to facilities that turn it into biosolids, which can be composted, added to agricultural soils, or further processed for other beneficial uses. Decommissioned by NYC’s Environmental Protection Administration in 1972, the Coney Island was intentionally sunk off the coast of New Jersey, becoming a Scuba diving and fishing destination as part of the Shark River Reef!

In August 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, giving some women—but not all—the right to vote at the national level. Celebrate the centennial of suffrage with a tour of New York locations that were important in the history of women’s rights.

St. James School, ca. 1980.

47 St. James Place, ca. 1975.

24 Henry Street, July 1967. The small Federal style two-story house at 24 Henry Street was likely constructed, along with its four-story rowhouse neighbor at no. 22, in the 1820s. The well-known star of Ziegfeld Follies, Franny Brice, once lived with her mother in an apartment in this building. The musical based on her life, Funny Girl, has a scene set at and titled "24 Henry Street." The two buildings were demolished quickly and somewhat surreptitiously in 2010 and replaced with a double lot, contemporary masonry building.

Workers lay pipe for the high pressure water system beneath on New Bowery (now St. James Place); undated photo. The elevated trestle carried trains on the combined Second and Third Avenue lines, which split at Chatham Square (in the distance at far left, obscured by the horse-drawn carriage). The buildings at center-right are No.63, the Atlantic Hotel (left), and No. 59 (right), which housed the shops of furniture maker Timothy A. Garvey and John Dahlgren, a producer of decorative moldings. At far right is the entrance to First Shearith Israel Graveyard, the city's first Jewish cemetery.

Three-alarm fire at No. 20 Oak Street, February 3, 1917. On a frigid Saturday morning, a fire broke out at a five-story loft building "occupied by printing concerns," near the intersection of Oak, Roosevelt, and New Chambers Streets. The New York Times described the firefighting efforts: "Three times the benumbed fire fighters thought they had the blaze under control, but each time the fire got a fresh start and burst through the roof."

The Church of the Sea and Land, viewed from the Manhattan Bridge. Photographed by Berenice Abbott as part of the Federal Art Project, March 30, 1937. At the turn of the 19th century, the Rutgers family — for whom nearby Rutgers, Henry, and Catherine Streets are named — owned a farm on the Lower East Side. After the Commissioner’s plan of 1811, Henry Rutgers donated land along Rutgers Street for the construction of churches, including the Market Street Reformed Church (also known as the Northeast Dutch Reformed Church, and variations on the same). The Georgian Gothic Revival church was constructed from field stone and Manhattan schist and completed in 1819. In 1864, following the dissolution of the Dutch Reformed Church, it became the Presbyterian Church of the Sea and Land, its new name a reference to waterfront laborers who made up the congregation. In 1972, the Sea and Land Church transferred ownership of the building to the First Chinese Presbyterian Church, who had shared the space since 1951.

Brooklyn Bridge, 1932. Nearly 50 years after the bridge opened the skyline of Manhattan is drastically different.

My Archive Summer 2019 “I’m the only one in the photo and it was taken on May 1999, a few days before college graduation. Seton hall University ran a dinner cruise for seniors and my friends and I went. It was such an amazing night and time in my young life and I couldn’t pass up taking a photo of the bridge with the towers in the background. I loved my time at seton hall and being a born and raised Brooklynite, I thought this was the perfect photo. Still is!” —Christine Bove

Chatham Square Cemetery, ca. 1900. The Chatham Square Cemetery is the oldest extant cemetery of the Shearith Israel Congregation and the second oldest cemetery in Manhattan. The Sephardic congregation dates to the middle of the 17th century when Spanish and Portuguese Jews arrived in New York and established a synagogue. Their first cemetery, established in 1656, is long lost. The cemetery was purchased in 1682 with the first interment the next year. Situated on a hill overlooking the East River (or it was a hill in the colonial era) the cemetery was actually used as a strategic position by both General Washington and the British during the Revolutionary War. A ban on burials below Canal Street in 1823 signaled the end to (most) interments here; a second ground for the congregation was opened on 11th Street near Sixth Avenue. Later a third cemetery was established near Sixth Avenue and 21st Street (1829) and a fourth in Ridgewood, Queens (1850s). The size of the cemetery was somewhat drastically reduced in 1855 when the expansion of the Bowery took a sizable portion of the cemetery by eminent domain. In all 256 graves required re-interment. Today the tiny cemetery sits a few feet above the adjacent street level and about one hundred headstones and above ground tombs are visible.

Oysters are one of New York's oldest residents. There's a reason food historian Mark Kurlansky refers to New York City as "The Big Oyster," or the oyster capital of the world. The bivalves were a dietary staple of the Lenape, and in the 1600s, the New York Harbor was home to half of the world's population of oysters. Oyster barges, such as the one pictured above, were built in the mid-19th century. The boats were approximately 20 feet in width and 70 feet in length and constructed to form a wedge as to not knock the sides of neighboring barges. Inside, the floors were bowed to allow for proper drainage. Robert S. Greenberg, a historian, said to the New York Times: "oystermen during that era would steer their small sailboats up to the rear of the barges and offload their catch, which barge operators would sell wholesale or serve fresh on the piers to lines of customers." The barges served as processing plants, where the fresh products were hauled in from ships at the back, and readied for sale to the front, where the barge met the pier. At the time, oysters were a food enjoyed by New Yorkers of all stripes and went for as little as six cents per piece. Barges often had a dual purpose as speakeasies, where the briny snacks could be had alongside alcohol. However, routine overfishing and pollution caused the eventual decline of the industry by the 1920s. In 1927, the city closed all off New York Harbors oyster beds due to contamination. Though most oyster barges disappeared after the beds closed, one such vessel was purchased by Ernest Ball and moved to the river-front neighborhood of Fair Haven in New Haven. It found use as a speak-easy and was later converted into a restaurant. In 2015, plans were unveiled to bring the barge back to New York, though it would be docked on the Red Hook waterfront rather than on the East River. The barge will be disassembled and labeled, piece by piece, then put back together in its original state, with some structural updates, in the New York Harbor.

View of 234 Cherry Street looking east from the roof of 102 Monroe Street, 1935. The Manhattan Bridge is visible in the background. Both No. 234 Cherry and the photographer's vantage point on Monroe Street were razed. Today, the site is part of the NYCHA Rutgers Houses, completed in 1965.

Northern Reformed Church ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1817-19 STYLE: Georgian Gothic The Northern Reformed Church has what were probably among the earliest pointed Gothic windows and doors in Manhattan. it is an especially fine, simple example of a well-constructed church of the Federal period, and its construction was made possible through the generosity of one of New York’s leading citizens, Colonel Henry Rutgers. It was built in Georgian Gothic style.

25-29 Oliver Street, March 30, 1937. No. 25 (at right) was the childhood home of Al Smith, four-time New York State Governor. Constructed circa the 1830s, the row house was built as a single family house in a Federal style. The two-and-a-half-story home had a full third floor added in the early 1870s by its then owner, Thomas Coleman, a politician. The home was purchased by the nearby St. James Church and used as a rectory and rented out, at one point to a funeral director. Al Smith, an up and coming politician rented the building beginning in 1909 to house his family of seven. During his run for Sheriff in 1916 (Tammany-supported, he won, of course), a large painting of the man bordered in red, white, and blue hung in front of the building. By that time Oliver Street had become something of a Politicians Row, home to magistrates, state senators, and even the coroner. Smith remained on Oliver Street until the mid 1920s. 25 Oliver Street returned to its occupation as a funeral home once again after the Smith family moved upstate while their patriarch was Governor. In 1939 Berenice Abbott photographed the building and two years later a section of bluestone sidewalk from the front of the house was dislodged and placed in the SS Alfred E. Smith, a transport ship. Though named a National Historic Landmark in 1965, today the building is considerably run down.

"Rudy’s Lunch, Hungarian American Home Cooking,” the Prohibition-friendly guise of the tavern at the corner of Water and Dover Streets, 1932. Built in 1794 (though the historic district designation report lists 1801), 279 Water Street is the only surviving wood-frame house in Manhattan’s Seaport district. Originally home to a “grocery and wine and porter bottler,” the building’s 19th-century tenants included a variety of alcohol-serving establishments and a brothel, matching the area’s reputation for vice and depravity. The building’s Victorian details date to an 1888 renovation — 5 years after the adjacent Brooklyn Bridge opened — and many of its interior features date to the original construction. The Bridge Cafe opened in 1979 but has been shuttered since Hurricane Sandy, when it was inundated with nine feet of floodwater.

Manhattan Bridge ca. 1936 The Manhattan Bridge, the first suspension bridge to use flexible steel towers, was built concurrently with the Queensboro Bridge. Gustav Lindenthal's technical innovations for the Manhattan Bridge, and his insistence on incorporating aesthetic elements into the design, were disapproved by Tammany Hall politicians and other powerful figures: Such political resistance prevented Lindenthal from acquiring funds or political backing for his design and eventually he and Hornbostel were replaced by designer Leon Moisseiff and the architectural firm Carrere and Hastings, respectively. Moisseiff altered Lindenthal's plan by substituting conventional wound steel cables for nickel-steel chains and by reducing the proposed size of the structure's tall stiffening trusses. It has been speculated that the real cause of Tammany opposition to Lindenthal's design was that it called for nickel-steel and therefore failed to provide business to the Roebling Company, the only one producing steel cables. Various explanations have been offered was to why the completed bridge could just barely support the necessary weight: that Moisseiff neglected to undertake certain critical calculations (he later designed the Tacoma-Narrows Bridge, Tacoma, Washington, which collapsed shortly after its 1940 opening, taking his career with it) or that inferior materials, inadequate to withstand predicted traffic-load pressures, were used. Whatever the cause, the Manhattan is the most troublesome of New York City's suspension bridge, although it has the greatest traffic capacity of the four East River bridges.

Brooklyn Bridge ca. 1897 On May 24, 1883 the Brooklyn Bridge opened to traffic, and though now we know it as a beautiful landmark, New Yorkers of the time were a bit more wary. At the time it was the only bridge spanning the East River, connecting the separate cities of Brooklyn and New York, and many doubted that a bridge that large could hold. This fear is what may have prompted a stampede a week after the Brooklyn Bridge opened, on May 30. The New York Times wrote that a woman tripped and fell on the steps up to the bridge, prompting another woman to scream and crowds to push forward. Then, panic: “Those following were in turn pushed over and in a moment the narrow stairway was choked with human beings, piled one on top of the other, who were being crushed to death. In a few minutes, 12 persons were killed, 7 injured so seriously that their lives are despaired of, and 28 others more or less severely wounded.” Earlier that year, showman and circus founder P.T. Barnum had suggested marching his elephants, led by his most famous one, Jumbo, across the bridge in celebration of its opening. He was turned down, but with the public trust of the structure still wavering, a display of the Brooklyn Bridge’s strength seemed to be a good idea. On May 17, 1884, Barnum marched 21 elephants across the bridge, along with 17 camels. The animals made it across just fine, proving that the bridge was steady. At the time it opened, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, and it lives on today as one of New York’s finest landmarks.

View of the Manhattan Civic Center, including the Municipal Building, U.S. Courthouse, and Woolworth Building, ca. 1935. The building at extreme right, in the foreground is the Church of Land and Sea, at the northwest corner of Henry and Market Streets.

Brooklyn Bridge, pre-1894. On May 24, 1883 the Brooklyn Bridge officially opened to traffic. The massive celebration brought more than 50,000 people to the bridge (according to contemporary accounts). Some of the distinguished guests included President Chester A. Arthur, New York Governor Grover Cleveland, and Emily Roebling, the wife of the bridge’s main engineer, Washington Roebling. Cannon fire, live bands, and a fireworks display marked the festive occasion. The New York Times wrote: "The opening of the bridge was decidedly Brooklyn’s celebration. New York’s participation in it was meager, save as to the crowd which thronged her streets.” Completed after 13 years of construction, $15 million, and the death of one engineer and the debilitation of another, the Brooklyn Bridge was the largest suspension bridge in the world (until 1903 when 4.5 more feet gave the Williamsburg Bridge the title).

Mariners’ Temple Baptist Church, Oliver Street, ca. 1977. The Mariners’ Temple Baptist Church was completed in 1845 as the Oliver Street Baptist Church for a congregation likely dating to the 1790s. The first Oliver Street church, a wooden structure, was lost in an 1843 fire. The Landmarks Preservation commission credits the present Greek revival structure to architect Minard Lafever, while other sources suggest Isaac Lucas, a member of the congregation. In 1863, the church was renamed to Mariner's Temple to reflect its ministry to seamen and immigrants. After decades of declining attendance during the 20th century, church membership has lately rebounded.

"Riots in New York July-Aug '63; northeast corner of Catherine and Cherry Street during the Draft Riots in 1863." The New York City Draft Riots were a week-long violent action that occurred in Manhattan in the summer of 1863. The impetus for the riots was discontent among working-class populations (largely Irish immigrants) with new laws regarding a draft for the Civil War. The working classes were upset at the wealthy who could buy their way out of conscription for $300. What began as a discontent regarding the draft, in the days as the first draft numbers were being drawn, quickly devolved into race riots. White mobs attacked black people and their homes, public buildings, the homes of abolitionists, churches, and in a violent conflagration, the Colored Orphan Asylum at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue was burned to the ground. The police department attempted to quell the violence but had little luck. (The police superintendent John Alexander Kennedy was brutally beaten.) The military eventually arrived and by July 16 (four days after the riot had begun) there were several thousand Federal troops in the city, and news had begun to spread that the draft was being postponed. The results of the riots were drastic, 120 people killed, more than 2000 injured, hundreds of homes and business damaged and 11 black men lynched. As a result of this violence, many blacks who lived in Manhattan left the city and moved to Brooklyn. The population shift was so dramatic that by 1865, the number of blacks living in Manhattan was lower than it had been in 1820.

Henry Street view towards City Hall and the Woolworth Building, 1938. Surprisingly little has changed on this block in nearly eighty years: many of the tenement buildings are still standing, and a parking lot continues to operate on the south side of the street.