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Located approximately halfway between Boston and Washington D.C., New York City has a brief but colorful history. Although visited several times by Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries, white Dutch immigrants first settled the region circa 1624, when the city of New Amsterdam began life on what is now known as Governors Island. Two years later, the Governor of New Amsterdam purchased Manhattan Island on behalf of the Dutch West India Company from the local Lenape people in exchange for 60 Guilders worth of trade goods.
By 1760, now named New York (in honor of King Charles II’s brother after the British seized the settlement from the Dutch in 1664), it had become the second-largest city in the American colonies, surpassed only by Philadelphia. It wasn’t until 50 years later that it became the largest city in the Western hemisphere, eclipsing even the mighty London in terms of population by the 1920s. After serving briefly as the constitutional capital following the American Revolutionary War, New York then grew to become the fledgling country’s trade capital in the early years of the 19th century.
Having formerly consisted largely of Dutch and British immigrants, as well as freed slaves, the city’s population swelled during the mid-1800s thanks to waves of new arrivals from Germany and Ireland, who together made up more than half the city’s inhabitants by the 1860s. They were followed by those fleeing Italy and Eastern Europe (predominantly Russian and Polish Jews). All came looking for a brighter future and to escape poverty and persecution in their homelands. More than 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924 when the center closed, by which time a little over 40% of New York’s inhabitants were foreign-born. National quotas for immigrants were instituted as a result, although large numbers of black Caribbean citizens took advantage of the British quota to make New York their home. They joined with those who traveled to the city during the Great Migration (the relocation of African-Americans from the South that began during the Great War) to become part of the thriving community centered around Harlem (see Harlem in the 1920s, page 143).
Most of the city’s buildings are of brick and stone after the Great Fire of New York in 1835 prompted a massive burst of reconstruction. The type of building in a neighborhood may tell you something about the relative affluence of the area in which it is found: “good” residential areas tend to consist of buildings known as “brownstones” (four-story townhouses accessed by a steep staircase—the stoop—that leads to the second story entrance) or, in poorer areas, crowded, decaying tenement buildings, also known as “walk-ups.” However, the shifting patterns of occupation often mean that the brownstones of formerly prosperous areas may now function as boarding houses.
Thanks to its importance as a trade and financial center, getting about in New York should not be too onerous a task. The boroughs of New York are connected by road and rail, although the system of tunnels and bridges that make modern journeys relatively simple are not built until after the 1920s. Elevated Railway and Subway New York’s elevated railway, “the El,” opened in 1868 with a line between Battery Place and the Financial District. More lines followed, connecting Manhattan and the Bronx. The elevated trains were joined in 1904 by the subway system, with new lines constantly added and old ones expanded throughout the 1920s.
Open 24 hours a day, the subway system allows for inexpensive transport (around five cents) around Manhattan, as well as portions of Brooklyn and the Bronx.
Horse-drawn streetcars, amongst the first forms of public transport in the city, were gradually replaced in the suburbs by electric trolley-cars. Motorbuses are available, but tend to operate further out in Queens and in Richmond.
The famous New York Yellow Cab Company began in 1907. For wealthier investigators, these instantly recognizable taxicabs provide convenient transport throughout the city. Investigators should be wary, though, when hailing a cab on the street—the “medallion” system regulating taxi operation is not introduced until 1937, meaning that there are unscrupulous owners and unsafe vehicles out on the city’s roads throughout the 1920s. Fares start at 15 cents.
If taxis are too downmarket for the investigators, then using their own automobile or hiring one is an option. New York is a busy place, and driving can be hectic and frustrating, especially for those unfamiliar with driving in a big city (the Keeper might increase the difficulty level for Drive rolls to Hard).
Numerous ferries link the various islands of New York and the mainland; in the main, such links run only during the day. One of the most famous, the Staten Island Ferry, runs between the Whitehall Terminal in Manhattan and St. George’s Terminal on Staten Island. For international travel, tickets for the Anchor and Cunard lines can be purchased from the Cunard Building in the Financial District.
Railway lines connect the city to the suburbs and the rest of America through a comprehensive local and national network.