New York History

What is now known as New York had been occupied by Native Americans for more than 11,000 years before Giovanni de Verrazano, a Florentine hired by French to explore the northeastern coast, arrived at New York Bay in 1524. The area remained mostly unchanged until English Explorer Henry Hudson stumbled on it while searching for the Northwest Passage in 1609, who then went on to claim the place for the Dutch East India Trading Company.

In 1624, four years after the pilgrim fathers had sailed to Massachusetts, thirty families left Holland to become New York's first European settlers. A handful of families stayed on what is known as Governors Island, which they called Nut Island due to the many walnut trees on the island. Slowly the community grew as more settlers came and the island became crowded; the decision was made to move across the water and the settlement of Manhattan, taken from the Algonquin Indian word Manna-Hata meaning "Island of the Hills," began. The Dutch gave their new outpost the name New Amsterdam, however following the British conquest of the island in 1664, the settlement took it's new name from it's owner the Duke of York - New York.

By the time George Washington was sworn in as president of the new republic on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in 1789. New York was a bustling seaport of 33,000 people, but it lagged behind Philadelphia as a cultural capital. The new Congress abandoned the city for the District of Columbia the following year.

New York boomed in the early 19th century, with it's population growing from 65,000 in 1800 to 250,000 in 1820. During the Civil War, New York provided many volunteers for the Union cause. But as the war dragged on, many of the city's poorest citizens turned against the war, especially after mandatory conscription was introduced.

As the city's population more than doubled from 500,000 in 1850 to over 1.1 million in 1880, a tenement culture developed. As the burgeoning of New York's population beyond the city limits led to the consolidation movement. As the city and it's neighbouring districts started to struggle to service the growing numbers. Residents of the independent districts of Queens, Staten Island, the Bronx and the financially strapped Brooklyn voted to become 'boroughs' of New York City in 1898.

The new metropolis underwent a second wave of immigrants from Europe, and the population boomed once again from 3 million in 1900 to 7 million in 1930. During this period the horse drawn carriages disappeared as a network of underground subways and elevated trains expanded into the outer reaches of the city.

As New York emerged from World War II as one of the few world class city's untouched by the war, the city seemed the place to be. But with the arrival of the highways in the 1950s many residents chose to move away permanently to the outer suburbs.

New York's growing self confidence was abruptly brought to a halt following the tragic events of 9/11, when two hijacked planes were deliberately flown on the the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, causing the buildings to collapse and killing thousands of people. But this is a city used to more than it's fair share of hardship, and the famed sprits of of New Yorkers once again face a challenge. Odds are good that despite one of the greatest tragedies in US history, New York will be top of the heap again in the near future.