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History of New York City (1898-1945)
Encyclopedia
The history of New York City (1898–1945) began with the formation of the consolidated city of the five boroughs in 1898. New transportation links, most notably the New York City Subway
, first opened 1904, helped bind the new city together. Increased European immigration brought social upheaval. Later, in the 1920s, the city saw the influx of African Americans as part of the Great Migration
from the American South, and the Harlem Renaissance
. The Roaring Twenties
were years of glamour and wealth, highlighted by a construction boom with skyscrapers dueling in the skyline. New York's financial sector came to dominate the national, and indeed the world economy.
The city suffered during the Great Depression
, which saw the election and repeated reelection of reformer Fiorello La Guardia, who ended the long dominance of Tammany Hall
. La Guardia's success in getting new deal relief funds helped convert the city to a stronghold of the New Deal Coalition
. The city recovered economically during World War II. After 1945, the city gradually lost its industrial base and shifted to service industries.
The modern city of 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 then largely rural areas of Queens
and Staten Island
.
Horses were used for transportation
in 1900, as they had been throughout the history of the city. There were 200,000 of them in the city, producing nearly 2500 short tons (2,232.1 LT) of manure daily. It accumulated in the streets and was swept to the sides like snow. The smell was quite noticeable. Introduction of motor vehicles was a profound relief.
The municipal consolidation would also precipitate greater physical connections between the boroughs. The building of the New York City Subway
, as the separate Interborough Rapid Transit Company
and Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation
systems, and the later Independent Subway System
, and the opening of the first IRT line in 1905 marked the beginning of what became a force for population spread and development. The Williamsburg Bridge
1903 and the Manhattan Bridge
1909 further connected Manhattan to the rapidly expanding bedroom community
in Brooklyn. The world-famous Grand Central Terminal
opened as the world's largest train station
on February 1, 1913, replacing an earlier terminal on the site. It was preceded by Pennsylvania Station, several blocks to the south.
Crime rates increased as the city grew. Newspapers made household names of sensational criminals, such as Harry Thaw, Peter Hains
and Josephine Terranova
.
These years also saw the peak of European immigration and the shifting of that immigration from Western Europe to Southern and Eastern Europe. On June 15, 1904 over 1,000 people, mostly German
immigrants, were killed when the steamship General Slocum
caught fire and burned in the East River
, marking the beginning of the end of the community in Little Germany
. The German community was replaced by growing numbers of poorer immigrants on the Lower East Side
. On March 25, 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
in Greenwich Village
took the lives of 145 mostly Italian
and Jewish female garment workers, which would eventually lead to great advancements in the city's fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations. It also spurred the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
, and took place in the context of broader unionist and leftist movements and the popularity of figures like Emma Goldman
.
New York City was the main point of embarkation for U.S. troops traveling to Europe during World War I. There was much fear of German sabotage, highlighted by the Black Tom Explosion
in 1916.
Immigrant families continued establishing themselves, and more started moving into the neighborhoods outside Manhattan; in a sign of municipal maturation, the 1920 census showed Brooklyn for the first time overtaking Manhattan as the most populous borough. But the great period of European immigration which had only just passed its peak was halted abruptly by the Immigration Act of 1924
which severely limited further immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. This period instead saw a major domestic movement to the city, as the Great Migration
of African Americans from the South resulted in a flowering of African American culture
in the Harlem Renaissance
.
Fun-loving Tammany mayor Jimmy Walker
for most of his term presided over a period of prosperity for the city, with the proliferation of the speakeasy
during Prohibition
.
On September 16, 1920 radicals in the city perpetrated the Wall Street bombing
, a terrorist attack outside the headquarters of the House of Morgan, killing dozens of people and injuring hundreds. The bombing, timed for the busy lunch hour, was unusual for targeting larger numbers of ordinary people. It was the most deadly act of politically-motivated terror on American soil until the Oklahoma City bombing
in 1995, and took place in the context of the 1919 discovery of two series of deadly mail-bombs. Officials blamed anarchist and communist elements, fueling the ongoing Palmer raids
. Shortly before the bomb went off, a warning note was placed in a mailbox at the corner of Cedar Street and Broadway. The warning read: "Remember we will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners or it will be sure death for all of you. American Anarchists Fighters." After twenty years investigating the matter the FBI rendered the file inactive in 1940 without ever finding the perpetrators.
Tin Pan Alley
developed toward Broadway, and the first modern musical, Jerome Kern
's Show Boat
opened in 1927 as the theater district
moved north of 42nd Street
.
New York City became known for its daring and impressive architecture, most notably the skyscrapers which transformed the skyline, with the race to the sky culminating in the dueling spires of the Art Deco
icon the Chrysler Building
and the Empire State Building
of the late 1920s, which were not topped off until a period when their soaring heights seemed rather overoptimistic. The city grew outward, too, replacing most of the farmland of eastern Brooklyn and eastern Bronx, and much of Queens, with residential development.
In the 1924 presidential election, New York City voted for Calvin Coolidge
, the last time it ever was won by a Republican presidential candidate.
The Great Depression
, which was to affect the rest of the world, began with the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The Depression was both a time of unemployment and poverty, and a period of increased government involvement in the economy.
With the economic decline, criticism of Mayor Walker grew, from Cardinal Patrick Joseph Hayes and then from New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt
, who broke with Walker and Tammany. Mayor Walker came under increasing pressure in the midst of FDR's 1932 Presidential campaign, and resigned to relocate to Europe fleeing potential criminal charges.
When FDR was elected, the Hooverville
shacks named after his predecessor dotted city parks, but the city would benefit from the New Deal
and the Works Progress Administration
, which among other things financed much public art locally. The recently completed Empire State Building would be known as the "Empty State Building" for many years because it could not attract sufficient tenants in the bleak business climate.
In 1933, Republican reformer Fiorello La Guardia was elected mayor. La Guardia, sometimes considered New York's greatest mayor, was of both Italian and Jewish descent and acted as an exuberant populist with a multi-ethnic sensibility. La Guardia's term also saw the rise of the long-careered planner Robert Moses
, bridges, parks and parkways coordinator, and great proponent of automobile-centered modernism, whose legacy of massive construction projects is controversial today. The last large expansion of the subway system
and municipal ownership of the previously privately owned subway companies gave the system its final shape.
In 1938 the political designation "ward
" was abolished. New York City had used this designation for the smallest political units since 1686, when Governor Thomas Dongan divided the city, then entirely in Manhattan, into six wards. In 1791, wards were given numerical designations. The First Ward was the tip of Manhattan, and the wards going north were given consecutive numbers with new ones added as the city expanded. Older wards were also subdivided as their populations swelled. Brooklyn was also composed of wards since it became a city in 1837. It originally had nine, and by the time of the 1898 consolidation it had 32.
New York, long a great American city with many immigrants, became a culturally international city with the influx of intellectual, musical and artistic European refugees that started in the late 1930s.
The 1939 New York World's Fair
, marking the 150th anniversary of George Washington's inauguration
in Federal Hall
, was a high point of technological optimism, meant to mark the end of the Depression. After the start of World War II, though, the theme was changed from "Building the World of Tomorrow" to "For Peace and Freedom", and a shadow affected the proceedings.
The city was a significantly affected by the military conflict; shipping was hurt by the U-boat
s, many windows were blacked out for fear of German bombing that never materialized due to failure of the Amerika Bomber
project, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard
again increased its production of warships.
For the duration of the war, the Port of New York handled 25% of the nation's trade. Much of this passed through the Brooklyn Army Terminal
and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. By the war's end, the Navy Yard was the world's largest shipyard with 75,000 workers. At the end of the war, the city was pre-eminent in the world, the only major world city unscathed by the war.
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
, first opened 1904, helped bind the new city together. Increased European immigration brought social upheaval. Later, in the 1920s, the city saw the influx of African Americans as part of the Great Migration
Great Migration (African American)
The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970. Some historians differentiate between a Great Migration , numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and a Second Great Migration , in which 5 million or more...
from the American South, and the Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...
. The Roaring Twenties
Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s, principally in North America, but also in London, Berlin and Paris for a period of sustained economic prosperity. The phrase was meant to emphasize the period's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism...
were years of glamour and wealth, highlighted by a construction boom with skyscrapers dueling in the skyline. New York's financial sector came to dominate the national, and indeed the world economy.
The city suffered during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, which saw the election and repeated reelection of reformer Fiorello La Guardia, who ended the long dominance of Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
. La Guardia's success in getting new deal relief funds helped convert the city to a stronghold of the New Deal Coalition
New Deal coalition
The New Deal Coalition was the alignment of interest groups and voting blocs that supported the New Deal and voted for Democratic presidential candidates from 1932 until the late 1960s. It made the Democratic Party the majority party during that period, losing only to Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952...
. The city recovered economically during World War II. After 1945, the city gradually lost its industrial base and shifted to service industries.
Ragtime Era
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
and Staten Island
Staten Island
Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...
.
Horses were used for transportation
History of New York City transportation
The History of the New York City Transportation System ranges from strong Dutch authority in the 17th century, expansionism during the industrial era in the 19th century and half of the 20th century, to outright cronyism during the failures of the Robert Moses era...
in 1900, as they had been throughout the history of the city. There were 200,000 of them in the city, producing nearly 2500 short tons (2,232.1 LT) of manure daily. It accumulated in the streets and was swept to the sides like snow. The smell was quite noticeable. Introduction of motor vehicles was a profound relief.
The municipal consolidation would also precipitate greater physical connections between the boroughs. The building of the New York City Subway
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
, as the separate Interborough Rapid Transit Company
Interborough Rapid Transit Company
The Interborough Rapid Transit Company was the private operator of the original underground New York City Subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT was purchased by the City in June 1940...
and Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation
Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation
The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation was an urban transit holding company, based in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, and incorporated in 1923. The system was sold to the city in 1940 and today, together with the IND subway system, form the B Division of the New York City Subway...
systems, and the later Independent Subway System
Independent Subway System
The Independent Subway System , formerly known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System or the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad, was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of the New York City Subway...
, and the opening of the first IRT line in 1905 marked the beginning of what became a force for population spread and development. The Williamsburg Bridge
Williamsburg Bridge
The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway...
1903 and the Manhattan Bridge
Manhattan Bridge
The Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River in New York City, connecting Lower Manhattan with Brooklyn . It was the last of the three suspension bridges built across the lower East River, following the Brooklyn and the Williamsburg bridges...
1909 further connected Manhattan to the rapidly expanding bedroom community
Commuter town
A commuter town is an urban community that is primarily residential, from which most of the workforce commutes out to earn their livelihood. Many commuter towns act as suburbs of a nearby metropolis that workers travel to daily, and many suburbs are commuter towns...
in Brooklyn. The world-famous Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
opened as the world's largest train station
Train station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...
on February 1, 1913, replacing an earlier terminal on the site. It was preceded by Pennsylvania Station, several blocks to the south.
Crime rates increased as the city grew. Newspapers made household names of sensational criminals, such as Harry Thaw, Peter Hains
Peter Hains
Peter Hains was an Army Captain convicted of killing his wife's lover. The case became a sensational murder trial in New York City in 1909....
and Josephine Terranova
Josephine Terranova
Josephine Pullare Terranova was the defendant in a sensational murder trial in New York City in 1906. After years of alleged sexual abuse at the hands of her aunt and uncle, the 17 year old Terranova stabbed the pair to death...
.
These years also saw the peak of European immigration and the shifting of that immigration from Western Europe to Southern and Eastern Europe. On June 15, 1904 over 1,000 people, mostly German
German American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...
immigrants, were killed when the steamship General Slocum
General Slocum
The PS General Slocum was a passenger steamboat built at Brooklyn, New York, in 1891. The General Slocum was named for Civil War officer and New York Congressman Henry Warner Slocum. She operated in the New York City area as an excursion steamer for the next thirteen years under the same ownership...
caught fire and burned in the East River
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
, marking the beginning of the end of the community in Little Germany
Little Germany, New York
Little Germany, known in German as Kleindeutschland and Deutschländle and called Dutchtown by contemporary non-Germans, was a German immigrant neighborhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City...
. The German community was replaced by growing numbers of poorer immigrants on the Lower East Side
Lower East Side, Manhattan
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
. On March 25, 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history...
in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
took the lives of 145 mostly Italian
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
and Jewish female garment workers, which would eventually lead to great advancements in the city's fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations. It also spurred the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
, and took place in the context of broader unionist and leftist movements and the popularity of figures like Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
.
New York City was the main point of embarkation for U.S. troops traveling to Europe during World War I. There was much fear of German sabotage, highlighted by the Black Tom Explosion
Black Tom explosion
The Black Tom explosion on July 30, 1916 in Jersey City, New Jersey was an act of sabotage on American ammunition supplies by German agents to prevent the materiel from being used by the Allies in World War I.- Black Tom Island :...
in 1916.
Jazz Age
Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, and Asian Exclusion Act , was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already...
which severely limited further immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. This period instead saw a major domestic movement to the city, as the Great Migration
Great Migration (African American)
The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970. Some historians differentiate between a Great Migration , numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and a Second Great Migration , in which 5 million or more...
of African Americans from the South resulted in a flowering of African American culture
African American culture
African-American culture, also known as black culture, in the United States refers to the cultural contributions of Americans of African descent to the culture of the United States, either as part of or distinct from American culture. The distinct identity of African-American culture is rooted in...
in the Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...
.
Fun-loving Tammany mayor Jimmy Walker
Jimmy Walker
James John Walker, often known as Jimmy Walker and colloquially as Beau James , was the mayor of New York City from 1926 to 1932...
for most of his term presided over a period of prosperity for the city, with the proliferation of the speakeasy
Speakeasy
A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages. Such establishments came into prominence in the United States during the period known as Prohibition...
during Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
.
On September 16, 1920 radicals in the city perpetrated the Wall Street bombing
Wall Street bombing
The Wall Street bombing occurred at 12:01 p.m. on Thursday, September 16, 1920, in the Financial District of New York City. The blast killed 38 and seriously injured 143...
, a terrorist attack outside the headquarters of the House of Morgan, killing dozens of people and injuring hundreds. The bombing, timed for the busy lunch hour, was unusual for targeting larger numbers of ordinary people. It was the most deadly act of politically-motivated terror on American soil until the Oklahoma City bombing
Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19...
in 1995, and took place in the context of the 1919 discovery of two series of deadly mail-bombs. Officials blamed anarchist and communist elements, fueling the ongoing Palmer raids
Palmer Raids
The Palmer Raids were attempts by the United States Department of Justice to arrest and deport radical leftists, especially anarchists, from the United States. The raids and arrests occurred in November 1919 and January 1920 under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer...
. Shortly before the bomb went off, a warning note was placed in a mailbox at the corner of Cedar Street and Broadway. The warning read: "Remember we will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners or it will be sure death for all of you. American Anarchists Fighters." After twenty years investigating the matter the FBI rendered the file inactive in 1940 without ever finding the perpetrators.
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
developed toward Broadway, and the first modern musical, Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
's Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
opened in 1927 as the theater district
Theatre District, New York
The Theater District is an area in Midtown Manhattan where most Broadway theaters are located, as well as many other theaters, movie theaters, restaurants, hotels and other places of entertainment. It extends from 40th Street to 54th Street, and from west of Sixth Avenue to east of Eighth Avenue,...
moved north of 42nd Street
42nd Street (Manhattan)
42nd Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, known for its theaters, especially near the intersection with Broadway at Times Square. It is also the name of the region of the theater district near that intersection...
.
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
icon the Chrysler Building
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco style skyscraper in New York City, located on the east side of Manhattan in the Turtle Bay area at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Standing at , it was the world's tallest building for 11 months before it was surpassed by the Empire State...
and the Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
of the late 1920s, which were not topped off until a period when their soaring heights seemed rather overoptimistic. The city grew outward, too, replacing most of the farmland of eastern Brooklyn and eastern Bronx, and much of Queens, with residential development.
In the 1924 presidential election, New York City voted for Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
, the last time it ever was won by a Republican presidential candidate.
Great Depression and WWII
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, which was to affect the rest of the world, began with the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The Depression was both a time of unemployment and poverty, and a period of increased government involvement in the economy.
With the economic decline, criticism of Mayor Walker grew, from Cardinal Patrick Joseph Hayes and then from New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, who broke with Walker and Tammany. Mayor Walker came under increasing pressure in the midst of FDR's 1932 Presidential campaign, and resigned to relocate to Europe fleeing potential criminal charges.
When FDR was elected, the Hooverville
Hooverville
A 'Hooverville' was the popular name for shanty towns built by homeless people during the Great Depression. They were named after the President of the United States at the time, Herbert Hoover, because he allegedly let the nation slide into depression...
shacks named after his predecessor dotted city parks, but the city would benefit from the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
and the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
, which among other things financed much public art locally. The recently completed Empire State Building would be known as the "Empty State Building" for many years because it could not attract sufficient tenants in the bleak business climate.
Robert Moses
Robert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...
, bridges, parks and parkways coordinator, and great proponent of automobile-centered modernism, whose legacy of massive construction projects is controversial today. The last large expansion of the subway system
History of the New York City Subway
The New York City Subway has a long history, beginning as many disjointed systems and eventually merging under City control.-Early steam and elevated railroads:The beginnings of the Subway came from various excursion railroads to Coney Island and elevated railroads in Manhattan and Brooklyn...
and municipal ownership of the previously privately owned subway companies gave the system its final shape.
In 1938 the political designation "ward
Wards of the United States
In the United States, a ward is an optional division of a city or town, especially an electoral district, for administrative and representative purposes...
" was abolished. New York City had used this designation for the smallest political units since 1686, when Governor Thomas Dongan divided the city, then entirely in Manhattan, into six wards. In 1791, wards were given numerical designations. The First Ward was the tip of Manhattan, and the wards going north were given consecutive numbers with new ones added as the city expanded. Older wards were also subdivided as their populations swelled. Brooklyn was also composed of wards since it became a city in 1837. It originally had nine, and by the time of the 1898 consolidation it had 32.
New York, long a great American city with many immigrants, became a culturally international city with the influx of intellectual, musical and artistic European refugees that started in the late 1930s.
The 1939 New York World's Fair
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
, marking the 150th anniversary of George Washington's inauguration
First inauguration of George Washington
The first inauguration of George Washington as the first President of the United States took place on April 30, 1789.The inauguration marked the commencement of the first four-year term of George Washington as President and John Adams as Vice President...
in Federal Hall
Federal Hall
Federal Hall, built in 1700 as New York's City Hall, later served as the first capitol building of the United States of America under the Constitution, and was the site of George Washington's inauguration as the first President of the United States. It was also where the United States Bill of...
, was a high point of technological optimism, meant to mark the end of the Depression. After the start of World War II, though, the theme was changed from "Building the World of Tomorrow" to "For Peace and Freedom", and a shadow affected the proceedings.
The city was a significantly affected by the military conflict; shipping was hurt by the U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
s, many windows were blacked out for fear of German bombing that never materialized due to failure of the Amerika Bomber
Amerika Bomber
The Amerika-Bomber project was an initiative of the Reichsluftfahrtministerium, the Nazi Germany Air Ministry, to obtain a long-range strategic bomber for the Luftwaffe that would be capable of striking the continental United States from Germany, a range of about 5,800 km...
project, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard
Brooklyn Navy Yard
The United States Navy Yard, New York–better known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard or the New York Naval Shipyard –was an American shipyard located in Brooklyn, northeast of the Battery on the East River in Wallabout Basin, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlear's Hook in Manhattan...
again increased its production of warships.
For the duration of the war, the Port of New York handled 25% of the nation's trade. Much of this passed through the Brooklyn Army Terminal
Brooklyn Army Terminal
The Brooklyn Army Terminal is large complex of piers, docks, warehouses, cranes, rail sidings and cargo loading equipment on between 58th and 63rd Street in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. During World War II, the terminal was responsible for shipment of 85% of army equipment and personnel overseas;...
and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. By the war's end, the Navy Yard was the world's largest shipyard with 75,000 workers. At the end of the war, the city was pre-eminent in the world, the only major world city unscathed by the war.
Further reading
- Burrows, Edwin G., and Mike WallaceMike Wallace (historian)Mike Wallace is an American historian, Distinguished Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York, where he has taught since 1971, and the director of the Gotham Center for New York City History....
, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 is a non-fiction book by historians Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace. Based on over twenty years of research by Burrows and Wallace, it was published in 1998 by Oxford University Press and won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for History...
, Oxford University Press, 1998, 1416 pages, ISBN 0-19-514049-4; the standard scholarly history - Caro, Robert. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. (1973) excerpt and text search
- Jackson, Kenneth T.Kenneth T. JacksonKenneth Terry Jackson is a professor of history and social sciences at Columbia University. A frequent television guest, he is best known as an urban historian and a preeminent authority on New York City, where he lives on the Upper West Side....
, ed. The Encyclopedia of New York CityThe Encyclopedia of New York CityThe Encyclopedia of New York City is a comprehensive reference book on New York City. Historian and Columbia University professor Kenneth T...
, (1995) 1350 pages; articles by experts - Jackson, Kenneth and Sam Roberts, eds. The Almanac of New York City (2008)
- Kessner, Thomas. Fiorello H. LaGuardia and the Making of Modern New York (1989) the most detailed standard scholarly biography
- Slayton, Robert A. Empire Statesman: The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith, (2001), 480pp, the standard scholarly biography; excerpt and text search