![](Images/NY%20pages%20history%20article%20retreat.jpg) |
Founding
Father George Washington leading his troops across the
East River to Manhattan in the first of a series of
retreats that includes the burning of New York City. |
HarborHistory
Deja Vu All Over Again
By Richard Marrin
The catastrophe at the World
Trade Center was, of course, unparalleled in the annals of New
York history. Yet, the waterfront of Lower Manhattan twice before
has been visited by disasters—the Great Fires of 1776 and 1835.
Each has its encouraging comparison to September 11 and its
aftermath.
The first, the Fire of 1776, was
like the World Trade Center attack, an intentional act of war.
Ironically, the damage on New York City then was inflicted by its
own citizens, American patriots. George Washington, unable to
withstand the British attack, was forced to abandon the city,
allowing the Sons of Liberty to burn it so as to deny the invaders
any sustenance. Fires were set simultaneously, all in the same
lower, older part of the city, where the Dutch had begun their
settlement more than a century before. The first blaze spotted was
in a sailor’s brothel near Whitehall Slip, at the foot of
Broadway, near the tip of the island. Still another conflagration
broke out close by at The Fighting Cocks Tavern at the Battery. A
third began at the White Hall Inn, on Broadway near Bowling Green.
Some of those setting the fires were caught red handed, with
bundles of sticks wrapped in resin and brimstone. They were strung
up by their heels and hung from tavern signs or bayoneted and cast
into the fires they had created.
The flames spread to what was
known as the Mall, a grove of ancient elms preserved by Peter
Stuyvesant more than a century before. There had been a drought
for many weeks, one of the worst of the century. The wells had all
gone dry and brackish river water was being hawked in the streets
at high prices. The Sons of Liberty also had been careful to
sabotage all the fire fighting equipment so that, even had there
been sufficient water, nothing could be done to prevent the spread
of the blaze. Soon, the entire lower city was aflame. The cedar
shake wooden buildings were tinder dry and the fire quickly leapt
from building to building, from street to street up the island,
across and north of Wall Street, burning down the residences and
shops in the mercantile area of the city. Another tongue of the
fire headed west toward the Hudson, destroying in its path the
venerable Trinity Church and the river homes of the wealthy. One
third of the City was destroyed, nearly 500 homes.
The British made no attempt to
rebuild the city. Subsequently, when the Americans retook it in
1783, they saw a far different place from the one they had left.
Burned out buildings that had sheltered British soldiers and camp
followers were everywhere. Any trees still standing after the
first fire (and a second one during the war), had been chopped
down for firewood or used to barricade positions against attack.
Trenches had been dug as part of the defense along Broad and Wall
Streets and bulwarks thrown up behind the burned out hulk of
Trinity Church and north near Chatham Square. Churches had been
used as stables. Docks and warehouses all needed repair. Garbage
and seven years of refuse were strewn everywhere. The merchants
had left, the markets had closed, and shipping in the harbor had
vanished.
However, in a display of
support, the Continental Congress made New York City their
permanent headquarters. The population of the City doubled. New
businesses and homes were built. Merchants came from other states
and commerce, free of British restraint, again blossomed. Westward
expansion and a war in Europe gave New York merchants many markets
for their goods. A forward looking New York governor, DeWittt
Clinton, proposed the building of the Erie Canal, which he
predicted would make New York City "the greatest commercial
emporium in the world." He was correct. The construction of
the 363-mile long, 40-foot wide canal, which took eight years to
construct, connected New York City, via the Hudson River, with the
Great Lakes and the heartland of America, making New York City the
major link between Europe and the U.S. Completed in 1825, the
canal ensured New York’s pivotal role in both domestic and
foreign trade.
But, another disaster would
strike. No one knows for sure how the Great Fire of 1835 started,
but it was worse than the Fire of 1776. In fact, it is second only
in history to September 11 in causing property damage.
To be continued in the September
issue of Bay Crossings.