Tag: History

An Olympic Performance for New York

The Olympic games occur every four years and are not surprisingly a symbol of great prestige for the host city.  In recent years, the cost of hosting the game has attracted great scrutiny due to corruption scandals in international athletic federations and the willingness of authoritarian regimes to spend money on sporting mega events with little to no public accountability.  In the U.S., Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Lake Placid, NY, and St. Louis have all hosted the games.  Denver turned down the offer of the games after taxpayers in Colorado turned down a tax increase while Chicago failed in its bid to get the 2016 Olympic Games.  New York also failed to get the Olympics in 2012, but the ramifications of the failed bid are still felt in the city today—and not in a negative way.

For the 2012 bid, the initial plan was to have the Olympic Stadium on the West Side over the Penn Station rail yards—to be turned over to the New York Jets NFL team after the games (and to be used as the site for several Super Bowls).  When this failed to get approval, the city decided to move the stadium to Queens—on the site of where Citi Field is now.  The Olympic Village was to be constructed in Queens as well.  Several areas such as Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and the Javits Convention Center were to be used as well.  Bids were submitted in 2003 to the International Olympic Committee.  New York ended up placing third on the list of Olympic finalists—ultimately losing to London in 2005.  Opposition to the original Olympic stadium location was led by the owners of Madison Square Garden, who feared that a new stadium would take away from their venue.  It was argued by opponents of the bid that the games would have brought greater traffic and worries about terrorism in one of the most crowded cities in the world already.

The city reaped several intangible and tangible benefits from its abortive bid to host the games—an extension of the 7 Line, the development of millions of square feet of commercial and retail space in the Hudson Yards complex, and new residential space in Queens.  Additionally, a massive rezoning of the city in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan that was approved at the same time helped to develop derelict areas.  While this is commendable in working to house new residents and help the tax coffers of the city, longtime residents of some of the areas have been priced out of their neighborhoods.  The Olympic games may yet be hosted in New York as there is talk that the state government is exploring a bid for a future games.  Already an international city as the headquarters of the United Nations and with people from every corner of the world, the Olympics may bring even greater prestige to the city—or more traffic depending on the opinions of some.

While hosting an Olympic event can bring great prestige to a city (and also great challenges), it has been argued that New York’s failed bid helped to bring improvements to the city.  This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

How the City Gets the News—a Capsule History

Today, most people get their news from the Internet or television.  In most places, newspapers seem like an afterthought.  Beset by declining revenues and a population that wants the news now instead of tomorrow morning, many newspapers are folding (no pun intended) or scaling back significantly.  New York is no exception to this trend, with the city having far fewer papers than in the 1940s—when nearly 40 English, German, Chinese, and Yiddish papers were published daily from the city.  But being the capital of media in the U.S., the city is home to several of the country’s most important papers.  This entry will cover some of these papers and the way that they have made an impact on the city and the country.

Founded in 1851, the New York Times is nicknamed “The Old Gray Lady.”  It is considered the paper of record of the city and has outlasted virtually every other broadsheet paper in town. The paper has a circulation of around 1.3 million and has nearly 120 Pulitzer Prizes, making it one of the most respected names in news.  While the paper initially started out as a voice for conservative and later Republican politics, it now has a very liberal bend.  The Times is famous for bringing down Tammany Hall’s Tweed ring in the late 1800s and being able to publish the Pentagon Papers in the 1970s.  Since the 1890s, the Ochs Family and their descendants have owned the paper.

Competing for broadsheet readers in the city is the financially-focused Wall Street Journal.  This paper is the nation’s largest in terms of circulation at about 2.4 million copies.  It was first published in 1889 by Dow Jones and Company as one of that company’s products.  The paper has changed hands a couple times since its founding, now being owned by the News Corporation.  The Journal has a reputation for reporting financial news in a straightforward manner and for using profile drawings of people being featured in articles for decades (still used today, but less so).  In order to become more competitive with the New York Times, the Journal has started to feature more news about New York City in recent years.  The Journal has earned over 30 Pulitzer prizes for its coverage over the years.

Although now a tabloid, the oldest continuously published newspaper in the U.S. is also published from the city.  The New York Post was founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton.  It was most famous in the 1800s for being edited by William Cullen Bryant, an ardent abolitionist and for whom Bryant Park in Midtown is named for.  The Post suffered declining circulation in the early  1900s—it was once affiliated with the left-wing Nation magazine.  It was bought by Rupert Murdoch in the 1970s and its editorial format changed from liberal to conservative quite sharply.  The paper is known for its rather creative headlines such as the perennially famous “Headless Body Found in Topless Bar” from the 1970s.  The Post has a circulation of around 500,000 and is locked in perpetual combat with New York’s fourth main paper, the Daily News.

Billing itself as “New York’s Picture Newspaper” (the icon on the front of its flag is an old-style camera), the Daily News has a circulation of around 500,000 as well and has a liberal editorial bend.  For many years, the paper was headquartered in a 476’ building designed by Raymond Hood on 42nd Street in Midtown that some have said was the inspiration for the Daily Planet of Superman.  The most famous headline of the Daily News is probably from the 1970s when the paper had “Ford to City: Drop Dead!” after the federal government refused to provide a financial bailout of the city in the later part of that decade.

As I mentioned before, while newspapers are facing an uncertain future,  these four papers are still among the most famous in the country.  They are joined by other papers in the city such as The Village Voice (which covers goings on in the Villages neighborhoods), New York Amsterdam News (news geared toward African Americans),  The Staten Island Advance (the only borough-specific paper left in the city) and several foreign language papers such as Der Tog (Yiddish language).  This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Brooklyn Bridge

Bridges are a part of every city.  Even inland cities such as Atlanta, GA, or Phoenix, AZ, have highway bridges, train trestles, or flyovers.  With only the Bronx on the mainland of the U.S., New York is defined by its bridges.  Thousands of viaducts, trestles, and bridges exist all over the city.  Because New York enjoys making a statement, no bridge quite symbolizes the city like the Brooklyn Bridge, which connects the commercial center of Manhattan to Brooklyn, the most populous of the boroughs.

A bridge across the East River between the city of New York and the formerly independent city of Brooklyn had been postulated for decades.  Transportation between the two cities, since the colonial era, was dependent on ferries.  Although they got the job done, they were subject to Mother Nature in the form of storms and the river freezing.  It was on one of these frozen ferries one day, according to legend, that John Roebling, an engineer, felt that a more permanent solution was needed.  Roebling specialized in designing suspension bridges—where high strength metal wires suspended the roadway between two anchorages.  Roebling designed and built demonstration bridges throughout the U.S.  A dry run for a New York bridge was shown to be feasible when Roebling completed a suspension bridge over the Ohio River between Cincinnati, OH, and Covington, KY in 1867.

Construction on the Brooklyn Bridge began in 1869.  Roebling died of tetanus in 1869, leaving his son, Washington Roebling, in charge of the project.  Washington would sustain a massive injury due to “the bends”, caused by ascending too quickly from massive submerged caissons constructed to anchor the bridge into the bedrock.  Due to Washington’s injury, his wife Emily finished construction.  Although she was trained as an engineer, Emily forged Washington’s instructions as they were unsure if work crews would follow directions from a woman.  The bridge opened to much fanfare in 1883.  After a scare in which there was a stampede on the bridge, circus elephants were marched over the bridge to show it was built to last.  Over the years, it has been “sold” to gullible tourists and is argued to have helped to unify the boroughs.  The bridge is currently undergoing restoration to ensure it lasts into another century.

Today, the bridge form an important part of the city and any tourist’s itinerary.  When walking between the boroughs, please be sure not to stray into the bicycle lanes.  While you are in town, consider seeing more of New York with a Sights by Sam tour when you leave the bridge.

Professional Baseball in the City

The American Pastime has always been well represented in New York City.  The game was invented by Alexander Cartwright in the 1840s.  Cartwright’s team, the New York Knickerbockers, were even believed to be the first team to wear uniforms.  Teams from the city have been represented in the National League (1876), the American League (1901), and the two attempted competitors to the Major Leagues—the Federal League in the 1910s and the Continental League in the 1960s.  Major League Baseball’s headquarters is located on Park Avenue in Midtown while the Hall of Fame is only a four-hour drive away in Cooperstown.

In terms of the two main major leagues, New York used to be a National League stronghold.  The city had two teams: the New York Giants (who played at the Polo Grounds in Washington Heights) and the Brooklyn Dodgers (who would be most remembered for playing at Ebbets Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn).  The Giants were one of the most dominant teams in the game early in its history, while the Dodgers were not so dominant in their early history, but came to personify the Borough of Brooklyn through their hard style of play, fiercely loyal fans, and the first team in the modern era to have African-American and Latino players.  Changing population patterns and market realities would lead the Giants to relocate to San Francisco and the Dodgers to Los Angeles in 1958.  The absence of a National League team would lead (after abortive attempts to bring the Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Philadelphia Phillies to the city) to businessmen led by William Shea trying to form a third major league (the Continental League) to bring a second team to the city.  Major League Baseball, wanting to protect its hold on professional baseball, gave the city the New York Mets as an expansion team (you can see where Shea Stadium’s name came from now).  The Mets have often been the also-rans in their history, but have had several memorable seasons, including in 1969, 1986, and in 2015.   The Mets now play at the new Citi Field in Flushing, Queens. The Mets have an A-level minor league team in Brooklyn, the Cyclones, who play at a stadium in Coney Island, and a AA-level team in Binghampton.

The American League team of the city has been the New York Yankees.  Relocated from Baltimore in 1903 and originally called the Highlanders (because they played at Hilltop Park in Upper Manhattan), the team changed its name to the Yankees in 1913 when they moved to the Polo Grounds.  After nearly 10 years, the Yankees had outdrawn the Giants in their own stadium and were evicted.  The owners of the Yankees built Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, directly across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds in the Bronx.  The Yankees were the team of Babe Ruth, one of the first superstars of the sport.  Through astute management and cultivation of talent (and what detractors would argue as underhanded tactics and buying out the best players from other teams), the Yankees have managed to build on a winning legacy, winning 27 World Series, 40 American League Pennants, and being in the postseason at least once in every decade since the 1920s.  The Yankees play at a new Yankee Stadium that was built across the street from the old park.  The Yankees have an A-level team, the Staten Island Yankees, that play near the Staten Island Ferry Terminal in the St. George neighborhood, as well as their AAA-level team near Scranton,PA, and their AA-level affiliate in Trenton, NJ.

New York has been host to several “Subway Series” World Series, most recently in 1999, but also throughout the 1950s.  Recent studies have shown that despite the increasing popularity of basketball and football, baseball still remains the most popular sport in the city (one of the few regions of the country where this is true).  Given that every borough except for Manhattan has a major or minor league team, the game remains very accessible to the general population.  This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Sabotage and Sinking: The Leadup to World War I in New York

History affects all of us today–what happened in the past has shaped our present. From 1914 to 1918, World War I raged across Europe, leaving millions dead and maimed. The bad peace that ensued would lead to an even more destructive war less than 25 years later.

New York and the immediate area had an unknowingly great role in the so-called Great War. While men from New York such as the mighty 369th Infantry Regiment (the Harlem Hellfighters), fought hard, two events in and around the city would forever change the world:

Lusitania

The RMS Lusitania was launched in 1906 by the Cunard Line, a British corporation. The German government, not at war with the U.S. at the time, warned American citizens, with ads in newspapers located near the ship schedules, that Americans who sailed on a British-flagged ship may be killed—a result of unrestricted submarine warfare by the German Empire against allied shipping. On May 1, 1915, the Lusitania left Pier 54 in the Chelsea Piers Complex (near where the Titanic was supposed to arrive in 1912). She was sunk on May 7, 1915, by German submarine U-20. After the resultant torpedo explosion, 1,191 out of 1,962 passengers and crew (including 129 of the 139 Americans registered as passengers) were killed. Investigations of the cargo manifest indicated that the Lusitania was carrying arms for the British in the hold—leading to an almost instant explosion and sinking in minutes instead of the hours it would normally have taken the massive ship to sink. For a time, the German government cancelled unrestricted submarine warfare and did not attack passenger liners until 1917.

Black Tom Explosion

A now-vanished island used to be in New York Harbor near Liberty Island. In the years since the revolution and antebellum eras, Black Tom Island became an ammunition dump. During World War I, the U.S., at the urging of the British Empire, canceled arms trading with the German Empire. At 2:00 AM on July 30, 1916, fires had broken out on the island, sending 50 tons of TNT and 1 ton of ammunition aflame and causing an explosion that according to Smithsonian Magazine measured 5.5 on the Richter scale and could be felt in Philadelphia. The explosion shattered windows in New York and in Jersey City. The damage caused by the explosion would equal $500 million in today’s dollars. Due to the explosion, Ellis Island had to be evacuated due to flying debris. As the title suggested, most of Black Tom Island was submerged (and later incorporated onto Liberty Island as landfill). After initial confusion in the investigation, recent immigrants from Germany, working under the employ of German Imperial intelligence services, were implicated in the bombing. The saboteurs are believed to have attacked another ammunition dump in California before fleeing to Mexico before the U.S. entered World War I. The German government paid $50 million to plaintiffs (including railroads) who sued, the largest judgment resulting from the Mixed Claims Commission on Germany after the war. It is believed that visitors cannot enter the torch of the Statue of Liberty due to this incident. A small memorial to the explosion exists in Jersey City.

While only two individual events that occurred partially in New York, these two events served as a catalyst for the U.S. to enter World War I, rescuing the beleaguered Allied Powers in 1917 and changing the course of the war, and of subsequent history. This is the type of history you will learn on any Sights by Sam walking tour.

The United Nations

It seems only fitting that the world’s largest international organization would have its headquarters in one of the world’s most international cities.  The United Nations (U.N.) occupies a swath of real estate bordering Turtle Bay on Manhattan’s east side.  The row of nearly 200 flags welcomes people into the “international zone” of the U.N.’s headquarters complex.

The location of the U.N. was not immediately decided after the founding of the organization in the wake of World War II.  Several sites were considered such as Lake Success, NY, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Philadelphia, the Black Hills of South Dakota, and San Francisco, among other locations.  The site of the U.N. was settled when the Rockefeller Family donated industrial lands they owned for the project.  After the location was decided, Architect Wallace Harrison was the leader in a project that would include several international architects, including several “starchitechts” of their day such as Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier.  Construction started in 1948 and was completed in 1952, with several additions since then.  The predominating International Style is the architectural motif of choice for this project.  The main part of the complex is the Secretariat Building (509 feet tall), where the organization’s offices are located.  There are also buildings holding the U.N. General Assembly, the Conference Building (which houses the Security Council), and the Dag Hammarskjold Library.

If you have not done so before, it is recommended to tour the facility.  A U.N. employee will show the chambers of the General Assembly, Security Council, and other parts of the building.  Not surprisingly, the U.N. contains an incredible collection of art work in and around its complex—with works by Ferdinand Leger and Norman Rockwell among them.  For philatelists and stamp collectors, one of the highlights of the tour is the U.N.’s post office.  The post office stocks unique stamps and any letter sent from U.N. Headquarters has a unique postmark imprinted on it.  A related place on the U.N. grounds to check out is the Delegates Dining Room.  Although advance reservations must be made, the clientele are mostly diplomats and other workers in the U.N.

Owing to New York’s unofficial title as the world’s capital and its myriad of residents from every country, the U.N. Headquarters adds to this assertion.  Although the merits of the organization are hotly debated the world over, the very presence of the U.N. and the complex itself have become an easily identifiable and essential part of the city.  This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

The Chrysler Building

Built to be the headquarters of the Chrysler Corporation, the Chrysler Building is the world’s tallest brick building and the defining masterpiece of the Art Deco architecture style.  It has spawned numerous imitators—most notably One Liberty in Philadelphia.  Although it was the tallest in the world for less than one year, it is routinely voted among the favorites of New York natives and tourists.

The Chrysler Building stands at 1049 feet tall (coincidently the same as the New York Times Building).  The building, designed by architect William Van Alen, was commissioned at the behest of Walter P. Chrysler as his headquarters.  Notably, the tower was paid for in cash by Chrysler so his children, not his company, would own it (it has been sold numerous times since then).  Chrysler was obsessed with having the tallest building in the world.  When it was learned that 40 Wall Street was going to be taller (the old Bank of Manhattan headquarters, now owned by Donald Trump), Van Alen added a 125 foot spire that was secretly constructed inside the building and hoisted through the top.  In October of 1929, after a ninety minute procedure, the spire was secured in place. The building opened for business in 1930.  Although the building wears a metallic crown, the crown of the world’s tallest building title would travel a little further south to the corner of 5th Avenue and 34th Street to the Empire State Building in 1931.

Although not open to the public (the building did have an observation deck for a time), the Chrysler Building is known for its metallic crown and spire.  Decorating the building, there are several gargoyles on the outside of the structure that are designed to look like components of 1930s Chrysler and Plymouth autos.  The lobby of the building also has a rich mahogany wood Art Deco theme.  It is also rumored that a speakeasy operated at the top of the building for New York businessmen during Prohibition.

Although quickly displaced by the Empire State Building and losing the title of tallest in the world (and later its broadcasting aerials), the Chrysler Building holds a special, shiny place in the heart of many, and is seen on multiple Sights by Sam walking tours.

Greenwich Village

One of the most charming areas of the city, Greenwich Village has an amazing history and figures prominently on the itinerary of most tourists to New York.  Originally an independent city, Greenwich Village is best known for its past as a center for artists and nonconformists.

The area that forms Greenwich Village was originally its own town.  The area was named “Green Place” by the Dutch.  Since there was a village there when the grid of Manhattan creeped northward after 1811, the streets in the area are angled oddly and it is hard for first-time visitors to find their way around the neighborhood.  The location of a prison (now closed) in the area and its proximity to the port originally made it a rough area.

Although the area has had an artistic presence since the 1800s, the area came into its own as an enclave for artists, writers, performers, and other so-called Bohemians later.  At the turn of the 20th Century, the area started to attract theaters and a more Bohemian crowd started to arrive in the district.  Famous writers and artists flocked to the area in the first part of the 20th century such as Edna St. Vincent Millay and Edward Hopper to name two.

After World War II, “beatniks” began to settle in the area, adding to the area’s artistic edge.  As time went on, the neighborhood became a more desirable place to live, leading to greater gentrification of the area.  The neighborhood was also the site of the Stonewall Riots of 1969, which was the beginning of the modern gay rights movement in the U.S.   As the century came to a close, the area is most known today as the home of many rich and famous in addition to students from nearby New York University.

The most prominent landmark in the neighborhood is the Washington Square Arch, a 77 foot-tall arch which celebrates the centennial of Washington’s presidency and dominates the park.  In addition to its row houses and charming streets, Greenwich Village still inspires visitor and native alike.  Greenwich Village can be seen on a Sights by Sam tour.

Fiorello LaGuardia: Mayor for the Ages

Fiorello H. LaGuardia stood at only 5’2”, but still casts a shadow over New York today.  His nonstop boosterism for his hometown and his unyielding tenacity helped the city weather the Great Depression better than most.  LaGuardia will be long remembered as one of the greatest, if not the most colorful mayor the city has seen.

LaGuardia was born in Greenwich Village in 1882.  With his father being in the army, he moved around when he was young—first to Arizona and then to Florida before settling in Trieste, Italy, for a time.  He worked for the U.S. State Department before returning to New York to earn a law degree, supporting himself by working at the U.S. immigration station at Ellis Island.

Entering politics, LaGuardia was an anomaly: a half-Jewish Italian Episcopal Republican.  He once joked that he was a balanced ticket all by himself.  LaGuardia served in Congress in two non-consecutive stints—broken up when he volunteered for service in World War I in the Army Air Corps.  In Congress, LaGuardia amassed a liberal record, speaking out against prohibition and allied with progressives of both parties.

After being defeated for reelection to Congress in 1932, LaGuardia ran for mayor of New York in 1933 (city elections are held in off years).  He was able to win the election as a Republican in one of the most heavily Democratic cities in the country due to ongoing corruption scandals within the Tammany Hall machine and the fact that there was more than one Democrat running in the election.

The time to celebrate the victory was short lived as New York was suffering through the Great Depression.  LaGuardia worked tirelessly to help direct federal relief funds to the city.  In no small part due to fellow New Yorker Franklin Delano Roosevelt being president, New York was lavished with funds during the Depression, which allowed new infrastructure to be built and existing civic amenities repaired.  LaGuardia also revolutionized the way mayors did business by appealing directly to the federal government for aid (previously, state governments had to make the appeal), traveling by airplane, and communicating with constituents on radio (LaGuardia’s Sunday radio show on WNYC drew over 2 million listeners at its height).  He was also known for riding fire engines to fires in progress, leading marching bands in parades, and declaring a war on organized crime in the city.

LaGuardia had a great national profile as well.  In the lead-up to World War II, he was named by President Roosevelt as the chief civil defense coordinator for the country.  While he tried to do this responsibility along with being the mayor, it was impossible to do both jobs and he resigned his federal post once the U.S. entered the war.  LaGuardia was an outspoken opponent of Nazi Germany and their anti-semitic policies.  LaGuardia’s sister would be imprisoned by the Nazis in a concentration camp during the war, adding to his reasons for opposing the Nazi regime.

After declining to run for a 4th term for mayor in 1945, LaGuardia stepped down.  He briefly served as a director of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration for a short time.  He also had a syndicated newspaper column, working hard until he died of pancreatic cancer in 1947.  His presence is still felt in the city—from the airport named after him to the parks, roadways, and numerous other pieces of infrastructure created during his mayoralty.  The “Little Flower” as he was called, exemplified the colorful city he so loved.  Facts about LaGuardia and places associated with his life will be shown on Sights by Sam tours.

The Defense of New York

As the nation’s largest city, New York has been a primary target of America’s enemies in war.  This entry is a (very) short history of the defense of the city.

From its foundations, New York was a fortified settlement.  Worried about incursions from Native Americans and other European powers, the Dutch built a fort at the foot of Manhattan (where Battery Park is today—hence its name) and a wall where Wall Street is to defend against unwanted incursions.  The fort also served to defend the entrance to the Hudson River so the Dutch cargoes of beaverskins harvested near Albany would go unmolested on their way back to the Netherlands.  The English would later strengthen fortifications in the city when they took New Amsterdam.

During the American Revolution, the British captured New York in 1776 after what was ultimately the largest engagement of the war.  General George Washington ordered the building of crude fortifications in Brooklyn and Upper Manhattan.  These failed as the British would take the city for the duration of the war.  Americans continued to keep the British from invading New England by defending the Hudson River by stringing a sharp chain across the river at West Point (Benedict Arnold betrayed the U.S. by trying to help the British capture this emplacement).

Due to the experience of the invasion, the U.S. government would begin a massive fortification building spree, with emplacements constructed at Castle Clinton on Battery Park, Castle William on Governor’s Island, and Fort Wood on Bedloe’s Island (the location of the Statue of Liberty today).  These forts would have provided an impressive defense of the harbor during the War of 1812, but were never used and obsolete mere decades after their completion.

Subsequent army bases such as Fort Tilden and Fort Hamilton on the approaches to the Narrows in New York Harbor were constructed in the 1800s.  There was also a naval dock built in Staten Island, in addition to the Brooklyn Navy Yard complex, which churned out ships such as the U.S.S. Monitor in the Civil War and the U.S.S. Missouri in World War II.  When aviation first appeared, Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn was an air base for military aircraft (this airfield is now where the NYPD has their aircraft based).  Armories were completed throughout the city, with many New York City-based units serving with distinction in the Civil War, World War I, and World War II.

The last time New York has been threatened with war was during World War II.  The German navy attacked several merchant ships in New York harbor—within sight of Manhattan.  Under Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who was also the chief of Civil Defense for the U.S. at the beginning of World War II, the entire city was mobilized to fight.  Blackouts became a common occurrence at night, trains carried troops from all over the country to board ships bound for Europe and the Pacific, and workers streamed in from all over the country to work at factories in and around the city.  At the peak of the war, 70,000 workers labored all day and all night at the Brooklyn Navy Yard (the suspension bridges on the East River were boarded up so that enemy spies could not see the ships being constructed). Supplies also left for the front from the  massive Brooklyn Army Terminals on the East River.  The end of the war in 1945 led to the famous celebrations at Times Square, which were among the largest in New York’s history.

After the war, the military would be redeployed to areas away from population centers and where more space was readily and cheaply available.  The Brooklyn Navy Yard would be shuttered and the remaining bases in the city limits (with the exception of a small presence at Fort Hamilton) closed by the early 2000s.  The city is still well defended by units of the armed forces within easy reach from New Jersey, Long Island, and Upstate New York.  The defense of New York remains important today.  This is among the facts you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.