I Never Knew That About New York; A Spectacular Tale

I Never Knew That About New York; A Spectacular Tale

By Christopher Winn
never knew I bet you didn’t know this about New York! The City that never sleeps has a rich history, spanning back to the American Revolution, and pieces of that history are captured in this detailed book, the latest installment in Christopher Winn’s Best-Selling “I Never Knew That About…” series.
These tales of the Big Apple take you on a journey through the history of Broadway, and tells quirky, fascinating anecdotes about famed New York City landmarks. Did you know Grand Central Terminal is the largest railway station in the world? Or that Columbus Circle is the point from which all official distances to and from New York are measured?
These, and other fascinating tidbits abound in this account of New York City’s unique history. I Never Knew That About New York is full of intesting facts and trivia for any Big Apple lover.

Lower Broadway—Bowling Green to Trinity Church
“Broadway is the main artery of New York life—the hardened artery.” -Walter Winchell, Author of “On Broadway,”

The First Gossip Column Broadway, New York’s most famous street, was originally an Indian trail called WeckquasGeek, which followed the line of a natural ridge diagonally across the lower part of Manhattan. The Dutch named it Heere Straat, or High Street, due to its elevated position, and it became an important trade route to the north of the island and to the colony of New Netherland and beyond. Eventually the road was widened to take larger wagons and was referred to as the Brede Weg, or Broad Way.

North of Union Square the road was known as the Bloomingdale Road, and led to the village of that name that occupied part of what is now the Upper West Side. As New York expanded northward the whole trail the length of Manhattan took on the name Broadway, which served, and still serves, as New York’s Main Street. Today Broadway runs all the way to the state capital, Albany.

New York’s history is one of constant northward expansion, with Broadway as the tree trunk from which new neighborhoods branched out east and west. A walk up Broadway from south to north is a walk New York’s timeline and gives an insight into each step the city has taken on its journey from trading port to modern world-class metropolis.

Bowling Green

Broadway begins at Bowling Green, a pleasant, shady bower of trees, with flower beds, lawns, a round pond, and a fountain. Bowling Green began life as a parade ground for Fort Amsterdam. Then it was a cattle market, and in 1677 became the site of New York’s First Public Well.

In 1733, the Common Council leased the “Piece of Land…Fronting to the Fort” to three Broadway residents for a rent of one peppercorn a year in order for it to be “Inclosed to make a Bowling Green there…for the Beauty and Ornament of the Said Street” and the recreation and Delight of the Inhabitants of this City. Bowling Green is hence the oldest public park in New York.

In November 1765 the newly formed Sons of Liberty marched on Bowling Green, tore down the wooden fence surrounding it, lit a bonfire, and set fire to an effigy of the English governor, Cadwalader Colden, who was watching from the ramparts of the fort. They were protesting against the Stamp Act, which had been introduced earlier that year, and by which all printed materials in the colonies were subjected to a tax, raised to pay for British troops stationed in America.

The protests worked, and the act was repealed in March 1766. As a sign of gratitude to the king, a gilded lead statue of George III, seated on horseback with a laurel wreath on his head, was erected in the middle of the park in 1770. The following year an iron fence was put up around the green to prevent it from becoming a “receptacle for all the filth and dirt of the neighborhood.”

Toppling the King

Come the Revolution and the good feeling toward George III had dissipated. On the evening of July 9, 1776, fired up by hearing the Declaration of Independence read out in New York for the first time, in the park where City Hall now stands, a crowd of New Yorkers, along with soldiers from the Continental Army and members of the Sons of Liberty, ran down Broadway to Bowling Green, attached ropes to the statue of George III, and toppled the hated symbol of oppression from its marble pedestal. The statue was then broken up and sent to Connecticut, where the lead was melted down to make musket balls for the Continental army. Not all of the statue was lost, however, and some small pieces that survived can be seen at the New York Historical Society.

As well as destroying the statue, the rioters somehow managed to saw off all the decorative crowns that capped the posts of the iron fence surrounding the park. The fence itself survived and still protects Bowling Green to this day, although you can see the damage to the stunted posts where the crowns were hacked off. This 18th Century fence, which dates from 1771, is one of the oldest surviving structures in Manhattan and a gloriously tangible symbol of the Revolution.

Evacuation Day

North of Bowling Green, just outside the fence, on a small triangle of cobble-stones in the middle of Broadway, stands a flagpole commemorating Evacuation Day, November 25, 1783, when the British Redcoats departed in a longboat and the British flag was lowered forever over New York, the last official British outpost on American soil. As a final gesture, the British raised a Union Jack over Bowling Green, then cut the halyard and greased the flagpole to prevent anyone climbing it, so that when George Washington arrived there would still be a British flag flying above the city.

Their plan was thwarted, however, when a young sailor named John Van Arsdale managed to climb the flagpole, using iron nails as cleats, and replaced the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes, moments before Washington and his troops rode triumphantly down Broadway to take possession of their new capital.

And so it could be said that the American Revolution started and ended at Bowling Green—with the toppling of King George’s statue in 1776 and the raising of the Stars and Stripes seven years later in 1783.

Charging Bull

Just in front of the Evacuation Day flagpole, poised as if about to stampede up Broadway, is one of New York’s best-loved sights, Charging Bull, a 7,000 lb (3,175 kg) bronze sculpture that has become an icon of Wall Street. The bull first appeared over Christmas 1989, when in the middle of the night, between police patrols, the sculptor, Sicilian Arturo Di Modica, placed it on the street in front of the New York Stock Exchange as a gift to the people of New York.

Next morning the new attraction drew admiring crowds, while DI Modica stood nearby handing out flyers, but a few days later the police impounded the bull for obstructing the traffic. Such was the outcry that Charging Bull was reinstalled at Bowling Green, where it remains on permanent loan to the Department of Parks and Recreation. It is said that rubbing certain parts of the bull’s anatomy can bring good luck.

Canyon of Heroes

As you stand on the steps of the Custom House, looking north over Bowling Green, Broadway recedes dramatically into the distance between a wall of soaring skyscrapers like some enormous alpine chasm. This stretch of Broadway running from the Battery to City Hall Park is known as the Canyon of Heroes, where sports champions, political and military leaders, and pioneers of air and space travel are acclaimed with New York’s legendary ticker tape parades. Perhaps the most memorable parade, certainly on foe the biggest, was held on August 13, 1969, to honor the first men on the moon, Apollo II astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, and pilot Michael Collins. It is estimated that some four million people attended.

The first ticker tape parade was initiated by an office worker during celebrations for the dedication of the Statue of Liberty on October 28, 1886. A party was held on Broadway for the occasion, during which a worker in one of the brokerage houses along the route opened a window and threw streams of shredded paper from a ticker tape machine down onto the parade below. Others joined in and soon there was a snowstorm of ticker tape raining down on Broadway, and so was born the New York ticker tape parade.

Today the major of New York gets to decide who is honored with ticker tape parade, while all the past parades are commemorated with inscribed metal plaques set into the roadway along Lower Broadway.

Buy this book on Amazon I Never Knew That About New York

Christopher Winn
Christopher Winn

Christopher Winn is the author of the Best Selling “I Never Knew That About…” series. He has been a freelance writer for over twenty years, and his first book was the bestselling “I Never Knew That About England.” He is married to artist Mai Osawa, who illustrates all the books in his series.

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