The History of New York

Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to discover New York in 1524, 85 years before Henry Hudson sailed along the coast of North America. Dutch settlers called the area New Amsterdam. A Dutch political director of the new world named Peter Minuet is given credit for buying New York City from the Canarsees Indians for $65.

In 1664, the British took New Amsterdam from Governor Peter Stuyvesant. The Dutch tried to prevent an invasion by having a 2,400 foot wall built, but it didn't work; the British took the island with an attack from the sea. That part of the city is now called Wall Street. The British changed the name to New York for the King's brother, the Duke of York.

George Washington became the first President of the United States in 1789. New York declared its independence in July 1776. After the battle of Saratoga, an alliance was formed with France and the United States able to win its freedom. The British left in 1783 and New York City became the first capitol in the United States in 1789.

The Erie Canal was built in 1825 and was later replaced by the Barge Canal in 1918. The Great Fire of New York in 1835 burned for two days, caused $25,000,000 dollars in damages, and took two lives. Railroads that had been started as short lines in 1831 had grown across the state by 1853, and a system of roads that began in the early 1880s rapidly spread across the state. The French presented the Statue of Liberty to the United States on July 4th, 1884. It was finished and dedicated in 1886.

New York had a lot of problems with gangs; but the city still prospered and became known as the Empire State because of its economic power. The New York Stock Exchange opened a few years before the turn of the century. The city had another fire in 1911 that claimed the lives of more than 140 women workers in the Triangle Factory Fire. The Empire State Building was built in 1929, the same year as the stock market crash that started the Great Depression. It took many years and a world war for the economy to recover.