Buried treasure: The beauty of ‘Past Objects’, underfoot
Much of our fair city is built on a foundation of yesterday’s trash. Studying an early map of Manhattan and comparing it to the island’s current shape reveals the city’s growth by landfill, a...
View Article‘Fringe’ benefits light up a forgotten New York fort
I’m an unabashed junkie of the sci-fi TV series ‘Fringe’, and the writers (or at one of them) seems to be a fan of New York history. One of the conceits of the series involves an alternate universe...
View ArticleWho won the Great Gimbels Air Race of 1911?
The place to be one hundred years ago today was Greeley Square, that bustling public space just south of 34th Street from Herald Square. Thousands of people crowded the sidewalks outside the department...
View ArticleThe New York Giants, before they were giants
At the legendary Polo Grounds 1925, where the Giants football team (after a couple false starts) finally make their mark on the sport.The New York Giants, currently in the playoffs and on their way to...
View ArticleRed Hook, Brooklyn: A rich seafaring history, organized crime and the...
PODCAST Red Hook, Brooklyn, the neighborhood called by the Dutch ‘Roode Hoek’ for its red soil, became a key port during the 19th century, a stopping point for vessels carry a vast array of raw goods...
View ArticleNew York City from the sky: The first aerial photographs
Frozen flight: Frank Coffyn sails underneath the Brooklyn Bridge and above the East River during the dead of winter. This month we celebrate the 100th anniversary of a spectacular series of flights...
View ArticleNew York: The City of Forts
The vestiges of America’s oldest wars surround us to this day. New York City has had more military fortifications contained within it than perhaps any other major American city. Part of this has to do...
View ArticlePerks of Being A Patreon Member: A Flight Through Governors Island
Happy 2016! For the past several months we have been blessed to interact with listeners and readers through our involvement with the Patreon program, a crowdfunding patronage platform allowing us to...
View ArticleThe marks of World War I, scattered throughout the five boroughs
Echoes of the first World War, one hundred years behind us, can still be found in virtually every neighborhood of New York City. In Kevin C. Fitzpatrick’s revealing and compact guidebook World War I...
View ArticleAdventures on Governors Island
PODCAST What can you find on Governors Island? Almost 400 years of action-packed history! This island in New York Harbor has been at the heart of the city’s defense since the days of the Revolutionary...
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