An Overview of the History of New York: Discovery through the Civil War

It is impossible to understand the history and importance of the New York City transit system without an appreciation for how the city became a place and a people whose destiny literally depended on its invention and implementation. By 1850, New York had reached a point where its future growth was severely limited. Its people and its enterprises were squeezed into a small area in what is now downtown Manhattan, suffering with a disease-ridden environment, and intense competition for both jobs and housing which bred ethnic controversies that frequently escalated into violence. The city was ready to explode. Either a means to expand its limits would be found, or the city would collapse in ways that no one wanted to contemplate.

This chapter provides an overview of the general history of New York as a city from its inception to the onset of the Civil War. As the Civil War was ending, New York was on its way to doing away with the barriers to physical expansion. From that point, the history of the city itself converges with the history of the public transit system. In no small way, the city’s subsequent history was and is enabled by its extraordinary public transportation facilities.