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Part I: Introduction The Brooklyn Bridge IS New York City. More than the Statue of Liberty, which we have to share with those guys over in New Jersey; more than the Empire State Building, which we have to share with the rest of America; more than the United Nations, which we have to share with…

America has a new star, “King Kong”, designed by Jonny Tilders, manipulated by animatronics and puppeteers in a living, breathing believable beast and king of the jungle.  King Kong demonstrates his prowess as he wrestles with a giant serpent confronts other challenges in his jungle world of Skull Island.  He now lives once more as…

Since the second city hall at the time was being used by Congress, between 1784 and 1790, the City built a new city hall, the third and present city hall. (Today, the site of the second City Hall is now the Federal Hall National Memorial.) John McComb Jr. and Joseph Francois Mangin designed City Hall…

Just over two hundred years ago, there was a series of marshes in the areas that are now called City Hall Park and Foley Square. Foley Square was the site of a big pond that the early settlers called “The Collect” or “Collect Pond. In fact, the area was so low lying that during the…

NYC Walks Blog 17 Harry Houdini in NYC © 2018 by Philip Ernest Schoenberg, Ph. D. Introduction When his father’s rabbi gig ended in Appleton, Wisconsin, the family returned to Lower East Side of Manhattan.  One of the many jobs that Harry did was working as a locksmith.  He commenced a career in show business…

NYC Walks Blog Grant’s Tomb © 2018 by Dr. Philip Ernest Schoenberg. Ghost with a Blog #ghosts Ulysses S. Grant, the leading Union General, was considered the greatest American on the Union side after Abraham Lincoln for preserving the Union through his generalship.  America made him the highest ranking general ever after George Washington.  Although…

William “Boss” Tweed is a ghost that cannot go away. The Old New York County Courthouse at 52 Chambers Street renamed the Tweed Gallery and then renamed the Tweed Education Building, is his legacy. This building designed by John Kellum and Leopold Eidlitz (1861–81) was the first permanent government building erected by New York City…

NYC Walks Blog 14 Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, NYC’s Greatest of the Twentieth Century Mayor  © 2018 by Dr. Philip Ernest Schoenberg #ghost New York’s most famous mayor was Henry Enrico Farewell La Giardia (1882-1947). He was the son of an Austrian Jewish mother and an Italian agnostic father, born at 177 Sullivan Street in…

NYC Walks Blog 13 The Origins of Labor Day © 2018 by Dr. Philip Ernest Schoenberg #ghost The concept that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take place were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public “the strength and esprit de corps of…

NYC Walks Blog 12 Henry Hudson Claimed New York Harbor for the Dutch © 2018 by Dr. Philip Ernest Schoenberg #ghost   In 1609, two years after English settlers established the colony of Jamestown in Virginia, the Dutch East India Company hired English sailor Henry Hudson to find a northeast passage to India. After unsuccessfully…

When  Abraham Lincoln visited New York City for the first time in 1857, the new in New York City was really new.  Our city was on the cutting edge of technological innovation, cultural novelty, educational change, financial modernization, transportation leadership, communication pacesetting, commercial pioneering, and cultural trailblazing.  For Lincoln, New York was the future, where…

NYC Blog 12 Henry Hudson Claimed New York Harbor for the Dutch © 2017 by Dr. Philip Ernest Schoenberg #ghost   In 1609, two years after English settlers established the colony of Jamestown in Virginia, the Dutch East India Company hired English sailor Henry Hudson to find a northeast passage to India.  After unsuccessfully searching…