Waterfront Manhattan

Kurt C. Schlichting's Waterfront Manhattan is a history of the waterfront of Manhattan Island and by extension the entire port of New York. In the twenty-first century, Manhattan's shoreline has been rebuilt with housing and parks for residents and tourists. But for centuries prior it was a source of profit and jobs for the city's population and of revenue for the city. From the beginning, New York's natural harbor gave access to inland waterways, and transatlantic and coastal shipping. Hence, according to Schlichting, Manhattan's waterfront was the center for the nation's trade, shipping, and commerce for hundreds of years. Schlichting described how the colony and the city financed and built the infrastructure needed to transfer goods and people between ship and shore. During the first 250 years, private interests were allowed to build and maintain the piers for their own profit. After 1870, the city retook the waterfront, rebuilt the docks to accommodate steamships and railroad freight yards, and controlled the waterfront for the next fifty years. The extreme congestion of the port during World War I, prompted the creation of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to control the entire harbor from 1921 on. Shipping declined during the 1930s but revived during the war years of the 1940s

Archaeology · Business · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Fishery · Geography · Population · Port (circuit theory · Profit (economics · Revenue · Shore · Sociology · World War II · Yard · American Environmental and Regional History · Engineering · Finance · History

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