http://www.cityofsmoke.com New York History, Commentary, and Culture Sat, 12 Feb 2011 03:02:39 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/595 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/595#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:18:22 +0000 William Bryk http://www.cityofsmoke.com/?p=595 Foggy or clear, twenty-four hours a day the ferries toot their diesel horns once as they depart the ferry slips at St. George on their five-mile voyage for Whitehall. The old names remain. Ferrymen are traditionalists. Sailing ferries were traveling the Upper Bay before the War of 1812, long before the five-borough City of New York was even a dream. Hence Whitehall and St. George, rather than Manhattan and Staten Island. ]]> http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/595/feed 0 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/579 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/579#comments Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:26:19 +0000 William Bryk http://www.cityofsmoke.com/?p=579 Phoebe Snow started here. I mean the train, not the singer--although she started here too, come to think of it. Born in New York City, she borrowed her stage name from the premiere express train of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, "The Route of Phoebe Snow," "The Road of Anthracite," which passengers boarded by taking a ferry boat from the railroad's lower West Side ferry terminal to the massive Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey.]]> http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/579/feed 0 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/454 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/454#comments Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:22:53 +0000 William Bryk http://www.cityofsmoke.com/?p=454 Around 11:55 a.m. on Thursday, September 16, 1920, an old single-top wagon, drawn by an elderly dark bay horse, plodded westward on Wall Street. It stopped about seventy-five feet from Broad, near the offices of J.P. Morgan & Co. at 23 Wall Street. The day was lovely: clear and]]> http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/454/feed 0 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/256 http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/256#comments Sat, 17 Jan 2009 06:15:38 +0000 William Bryk http://www.cityofsmoke.com/?p=256 Elections are dull because politicians are. They can't help it: only safe, conventional men and women with bland, plausible personalities can raise the kind of money required to pay for television commercials and bulk mailings. Authentic old-fashioned elections---those orgies of repeating, ballot-box stuffing, and election day riots with their torch-lit parades and bonfires, their bunting and barbecues---have vanished from the land. ]]> http://www.cityofsmoke.com/archives/256/feed 0