Waterfront Manhattan: From Henry Hudson to the High Line

by Kurt C. Schlichting

Overview

The waterfront was the key to New York City’s growth and prosperity.

For hundreds of years, the shorefront of Manhattan Island served as the country’s center of trade, shipping, and commerce. With its maritime links across the oceans, along the Atlantic coast, and inland to the Midwest and New England, Manhattan became a global city and home to the world’s busiest port. It was a world of docks, ships, tugboats, and ferries, filled with cargo and freight, a place where millions of immigrants entered the Promised Land.

In Waterfront Manhattan, Kurt C. Schlichting tells the story of the Manhattan waterfront as a struggle between public and private control of New York’s priceless asset. Nature provided New York with a sheltered harbor but presented the city with a challenge: to find the necessary capital to build and expand the maritime infrastructure. From colonial times until after the Civil War, the city ceded control of the waterfront to private interests, excluding the public entirely and sparking a battle between shipping companies, the railroads, and ferries for access to the waterfront.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the City of New York regained control of the waterfront, but a whirlwind of forces beyond the control of either public or private interests—technological change in the form of the shipping container and the jet airplane—devastated the city’s maritime world. The city slowly and painfully recovered. Visionaries reimagined the waterfront, and today the island is almost completely surrounded by parkland, the world of piers and longshoremen gone, replaced by luxury housing and tourist attractions.

Waterfront Manhattan is a wide-ranging history that will dazzle anyone who is fascinated by New York.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421425238
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	05/15/2018
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kurt C. Schlichting is a professor of sociology and the E. Gerald Corrigan '63 Chair in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Fairfield University. His book Grand Central Terminal: Railroads, Engineering, and Architecture in New York City, also published by Johns Hopkins, won the Professional/Scholarly Publishing Award in Architecture from the Association of American Publishers.

Table of Contents

Preface
1. Growth, Decline, and Rebirth
2. Water-Lots and the Extension of the Manhattan Shoreline
3. The Ascendency of the Port of New York
4. New York's Waterway Empires
5. The Social Construction of the Waterfront
6. The Port Prospers, the Railroads Arrive, and Congestion Ensues
7. The Public and Control of the Waterfront
8. Crime, Corruption, and the Death of the Manhattan Waterfront
9. Rebirth of the Waterfront
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Tyler Anbinder

"Waterfront Manhattan is a great book. It explains, better than any other volume I've read, why New York became a great metropolis. Schlichting vividly brings to life the stories of the men and women who made that greatness possible—from international financiers to longshoremen and sailors. It is sure to remain the definitive account of New York's waterfront world for years to come."

Jameson W. Doig

"Anyone with an interest in New York City will want to read this book. Schlichting succeeds admirably in describing the evolution of Manhattan's waterfront through the past several centuries—so far as I know there is no published work of such scope and richness. It will also be a valuable addition to courses on urban history, urban planning, and role of civil engineering in changing cities and society."

Andrew A. Beveridge

"An exceptionally important and riveting study of Manhattan and its relations to its waterfront over the years."

Matthew Knutzen

"Schlichting’s Waterfront Manhattan deftly weaves myriad historical sources—census rolls, shipping timetables, maps, government reports—into a complex narrative radiating from Manhattan’s shoreline, unfolding across space and time, at scales from local to global. It’s a critical new telling of the city’s frenetic historical geography."

Clifton Hood

"This book will command serious and broad attention. A worthy successor to Schlichting's first two books, which made important contributions to the history of New York City and transportation history. I enthusiastically recommend it."

From the Publisher

This book will command serious and broad attention. A worthy successor to Schlichting's first two books, which made important contributions to the history of New York City and transportation history. I enthusiastically recommend it.
—Clifton Hood, author of In Pursuit of Privilege: A History of New York City's Upper Class and the Making of a Metropolis

Anyone with an interest in New York City will want to read this book. Schlichting succeeds admirably in describing the evolution of Manhattan's waterfront through the past several centuries—so far as I know there is no published work of such scope and richness. It will also be a valuable addition to courses on urban history, urban planning, and role of civil engineering in changing cities and society.
—Jameson W. Doig, author of Empire on the Hudson: Entrepreneurial Vision and Political Power at the Port of New York Authority

Waterfront Manhattan is a great book. It explains, better than any other volume I've read, why New York became a great metropolis. Schlichting vividly brings to life the stories of the men and women who made that greatness possible—from international financiers to longshoremen and sailors. It is sure to remain the definitive account of New York's waterfront world for years to come.
—Tyler Anbinder, author of City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York

Schlichting’s Waterfront Manhattan deftly weaves myriad historical sources—census rolls, shipping timetables, maps, government reports—into a complex narrative radiating from Manhattan’s shoreline, unfolding across space and time, at scales from local to global. It’s a critical new telling of the city’s frenetic historical geography.
—Matthew Knutzen, The New York Public Library

An exceptionally important and riveting study of Manhattan and its relations to its waterfront over the years.
—Andrew A. Beveridge, coeditor of New York and Los Angeles: The Uncertain Future

Editorial Reviews

03/19/2018
Sociology professor Schlichting provides a useful addition to the growing number of accessible history books that examine the Big Apple through a narrow lens. While the city is no longer a central hub of maritime industry, Manhattan became a global power partly because of New York Harbor. Schlichting, who uses primary sources such as bills of entry and passenger lists, traces the results of the city government’s strategy, beginning in the 1730s and extending into the late 19th century, of funding waterfront infrastructure by selling underwater land to private developers who were to build the necessary wharves and piers. That choice not only affected the number of ships that could dock, but also enabled the development of ships that operated on set schedules, which facilitated significant immigration and altered the physical structure of the waterfront. In clearly labeled short sections chock-full of facts and figures, Schlichting carries the story through to the present, when private capital has again been used to develop the waterfront, this time for mostly residential use, and ends with the open question of whether the current “complex arrangement of private/public control will meet the environmental challenges to come,” such as rising water levels and hurricanes. Schlichting effectively employs his expertise and diligent research to produce a valuable and easy-to-follow reference highlighting the essential role of the waterfront in New York City’s development. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Well researched, engagingly told, and rich in historical, sociological, and economic detail, Waterfront Manhattan represents a new way to look at the ascendancy and growth of America's most important city.
—Ray Bert, Civil Engineering

In Waterfront Manhattan, Schlichting has woven an impressive narrative which is sure to shed light on this underappreciated aspect of New York City history.
—Erin Becker, Long Island Maritime Museum, Global Maritime History

This is an important book. There is much to ponder on the future of New York City's harbor, encompassing all five of the city's boroughs and also New Jersey's shoreline.
—Evelyn Gonzalez, William Paterson University, Journal of American History

From the Publisher

Well researched, engagingly told, and rich in historical, sociological, and economic detail, Waterfront Manhattan represents a new way to look at the ascendancy and growth of America's most important city.

Civil Engineering - Ray Bert

In Waterfront Manhattan, Schlichting has woven an impressive narrative which is sure to shed light on this underappreciated aspect of New York City history.

Global Maritime History - Erin Becker

This is an important book. There is much to ponder on the future of New York City's harbor, encompassing all five of the city's boroughs and also New Jersey's shoreline.

Journal of American History - Evelyn Gonzalez