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Great Fire of New York (1776)

1776 disasters1776 in New York (state)18th-century fires18th century in ManhattanAmerican Revolutionary War
Fires in New York CityUrban fires in the United States
NYC fire 1776
NYC fire 1776

The Great Fire of New York was a devastating fire that burned through the night of September 20, 1776, and into the morning of September 21, on the West Side of what then constituted New York City at the southern end of the island of Manhattan. It broke out in the early days of the military occupation of the city by British forces during the American Revolutionary War. The fire destroyed about 10 to 25 percent of the buildings in the city, while some unaffected parts of the city were plundered. Many people believed or assumed that one or more people deliberately started the fire, for a variety of different reasons. British leaders accused revolutionaries acting within the city and state, and many residents assumed that one side or the other had started it. The fire had long-term effects on the British occupation of the city, which did not end until 1783.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Great Fire of New York (1776) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Great Fire of New York (1776)
Pearl Street, New York Manhattan

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

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N 40.703055555556 ° E -74.013055555556 °
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Whitehall Street-South Ferry

Pearl Street
10038 New York, Manhattan
New York, United States
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NYC fire 1776
NYC fire 1776
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South Ferry/Whitehall Street station
South Ferry/Whitehall Street station

The South Ferry/Whitehall Street station is a New York City Subway station complex in the Manhattan neighborhood of Financial District, under Battery Park. The complex is shared by the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and the BMT Broadway Line. It is served by the 1 and R trains at all times, the N train during late nights only, and the W train during weekdays only. The complex originally consisted of three separate stations. In 1905, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) opened a balloon loop at South Ferry, serving the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue and IRT Lexington Avenue Lines. The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) opened its station at Whitehall Street in 1918. The same year, the IRT opened a second loop for the IRT Lexington Avenue Line on the inside of the existing loop; the two loop stations were not connected to each other nor to the BMT station. Despite their proximity, the stations remained separate for 91 years. In the early 2000s, as part of the recovery effort from the September 11, 2001, attacks, a new South Ferry terminal for the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line was proposed. That station opened in 2009, replacing the loop station and providing a connection between the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line's 1 train and the Broadway Line's N, R, and W trains. The new terminal for the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line was severely damaged during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and the MTA temporarily re-opened the loop station between 2013 and 2017, adding a temporary connection between the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line's loop and the BMT Broadway Line's platforms. The newer terminal reopened in June 2017 following extensive renovations and waterproofing work. This station complex is the third on the site to bear the name South Ferry. The first was an elevated station located nearby, which was open from 1877 to 1950 and served the former IRT Ninth, Sixth, Third, and Second Avenue elevated lines. The second was the old South Ferry loop station, located above the existing station complex.

Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House

The Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House is a custom house erected in 1902–1907 by the federal government to house the duty collection operations for the Port of New York. Designed by Cass Gilbert in the Beaux-Arts style, it is at 1 Bowling Green in the Financial District near the southern tip of Manhattan in New York City, roughly on the same spot as Fort Amsterdam and Government House. The Custom House was proposed in 1889 as a replacement for the previous New York Custom House at 55 Wall Street. Due to various disagreements, the Bowling Green Custom House was not approved until 1899; Gilbert was selected as an architect following a competition. The building was officially opened in 1907, and the murals in the rotunda were added in a Works Progress Administration project in 1938. The United States Customs Service moved out of the building in 1974, and it sat abandoned for over a decade until renovations in the late 1980s. In 1990, the Custom House was renamed to commemorate Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and its first Secretary of the Treasury. The building presently contains the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian, which opened in 1994, as well as the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Since 2012, it is also the home to the National Archives at New York City. The exterior of the U.S. Custom House was designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1965, while part of the interior was similarly designated in 1979. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1976. It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a NRHP district created in 2007.