What: New York City’s first subway
When: 1870s
Where: Broadway and Warren Street, near City Hall
Jun 13, 2017 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Financial District, Technology & Engineering | Tags: Alfred Ely Beach, Broadway, invention, pneumatic subway, Scientific American, subway, trains | Leave A Comment »
What: The patent act of 1790 and commercial competition led to steamboat innovation in New York City waters
When: 1790s to 1820s
Where: New York Harbor
Jan 07, 2016 | Categories: All stories, Battery Park City, Early America (1784-1854), Technology & Engineering | Tags: 1790 patent law, Clermont, ferries, Hoboken Steamboat Ferry Co., John Fitch, New York Harbor, Robert B. Livingston, Robert Fulton | Leave A Comment »
What: New York City’s first aqueduct brought Manhattan 75 million gallons of water a day.
When: 1842
Where: It ran 41.5 miles, from Dutchess County to what is now the Great Lawn in Central Park
Oct 21, 2012 | Categories: All stories, Early America (1784-1854), Technology & Engineering, Upper East Side, Upper West Side | Tags: Croton Aqueduct, David Douglass, East River, Harlem River, Hudson River, James Renwick Jr., John B. Jervis, Yorkville Reservoir | Leave A Comment »
What: The first centralized power plant
When: 1882
Where: Mid-200s block of Pearl Street; now 40 Fulton Street
Jul 17, 2012 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Financial District, Scientists & Institutions, Technology & Engineering | Tags: alternating current, Current Wars, direct current, electricity, General Electric, Nikola Tesla, Pearl Street, Pearl Street Station, Thomas Edison | Leave A Comment »
What: First suspension bridge made with steel cables.
When: 1883
Where: Across the East River, connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan
Jul 17, 2012 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Lower East Side, Technology & Engineering | Tags: Brooklyn Bridge, caissons, East River, Emily Roebling, John Roebling, suspension bridge, Washington Roebling | Leave A Comment »
What: A secret facility in Grand Central Station housed turbines that powered electric trains
When: 1906
Where: Grand Central Station
May 16, 2011 | Categories: All stories, Early 20th Century (1898-1945), Midtown East, Technology & Engineering | Tags: AC/DC, Grand Central, Grand Central Terminal, M42, railways, rotary converters, trains | Leave A Comment »
What: Inventor Nicholas Tesla won the current wars with AC, but died impoverished
When: Late nineteenth century
Where: Midtown, Manhattan
Sep 10, 2010 | Categories: All stories, Consolidation (1855-1897), Midtown West, Scientists & Institutions, Technology & Engineering | Tags: alternating current, Current Wars, direct current, electronics, George Westinghouse, immigrants, New Yorker Hotel, Nikola Tesla | Leave A Comment »
What: Samuel Morse developed the electric telegraph
When: Early 1800s
Where: New York University
Sep 08, 2010 | Categories: All stories, Early America (1784-1854), Greenwich Village, Scientists & Institutions, Technology & Engineering | Tags: communications, electronics, New York University, Richard John, Samuel Morse, telegraph, Washington Square | Leave A Comment »
What: The birth of the Manhattan Project
When: World War II
Where: At three locations on Broadway, including the Woolworth Building
May 16, 2010 | Categories: All stories, Early 20th Century (1898-1945), Financial District, Physics & Mathematics, Scientists & Institutions, Technology & Engineering | Tags: atomic bomb, Manhattan Project, military, U.S. Army Corps, World War II | Leave A Comment »
