1800-1801--John Jacob Astor, no longer working for his mother-in-law, sends off a ship full of furs to China. By 1808, when the state charters his American Fur Company, he will be the city's only millionaire. He will then use his profits to purchase New York real estate and become even richer.
1801--The Brooklyn Navy Yard opens.
1801--Alexander Hamilton builds the Grange in what is now called Hamilton Heights.
1802--The American Company of Booksellers meets in June for the first literary festival in the United States.
1803--The cornerstone is laid for the new City Hall.
1804--Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr fight their famous duel across the river in Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton dies the next day.
1805--In the early part of the decade, Bunker Hill was leveled and tossed into the polluted Collect Pond, which simply made the area a noxious marsh. In 1805, a canal opens to drain the swamp into the Hudson River. (Unfortunately, the Hudson often pours its water in the opposite direction and the original water sources help keep the land moist.) Houses built in this area frequently cave in or collapse. This neighborhood will be known as the Five Points by the end of the decade.
1806--The first free school opens in the city.
1807--Robert Fulton demonstrates his steam ship on the Hudson or North River. At the time his ship is called the North River Boat, but after his death will be known as the Clermont. Fulton's invention transforms maritime trade forever.
1807-1809--Washington Irving begins writing for Salmagundi, a magazine that lampoons New York culture. In November of 1807, he gives the city the name Gotham. In 1809, Irving publishes his Knickerbocker's History of New York, which is a satire, parody, spoof and false history of the city.
1808--Federalists from eight states meet in New York for the first national political convention in American history.
Sources: Gotham by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace; Manhattan in Maps by Robert T. Augustyn and Paul E. Cohen; The Historical Atlas of New York City by Eric Homberger; New York: An Illustrated History by Ric Burns and James Sanders, with Lisa Ades; The Encyclopedia of New York City, edited by Kenneth T. Jackson.
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