By 1835, New York City was the premier American city
and its financial prowess surpassed that of Philadelphia
or Boston. The opening of the Erie Canal ten years
earlier connected New York to raw materials and commercial
interests in the Midwest and allowed the city to rise
to prominence as both a national and international
market hub. Over half of the country’s exports
left through New York harbor while more than a third
of American imports arrived there. Insurance companies,
investment firms, real estate companies and others
made New York their home. Railroad terminals were
rapidly built within the city to facilitate commerce.
As the city expanded northward and its economic significance
increased, fire was once again a major concern. Insurance
companies worried that a large fire could sap their
resources; influential politicians and citizens feared
the potentially disastrous impact of fire on the city’s
prospects for continued growth. Moreover, the mayor
and numerous common council members held stock in
or were board members of many of the city’s
fire insurance firms.
While city officials were personally and materially
invested in protecting the city from fire and made
efforts to build more watch towers and hire more watchmen,
one serious impediment to fire fighting was becoming
apparent: the lack of a reliable water
source for the city. By 1835 many
officials had begun to develop a long-term vision
to solve the city’s water problem, but little
actually had been accomplished. The city’s residents
as well as its firefighters still had to rely on neighborhood
wells, forty strategically placed fire cisterns, and
an inadequate reservoir located at 13th Street and
the Bowery. Cholera
outbreaks in 1832 and 1834 hastened the city’s
plans for building the Croton Reservoir, which would
bring clean water from upstate Westchester County
into the city.
In addition to an inadequate water supply, the fire
department’s growth in the 1820s and 1830s had
not kept pace with the growth of the city. The city’s
population had swelled by an additional 145,000 in
the past decade, but the department had only added
about 300 more firemen. Firemen were as popular as
ever but 1,500 firemen, 56 engines, 6 ladder companies
and 5 hose carts could not protect the growing number
of New Yorkers. Throughout the summer and fall of
1835, the department had been kept quite busy fighting
numerous fires. In fact on December 14th, the entire
fire department – 1500 strong – had spent
the freezing, miserable evening fighting two large
fires, which destroyed thirteen buildings and two
shops. The city’s fire cisterns were nearly
empty and its fire fighting force exhausted when disaster
struck. |
