The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers, Greg Young
  • 5.0 (41)
  • HISTORY
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

The tides of American history flow through the streets of New York City — from the huddled masses on Ellis Island to the sleazy theaters of 1970s Times Square. Greg and Tom explore more than 400 years of action-packed stories, featuring both classic and forgotten figures who have shaped the world.

  1. 2D AGO

    #481 How The West Village Became A Neighborhood

    In Part Two of our mini-series, The Streets of the West Village, we turn to the people who gave the neighborhood its character and vitality — from Irish longshoremen on the docks to actors on the off-Broadway stage, from street gangs to speakeasy proprietors. From Eugene O’Neill to Bea Arthur, their stories help define this corner of Manhattan. Well into the early 19th century, the West Village still felt like a true village, with its preserved, winding lanes. Over the following decades, a diverse array of residents arrived and made the neighborhood their own, working along the waterfront or gathering at local haunts like the beloved White Horse Tavern. The promise of a new subway line once seemed entirely beneficial, but it brought a devastating consequence: Seventh Avenue had to be extended straight through the western Village, cutting a swath through the existing streetscape and wiping away hundreds of buildings.  Prohibition and the Jazz Age are seemingly etched into the very fabric of the West Village, reflected in the many institutions that date from the 1920s and ’30s, including numerous former speakeasies. Join us as we wander through the Jazz Age Village — Fedora, Chumley’s, the Cherry Lane Theatre, and more — and trace the echoes of that exuberant era. This episode was produced and edited by Kieran Gannon. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    1h 26m

  2. FEB 27

    #480 The Streets of the West Village: Creating the Village

    Why are the streets of Manhattan's West Village so unusually charming and romantic? Why does it make such an excellent place for a night out in New York City? Why is the real estate so expensive? And when did it become a distinct place separate from Greenwich Village? We hope to get to the bottom of these questions in the first part of our epic new limited series on the history of the West Village. People have been living in this region of Manhattan Island for centuries -- first the Lenape, then the Dutch, who gave the area its distinctive name ("Groenwijck"). During the English colonial period, several large estates were developed here, and their memories survive today in certain street names -- like Christopher Street. By the 19th century, the fear of yellow-fever epidemics in the crowded city south of here brought new residents, new housing development -- and new streets, built every which way, conforming to hills, farms, and private property. It immediately clashed with the city's plan for an organized Grid Plan of streets and avenues. The result is a bewildering map that often seems to bend space and time (as at the intersection of West 4th and 11th Streets). Visit our website for more Bowery Boys podcasts and images from this show. This episode was edited and produced by Kieran Gannon Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    1h 20m

  3. FEB 22

    Frozen in Time: The Great Blizzard of 1888

    Here’s a classic from the Bowery Boys Podcast archive, recorded in early 2013, just a few months after Hurricane Sandy.  Each winter, when forecasters warn of an approaching monster storm, they inevitably invoke one of the most infamous tempests ever to strike New York City: the now-legendary Great Blizzard of 1888, a devastating collision of wind and snow. The battering snow-hurricane of 1888, with its freezing temperatures and crazy drifts three stories high, was made worse by the condition of New York’s transportation and communication systems, all completely unprepared for 36 hours of continual snow. For those who support the Bowery Boys Podcast on Patreon, you’ll receive this episode—and other classic shows from our back catalog—every week, completely ad-free. To learn more, visit patreon.com/boweryboys.    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    48 min
  4. How To Dig a Train Tunnel Under the Hudson River (from HISTORY This Week)

    FEB 20

    How To Dig a Train Tunnel Under the Hudson River (from HISTORY This Week)

    For more historical deep dives just like these, check out HISTORY This Week wherever you get your podcasts! February 14, 1905. A stick of dynamite detonates under the Hudson River — and the ground above swallows a locomotive whole. It's the latest setback in an audacious plan to tunnel beneath the river and bring trains into Manhattan. The Pennsylvania Railroad is the largest corporation in the world, but the goopy riverbed keeps fighting back. How did they finally break through? And why are these 115-year-old tunnels still the most critical infrastructure in America? Special thanks to our guests: Polly Desjarlais, content and research manager at the New York Transit Museum; Jill Jonnes, author of Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels; and Andy Sparberg, former LIRR manager, transit historian, and author of From a Nickel to a Token: The Journey from Board of Transportation to MTA. Link: http://historythisweekpodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    35 min

  5. FEB 13

    #479 NYC '84: The Case of the 'Subway Vigilante'

    On the afternoon of December 22, 1984, shots rang out beneath the streets of New York, from the subway's 2 Seventh Avenue express train. A Greenwich Village man named Bernhard Goetz shot four black teenagers who he believed were about to assault him. The incident made international news, amplified by the city’s shameless tabloid newspapers because it so perfectly embodied all the cultural stereotypes about New York City in the 1980s. Goetz became a sort of folk hero, the so-called Subway Vigilante, who took things into his own hands because the city’s weakened and inept services could not. The facts of this case only came to light in the courtroom, playing out over the years. And, if you’re old enough to remember this incident, chances are that you may not be remembering it accurately. To untangle the truth from the hype, Greg is joined in the studio by Elliot Williams, the author of the gripping new book Five Bullets: The Story of Bernie Goetz, New York’s Explosive ‘80s, and the Subway Vigilante Trial that Divided the Nation. This episode was produced and edited by Kieran Gannon Other Bowery Boys episodes you may enjoy: Ford To City: Drop Dead, the Subway Graffiti Era 1970-1989 and Taxi Driver (Bowery Boys Movie Club) Visit our website for more information and for other shows in the Bowery Boys catalog. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    54 min

  6. JAN 30

    #478 The Disappearance of Judge Crater

    On August 6, 1930, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater stepped into a taxi on West 45th Street and vanished without a trace. For 27 days, nobody reported him missing—not his wife waiting in Maine, not his Tammany Hall cronies, not the courts. When the story finally broke, it became the most famous missing persons case in New York history. Judge Crater was a rising star in the city’s legal world—a Tammany Hall insider who’d just landed a prestigious judgeship paying $23,000 a year (about $450,000 today). But he was also tangled up in corruption, office-buying schemes, and shady real estate deals. He had a taste for Broadway chorus girls, speakeasies run by gangsters, and envelopes stuffed with cash. His disappearance rocked the city and captivated the nation for decades. The phrase “to pull a Crater” entered the popular lexicon. Psychics came forward with tips. Grand juries investigated. Deathbed confessions emerged decades later. This week, Tom takes you through one of the city’s greatest unsolved mysteries—a story of Tammany corruption, Broadway nightlife, and Depression-era New York. What happened on that hot August night? Was it murder? Blackmail? A carefully planned escape? 96 years later, the mystery endures. This episode was produced and edited by Kieran Gannon. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    1h 5m

  7. JAN 16

    The History of Brooklyn Heights and the Promenade

    “A Highway is Crumbling. New York Can’t Agree on How to Fix It.” That was a headline in the New York Times back in November about the highly problematic section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway located beneath the Brooklyn Promenade, the romantic walkway that offers sumptuous views of lower Manhattan. Everybody loves the Promenade. Nobody loves the BQE, especially in its present state. So how did we get here? You have to go all the way back to the origins of the neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights for the answers. A stroll through Brooklyn Heights presents you with a unique collection of 19th-century homes — all preserved thanks to the efforts of community activists in the 20th century. Each street sign traces back to an original landholder from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. When Robert Moses began planning his Brooklyn Queens Expressway in the 1940s, he planned a route that would sever Brooklyn Heights and obliterate many of its most spectacular homes. It would take a devoted community and some very clever ideas to re-route that highway and cover it with something extraordinary — a Promenade, allowing all New Yorkers to enjoy views of New York Harbor. To tell the whole story, we’ve put together two previous Bowery Boys episodes into one epic, newly remastered, newly re-edited show, which recounts the glorious history of Brooklyn Heights. This episode was edited and remasterd by Kieran Gannon. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    1h 42m

  8. JAN 2

    #477 Chester A. Arthur: The Gentleman Boss

    On Lexington Avenue sits a special food store named Kalustyan's with a second floor stocked with international spices, syrups, and bitters. In 1881, this was the home of Chester A. Arthur, and it was here in the early morning hours of September 20, that he became the 21st President of the United States. He is one of only two men inaugurated as president in New York City -- the other was George Washington. And Arthur was certainly no Washington! Fans of the Netflix series Death By Lightning have already been introduced to Arthur's rugged, street-toughened personality, an efficient operator of Republican politics in a city governed by Democrats and Tammany Hall. He was quite famous, in fact, for converting Tammany men to Republican voters by using similar bare-knuckle tactics. He eventually became the Collector of the Port of New York, one of the most lucrative jobs in American government. And then, through a strange series of events, he was catapulted onto the national ticket for president as the running mate of James Garfield. But nobody really wanted the New Yorker for president, did they? This is a story not only of a man out of his depth, but of the two very different individuals who helped hone his reputation -- the New York power broker Roscoe Conkling, and the Upper East Side recluse Julia Sand, who may have helped guide Arthur through the most challenging moments of his 'accidental' presidency. PLUS: How Madison Square Park has become one of the only true monuments to his legacy. Visit the website for images and more information about this story. This episode was produced and edited by Kieran Gannon. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    47 min
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About

The tides of American history flow through the streets of New York City — from the huddled masses on Ellis Island to the sleazy theaters of 1970s Times Square. Greg and Tom explore more than 400 years of action-packed stories, featuring both classic and forgotten figures who have shaped the world.

Information

  • Creator
    Tom Meyers, Greg Young
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    547
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Bowery Boys Media

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