The S.S. United States

Shortly before noon on Wednesday, February 19, 2025, the luxury superliner S.S. United States began its final voyage. With news helicopters hovering overhead and escorted by five tugs, the largest passenger ship ever built in America slowly departed its berth in Philadelphia, bound for Florida’s panhandle. Its last journey will end 180 feet beneath the sea where the great liner will become the world’s largest artificial reef. News media marked the solemn occasion: “The S.S. United States Is Going Down for Good,” read the front-page headline in The New York Times on Friday, February 21, 2025.

The S.S. United States and the S.S. America, New York harbor, April 7, 1963. Department of Marine and Aviation Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

In a striking contrast, more than seventy years ago, the S. S. United States made the front page of the Times on a decidedly happier occasion: “Six Hour Welcome Greets New Liner on First Trip Here.” (June 24, 1952.)  The New York Daily News story that day trumpeted “The Queenly U.S. Gets N.Y.’s Bow.” In their coverage of the event, another of New York’s numerous newspapers, the Daily Mirror, described the scene: “The nation’s new queen of the seas, the superliner United States, yesterday gingerly threaded her way through a harbor clogged with hundreds of shrilling small craft and, under a canopy of helicopters, blimps and planes, majestically eased her white-and-ebony bulk up against her pier after the most tremendous welcome ever accorded a vessel here.”

Menu cover for luncheon aboard the S.S. United States, Pier 86, New York City, August 20, 1952, in honor of the Mayor’s Reception Committee, to commemorate its outstanding performance on the occasion of the arrival of the S.S. United States, in New York Harbor, July 15, 1952. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

1952 Sailing Schedule, S.S. United States, Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

The Daily News story reported that the ship’s Captain, Commodore Harry Manning, speculated that on her upcoming first transatlantic voyage, his new command might make a bid for the transatlantic speed record. As it happened, Manning’s prediction proved exactly correct. On its return from Southampton, England to New York, the giant superliner did indeed break the speed record, and on July 18, 1952, New York City went all-out to celebrate the achievement with a ticker-tape parade.

To research the story of the American superliner and the City’s welcoming event, researchers can turn to Municipal Archives collections. The Mayor Impellitteri records, and the files of the Mayor’s Reception Committee, then under the direction of City Greeter Grover Whelan, are an especially rich resource. In addition, the Department of Ports and Trades photograph collection provides unique visual documentation.

Spectators awaiting arrival of the S. S. United States, Pier 86, United States Line, Hudson River, June 23, 1952. Department of Marine and Aviation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

By the early 1950s, Whalen had perfected the art of staging a ticker-tape parade. He organized thirty-three parades in just three years from 1949 through 1952. Researchers reviewing collection contents will quickly see that no detail was too small for Whalen and his staff as they planned for the ticker-tape parade, City Hall reception, and luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria Starlight Roof.

S. S. United States docking at Pier 86, Hudson River, July 15, 1952. U. S. Army photograph, Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Pier 86, United States Line, Hudson River, June 23, 1952. Department of Marine and Aviation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Although less voluminous, the subject file for the reception in Mayor Impellitteri’s records also contains informative items. Among them are a transcript of the Mayor’s remarks at the City Hall reception. Printed in a giant font, suitable to be read from a lectern, Impellitteri’s speech praised Commodore Harry Manning, Captain of the ship: “That the United States [ship] deserves all the praise and admiration she has received—both here and abroad—goes without saying. But I submit that there is a human factor within the greatness of the ship which is equally deserving of tribute. A ship, after all, no matter how perfect in mechanical detail is nothing without her caption and crew. It is in recognition of that fact that we gather here today to honor Commodore Harry Manning, Captain of the S.S. United States, and through him, the 1,000-man team which make up his crew.”

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The Habitual Hero

Time magazine cover, June 23, 1952. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Mayor Impellitteri continued on to say that this was not Captain Manning’s first time in a ticker-tape parade. Grover Whalen’s very capable assistant Gertrude Lyons prepared a memo with biographical information about Manning for the Mayor’s speech-writers. Her memo detailed an incident in 1929 when Manning, then the first officer on the ship “America,” came upon an Italian freighter sinking in the Atlantic. Manning volunteered to take a lifeboat with seven men across a quarter-mile of raging sea to rescue the half-frozen Italian crewmen. Manning’s action saved 32 men, and upon his return to New York, the City gave him a hero’s welcome with a ticker-tape parade. As Ms. Lyons wrote, “This is but one instance which led to Commodore Manning being referred to as the ‘habitual hero’.”

Commodore Harry Manning and Chief Engineer William Kaiser, S. S. United States, ticker-tape parade, Broadway, July 18, 1952. Mayor’s Reception Committee Photograph, Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Menu, luncheon in honor of the Master, Officers and Crew of the S. S. United States, Waldorf Astoria Hotel, July 18, 1952. Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

The Mayor included the rescue story in his speech, but omitted another significant event detailed in Lyons’ memo. She explained how in 1937 Manning had been on leave from his ship to serve as navigator for Amelia Earhart on her proposed around the world flight. “In Honolulu, the plane skidded on a take-off and cracked up. No one was hurt, but Manning had to return to his ship before the plane could be repaired and the flight resumed without him. This was the flight on which Amelia Earhart lost her life.”

The Reception Committee folders also include copies of two short documents with “Suggested Remarks for Commodore Manning at City Hall” scrawled on the top. “Just a few thoughts for consideration,” Whalen wrote. No detail too small!

Mayor Vincent Impellitteri presents Proclamation to Commander Harry Manning, Captain, S. S. United States, City Hall, July 18, 1952, Mayor’s Reception Committee Photograph, Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Sleek as a Shark

Reading Manning’s biography, it is perhaps not surprising that Time magazine featured him on the cover of their June 23, 1952, issue; a copy is in the Whalen collection. In ten lavishly illustrated pages the news magazine told the full story of America’s new “Luxury Liner.” As described in the article, “The superliner is the dreamboat of William Francis Gibbs, 65, crack naval architect and famed designer of World War II’s Liberty ships. Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. made it come true.”

The story explained how Congress appropriated $42 million of the total $79 million cost of the ship not only to enhance the country’s prestige, but also to bolster its military readiness. During wartime, the ship’s 241,000-horse-power steam engines could move 14,000 troops, with equipment, halfway around the world, nonstop, without refueling. “For all her size, the hull is sleek as a shark to help her outrun submarines.”

Brochure cover, S.S. United States, July 1952, Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Brochure interior, S.S. United States, July 1952, Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Brochure interior, S.S. United States, July 1952, Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

During peacetime, the ship could transport 2,000 passengers and 1,000 crew in air-conditioned comfort, the first ocean liner with that amenity. Federal requirements necessary for the potential naval use of the vessel created challenges for interior designers Dorothy Marckwald and Anne Urquart. Using 100% fireproof materials, their interiors were hailed as a masterpiece of what is now called “mid-century modern.”

The S.S. United States went on to cross the Atlantic 800 times, but the 1952 Time story correctly foresaw the downward trajectory of transatlantic travel by ocean liner. “All liners are waging a losing battle against the airlines. Five years ago, only 30% of transatlantic travel was by air. This year it will reach about 40%.”

S.S. United States, New York Harbor, July 15, 1952. The liner’s remarkable speed during the transatlantic journey peeled the paint from its hull. Mayor’s Reception Committee Photograph, Grover Whalen Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

In 1969, the United States Lines took their flagship vessel out of service and moored it in Norfolk, Virginia. It later berthed at Philadelphia until its final voyage that began last week. The  S.S. United States Conservancy, a non-profit, bought the vessel in 2011. The Conservancy is headed by Susan Gibbs, granddaughter of the ship’s designer William Francis Gibbs. Having failed to find a permanent home for the liner, the Conservancy agreed to the planned sinking of the ship to serve as a coral reef. The Conservancy is now planning a land-based S.S. United States museum.

It is unlikely that any of the thousands of spectators at the parade for Commodore Manning and the crew of the S.S. United States in 1952 gave much thought to the fate of the great liner when it reached the end of its useful life. But if they had, perhaps they would like the idea of its new role as habitat for sea creatures.

Displaced Persons

On June 25, 1948, more than three years after the war in Europe ended, President Harry S. Truman signed the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. The legislation was intended to help thousands of European refugees who had been displaced from their home countries during World War II, to settle in the United States.  

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Correspondence, November 11, 1948. Mayor William O’Dwyer Records Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

In September 1948, anticipating that most of the refugees would enter the U.S. through the port of New York, and that many would settle within the five Boroughs, New York City Mayor William O’Dwyer appointed a twelve-member commission “…. to deal with employment and housing problems expected to arise in connection with admission of displaced persons from the camps of Europe.”    

During the next decade City mayoral administrations endeavored to aid in the relocation of the “displaced” persons. In addition to Mayor O’Dwyer’s correspondence, records of the subsequent Mayors in the Municipal Archives—Vincent Impellitteri (1950-1953), and Robert Wagner (1954-1965), document the Commission, and the resettlement efforts.

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Sample Referral Slip, 1948. Mayor William O’Dwyer Records Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Researchers examining the “displaced persons” folders in the Mayoral collections will see “File #90” written in pencil on many of the documents. Beginning with the O’Dwyer administration, clerical staff adopted the practice of assigning a number to each subject file. For example, they assigned “Num. #5” to housing-related correspondence. Juvenile Delinquency was “Num. #112,” and Long Island Railroad was “Num. File #122.” Knowledge of the numbering system is useful for researchers as referral slips found in the files often have only the numerical designation. The practice continued through the Wagner administration but appears to have been abandoned during the Lindsay years. The ‘key’ to the numerical filing system is located in the hard-copy Mayor Wagner finding guide in the Municipal Archives and Library Reading Room.

The first boatload of displaced persons arrived in New York on October 31, 1948. The story made the front page of The New York Times: “The first group of homeless Europeans to arrive under the Displaced Persons Law came up New York harbor yesterday past the Statue of Liberty amid the thunder of welcoming whistles.” The story continued, “As they lined the rail of the Army transport Gen. William Black, they were a little tearful, very polite and quite stunned as the greatest city of the western world arose before them.” The article quoted Mayor O’Dwyer’s welcoming remarks: “New York City is glad to have you here. Many of you will stay here—I wish all of you could. You will like it in New York,” [November 1, 1948].

The happy circumstances described in the Times article disguised a significant defect in the federal legislation—it denied an American visa to any persons who had entered a refugee camp after December 22, 1945. This seemingly arbitrary stipulation served to prohibit the entrance of Jewish refugees who survived the Holocaust, but when faced with pogroms in postwar Poland, fled to the refugee camps in nearby Germany after December 22. According to information published by the Truman Library Institute in Independence, Missouri, President Truman had reluctantly signed the bill.“It is with very great reluctance that I have signed S. 2242, the Displaced Persons Act of 1948…The bad points of the bill are numerous. Together they form a pattern of discrimination and intolerance wholly inconsistent with the American sense of justice…The bill discriminates in callous fashion against displaced persons of the Jewish faith…The bill also excludes many displaced persons of the Catholic faith who deserve admission…” 

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Correspondence, August 18, 1949. Mayor William O’Dwyer Records Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Over the course of the next two years, Truman pushed Congress to amend the bill. Mayor O’Dwyer also recognized the limitations of the legislation and urged Congress to remedy the situation. His correspondence files include a lengthy letter to Mr. William Boyle, Chairman of the National Democratic Committee: “I am writing to you to... join with other men and women of good-will in urging the United States Senate to act favorably and soon upon the McGrath-Neely Bill which would correct the injustices of the present DP Act. This bill, as you know, is backed by scores of national organizations and thousands of American citizens of all faiths and of both major parties.” (August 16, 1949)  

Finally, in 1950, Truman persuaded Congress to enact an amended version of the legislation. It removed the cutoff date which previously blocked the entrance of thousands of Jewish refugees. “It is with very great pleasure that I have today signed H.R. 4567, which amends the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. The improvements embodied in H.R. 4567 now bring the American principles of fair play and generosity to our displaced persons program.” [Truman Center]

Mayor Impellitteri greeted another new arrival, “... pretty Maria Geroulis of the Village of Steno Tripolis, Greece, . . .. attired in colorful ancient Greek garb,” with a special “coronation ceremony” at City Hall on August 20, 1951. Official Mayoral Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

With passage of the amended law, Mayoral records detail plans for celebratory events. Vincent Impellitteri succeeded Mayor O’Dwyer as Mayor in September 1950. On December 20, 1950, his administration honored the 200,000th displaced person brought to the United States with a 9 a.m. ceremony at the pier, a City Hall reception at 11 a.m., and a “Santa Claus Party,” at Lord & Taylor at 2 p.m.

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News release, August 20, 1951. Note referral to #55 “for correspondence.” #55 is the subject file designation for mayoral speeches and messages. Mayor Vincent Impellitteri Record Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

For a similar event, Impellitteri’s office issued a press release on July 11, 1951, describing how the Mayor greeted “Volodymyr Holubiw, a 42-year old Polish Ukrainian farmer, who is the quarter of a millionth displaced person to be brought the United States...” The release added that Holubiw arrived with his wife, Maria, and three children who “have known no home except a displaced persons camp.”  

Impellitteri’s files also include correspondence with Congressman Emanuel Celler about the Congressional bill to provide for the “admission of 50,000 Italian immigrants, without regard to annual quota limitations, over a period of 5 years, beginning July 1, 1952.”  In a press release from the Congressman, dated October 8, 1951, Celler wrote that “Italy is simply bursting at the seams.” It continued, “This is a bill which benefits benefactor and beneficiary. It will strengthen our ties with Italy; it will speed economic recovery in Europe and will increase our manpower and consequently our production.”   

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Chart appended to “Outline of the Organization and Work of the President’s Committee for Hungarian Refugee Relief in Resettlement of Hungarian Refugees,” 1957. Camp Kilmer was located in New Jersey. Mayor Robert Wagner Record Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The work of the Mayor’s Commission on Displaced Persons continued after Mayor Robert Wagner took office in 1954. In 1957, correspondence in his subject files points to a possible revision in the Commission’s focus, or perhaps to the establishment of an entirely new organization. An internal memo dated January 22, 1957, proposed a “Mayor’s Committee on Refugee Assistance.” The memo explained that “This Committee would aid and assist the various religious, labor and voluntary agencies in their program of aiding refugees.” The memo added that the Committee would work with the New York State Committee on Refugees and the President’s Committee for Hungarian Refugee Relief.” A multi-page description of the President’s Committee was appended to the memo. The folder did not contain any further correspondence on the subject; further research would be necessary to learn whether the new “Committee” became a reality. Likewise, the fate of the original Mayor’s Displaced Persons Commission after the Wagner administration is also not clear.  

A displaced persons folder in the Impellitteri collection contains a press release issued by the War Relief Services agency, dated November 13, [1951]. It transcribed remarks made by Alexander Ranezay, a Czechoslovakian displaced person: “Honored friends. Thank you for this welcome. Now that we are New Americans, we’d like to say—not just from ourselves but from a million other former DPs—thank you to every American and to every citizen of the other seventeen countries who created the IRO [International Refugee Organization] to give a refuge to refugees. In our gratefulness, there is only one thing we would still like to ask: ‘Please don’t forget those who are still behind.’ When in the country I have left, a person enters a house he says; ‘God give you a good day.’ Entering your country, we say it to you.”

Department of Street Cleaning Photographs

“You Live in the Greatest City in the World – Let’s Make it the Cleanest and Healthiest,” is the wording on the sign on a Department of Street Cleaning cart photographed around 1908. The same sign today would not seem out of place on a Department of Sanitation truck and probably would have been a reasonable exhortation two hundred years ago. Except, until 1870, the City mostly contracted-out street cleaning services.  

Rack Cart with Officer, 1908, Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

The photograph of the cart is one of approximately 300 black-and-white prints depicting Department of Street Cleaning workers, equipment, and activities dating from the 1890s to 1925. Recently accessioned by the Municipal Archives, they are uniform in size, measuring approximately five by seven inches. Each is captioned on the reverse. Originally mounted in an album, the prints have been re-housed in acid-free envelopes.

Roll Call and Inspection of Drivers, 1908. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Like many City agencies, the Department of Street Cleaning began using photography in the early years of the twentieth century to document their work. Although relatively few in number, the Street Cleaning pictures capture an essential municipal function at a time of transition from an exclusively human (and horse) powered operation to one with motorized and mechanical assistance. The many pictures of trucks, tractors, snow “scoops,” flushers, and other equipment attest to the Department’s growing reliance on machinery.

One striking feature of the photographs, especially those from the earlier time period, is the ubiquity of horses. Two recent For the Record articles, Stables and Auction Marts: Building Plans With Horses and Horsepower: The City and the Horse discussed the importance of horses to transportation, construction and recreation in the city. The Street Cleaning pictures add to that theme with an abundance of images that document how critical horses were to the Department’s mission. In addition to the many photographs of horse-pulled carts and wagons, the Street Cleaning series includes several pictures of veterinarians employed by the Department, illustrating how they cared for their equine population.

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Inspection After Hook-Up, n.d. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Department Veterinarian Treating Horse, n.d. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Another aspect of Street Cleaning work that quickly becomes apparent in the pictures is snow, and the removal thereof. The snow-related images vividly illustrate the effort it took to clean snow from the streets. A 1915 survey of City departments, with budget information, shows that out of their total annual budget of $4.5 million, the Street Cleaning Department spent more than $650,000 to employ “contractors,” i.e. day laborers, mainly for snow removal. (Government of the City of New York, A Survey of Its Organization and Functions, 1915, Municipal Library.)

Fifth Avenue, 1908. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Contractors Loading Snow, 1920. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Contractor Dumping Snow into North River, 1916. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

As noted above, many of the pictures depict newly acquired mechanical equipment, obviously important to the Department as it modernized in the twentieth century. But equally apparent is the human effort needed to perform the work. “New York’s Strongest” is, and has always been, an apt motto for workers in the Street Cleaning Department. 

In addition to the Street Cleaning pictures, Municipal Archives collections include a series of photographs originating from the Department of Sanitation, successor agency to the Department of Street Cleaning in 1930. The Collection Guides provide information about this larger (35 cubic feet) collection.

The Commissioner’s Carriage Before Motorization, n.d. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Model T Ford, 1914. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

The Street Cleaning pictures have not yet been digitized, but they are available for research. In the meantime, For the Record readers can take a look at sample images from the collection. Like so many other pictures in Municipal Archives collections, the aspects that are ancillary to the subject of the photograph that add interest, e.g. the pedestrians, signs, storefronts, automobiles, and advertisements. The Street Cleaning collection is another good example.

Carts On Way to Inspection Points, n.d., Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Four-wheel Cart Used for Recruiting Help During World War, ca. 1917. Department of Street Cleaning Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

New York and President Jimmy Carter

On October 5, 1977, President Jimmy Carter visited the South Bronx. “The Presidential motorcade passed block after block of burned-out and abandoned buildings, rubble-strewn lots and open fire hydrants, and people shouting, “Give us money!” and “We want jobs!” Twice Mr. Carter got out of his limousine, walked around and talked to people. He said the Federal Government should do something to help, but he made no specific commitment.” —The New York Times, October 6, 1977. 

Letter from President Jimmy Carter to Mayor Abraham Beame, October 5, 1977. Mayor Abraham Beame Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The pleas Carter heard from the residents of the South Bronx are essentially what the President heard from New York City officials throughout his administration: We want money, and we want jobs!    

Beginning in the 1930s, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia established a financial relationship between the City and the Federal Government that has continued to this day. It began with Federal funds from President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs that the LaGuardia administration used to lift the City out of the Great Depression. With seven million inhabitants and dozens of “shovel-ready” public works projects, New York received more funding than any other city.

Since then, City finances have been inextricably linked to, and reliant on, federal sources. For a while, it worked. From the 1930s through the 1960s, federal funding flowed, with support for highways and housing as notable examples. By the 1970s, however, new administrations in Washington with different priorities became less sympathetic to urban needs. For New York City, the famous New York Daily News headline on October 30, 1975, “Ford to City: Drop Dead,” summed up the change in relationship. 

The election of Jimmy Carter to the White House in 1976 gave New York officials hope for an improved relationship with their Federal counterparts. Researchers interested in documenting the history of the connection between City finances and the Federal Government will be well rewarded by information in the Municipal Library and Municipal Archives collections.  

The Municipal Library’s vertical files on Federal-City Relations are a particularly rich resource for investigating the dramatic story of New York’s fiscal crisis, and recovery, in the 1970s. Although the immediate peril to the city’s economy had passed by the time Carter took office in January 1977, intense negotiations between City, State, and Federal authorities continued throughout his administration. “Carter Cool to Plea on New York’s Loan,” (New York Times, February 1, 1977), and “Carter Opens Drive for Passage of Bill on Aid to New York,” (New York Times, May 9, 1978), are just two examples of the many, almost daily, clippings in the vertical file that chart the ups and downs of efforts to fix the City’s budget.

Mayor Abraham Beame and Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter departing Gracie Mansion, July 1976. Mayor Abraham Beame Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Delving into the Municipal Archives collections to document President Carter’s relationship with the City brings researchers to the Mayor Beame collection. During the Abe Beame administration mayoral correspondence was sent to “central files” where clerks separated letters into different series, e.g. Subject Files, Departmental Correspondence, General Correspondence, and Correspondence with State and Federal offices. The clerks further refined this arrangement by separately filing “President” correspondence.

Mayor Beame’s “President” file for 1977 contains copies of the letters he wrote to President Carter recommending people for jobs in the new administration. In April, the Mayor began to address economic conditions in his correspondence with Carter. On April 20, 1977, he sent a dense three-page letter urging the President to consider the effects of defense spending on employment. “The Mayors of the nation’s older urban centers want our cities to continue their historic role as major contributors to the American economy...  by assuring that these communities receive a fair share of authorized Defense spending, the federal government can provide an important stimulus to the private sector economics of these cities.”

The file does not include a response from Carter directly addressing Beame’s concerns regarding unemployment, but on May 11, 1977, the President wrote to the Mayor about the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA): “I am writing you to emphasize the continuing urgency of our battle against high unemployment. I anticipate that Congress will soon approve the funds we have requested... to double the number of public service jobs provided under CETA.” Carter went on to urge Beame to “...do everything possible to minimize procedural delays... in filling these new jobs.”  

Mayor Edward Koch, President Jimmy Carter, New York Governor Hugh Carey, on the steps of City Hall following approval of Federal loan guarantees for New York City, August 8, 1978. Mayor Edward Koch Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

When Mayor Edward Koch took office as Mayor in January 1978 the “central file” system, with correspondence arranged in series, seems to have been abandoned. Although this makes research in Koch administration records somewhat more challenging, archivists created a key-word searchable inventory for a portion of his records—essentially what would have been his subject and departmental files.

Typing ‘Carter’ into the search box identified a folder of correspondence between the Mayor and the President. In a letter to President Carter, dated February 20, 1980, Koch got right to the point: “I wish to bring you up to date on the progress being made to close New York City’s projected budget gap and to acknowledge the assistance being provided by your staff in identifying additional sources of federal aid.” In three typed pages Koch delineated measures related to Medicaid, Welfare, and Education Aid, and attached a six-page memorandum prepared by the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget that detailed “Federal Actions.”

Mayor Edward Koch, Queens Borough President Donald Manes, President Jimmy Carter, Town Hall meeting, September 25, 1979. Mayor Edward Koch Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Four months later, on June 20, 1980, Koch wrote to President Carter’s Chief of Staff, Jack Watson, about funding needed for the CETA program, and scrawled “Please Help!” under his signature. Koch again used the personal approach in an August 1980 handwritten note to Carter: “Here is the memo you asked that I send to you when we traveled together to the Urban League. Congratulations on the outcome of the Convention. Now we have to pull it all together.” He signed it, Your friend, Ed. Although the convention went in Carter’s favor, the general election in November did not.

Jimmy Carter and HPD Commissioner Gliedman (in red tie) on East 6th Street, Manhattan, July 30, 1985. Department of Housing, Preservation and Development Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Jimmy Carter’s connection to New York City did not end with his Presidency. His work for the Habitat for Humanity organization brought him back to New York. In 1985 he met with Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Anthony Gliedman on the roof of a building on East 6th Street in Manhattan where Carter had been working with the Habitat group.

Demonstrations, Disturbances, and a Papal Visit

After many years of planning and effort, the Municipal Archives launched online Collection Guides in October 2021. The Guides provide researchers with essential information about the Archives holdings in an easily searchable format.

The Guides have allowed patrons to discover resources that are relevant to a great variety of research topics and queries. Thanks to the Guides, patrons are now able to access records long-held by the institution, but rarely, if ever, examined due to imperfect intellectual control.

News clipping, Daily News, July 16, 1963. NYPD Demonstrations and Disturbances Records. NYC Municipal Archives.

This week For the Record highlights a series originally accessioned in 1973, that has recently informed research by several patrons as a result of its listing in the Collection Guides. The collection is titled, “New York Police Department (NYPD) Demonstrations and Disturbances Records.” Although small in quantity, less than four cubic feet, the eclectic contents include NYPD memoranda and correspondence, as well as reports, maps, pamphlets, and assorted ephemera. The materials date from the mid-1960s. Accessioned from the NYPD’s Ninth Police Precinct in 1973, the collection had been only minimally described. Patron interest in this small series has prompted City archivists to inventory the material and publish a resource record.

Scanning the folder inventory quickly reveals why researchers have found the contents of value. Folder headings range from “Police Department Committee to Study the Report of the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice,” to “Watts Riots, 1965,” and “Papal Visit to City of New York, 1965.”

Ephemera, 1964. NYPD Demonstrations and Disturbances Records. NYC Municipal Archives.

In the first box there are nine folders of NYPD records about racial “disorder” in Harlem during 1963-1965. Several are specific to demonstrations staged by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). One example is an NYPD Memorandum, dated June 12, 1963, concerning an “Afro-Asian Bazaar” scheduled to take place at the 69th Regiment Armory. The memo states that Malcolm X, “leader of the Nation of Islam in this city,” had been interviewed about the Bazaar. The NYPD confirmed that the Nation of Islam had approval from the Adjutant General in Albany to use the Armory, but also noted, “This situation will receive continued attention and new developments reported as they occur.” In another document, dated June 7, 1965, the NYPD discussed “possible trouble this summer,” specifically referring to “…groups of youngsters [who] are very dangerous and could easily set off further riots and disorders.”  

Three folders in this box document NYPD preparations for anticipated anti-draft demonstrations in 1967. Among the items is a multi-page mimeographed document helpfully listing the “Laws Relating to Public Demonstrations” that police officers might invoke when arresting persons at the planned demonstrations.

Other documents are more general in nature. The series includes a nine-page Memo dated June 10, 1966, Subject: Resume of Certain Police Problems Associated with the Summer Season.” Among the problems addressed in the list are Panic Triggered by Sudden Storms, Throwing Bricks and Debris from Roof Tops, Drag Racing, Fireworks, and Prevention of Swimming at Unauthorized Locations. More ominously, it also lists, Automobile Larceny, Vandalism in Schools, Narcotics, and Youth Gangs and Juvenile Delinquency.

Papal Mass Pamphlet, 1965. NYPD Demonstrations and Disturbances Records. NYC Municipal Archives.

News clipping, Daily News, October 1965. NYPD Demonstrations and Disturbances Records. NYC Municipal Archives.

Similarly, in another summer-related communication, a memo from July 19, 1966, to “All Commands,” discusses “Emergency Distribution of Hydrant Spray Caps.” In six detailed paragraphs the document provides very specific guidance to police patrols who were apparently tasked to distribute hydrant spray caps in areas “where there have been many unauthorized openings of hydrants.”

Not all of the items in this collection pertain to riots and disorder. There are several folders documenting the visit of Pope Paul VI to New York City in October 1965. Not surprisingly the files contain numerous memos and correspondence describing NYPD preparations for the Papal visit as well as several folders of clippings about the event carefully clipped from many local newspapers.

Presidential motorcade route map, October 1965. NYPD Demonstrations and Disturbances Records. NYC Municipal Archives.

There are notably fewer documents in this series about the visit by President Lyndon Johnson to the City at the same time. However, there is one item that at first glance seemed odd. It is titled “Hospitals located in proximity of routes used by the President traveling to and from Queens Airports.” But after a little thought, its purpose becomes obvious.

Some of the items in this series may be duplicative of the several NYPD Intelligence Bureau series, a.k.a. the Handschu Collection, also described in the Collection Guides. Now, thanks to the Guides and awareness of these related series such as the “Demonstrations and Disturbances” material, patrons can more easily explore the diverse and vast holdings of the Municipal Archives. Look for future For the Record articles about previously little-known resources.

Birthday Greetings, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge!

Five hundred years ago, in a mission to find the Northwest Passage to Asia, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazano sailed along the northeastern coast of North America. He voyaged from present day North Carolina, to Nova Scotia, and became the first European known to have sailed into New York Harbor. 

Aerial View Of Verrazano-Narrows Bridge with construction almost completed, from Brooklyn looking toward Staten Island, ca. 1964. Department of Ports & Trade photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

More recently, on November 21, 1964, the Verrazano-Narrow Bridge, named in honor of the explorer, opened to traffic. New Yorkers like to describe features of their city as the tallest, the biggest, etc., but the Verrazano bridge is truly the embodiment of superlatives. The 693-foot towers are so tall that they are 1-5/8 inches farther apart at the top than the bottom because the 4,260-foot distance between them made it necessary to take the earth’s curvature into account. When completed in 1964 it was longest suspension bridge in the world. There is enough steel in the structure to build three Empire State Buildings. The wire in the four main cables would encircle the earth nearly six times.

Aerial View Of Verrazano-Narrows Bridge with construction almost completed, from Brooklyn looking toward Staten Island, ca. 1964. Department of Ports & Trade photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Researchers will learn these facts, and many more, from resources in the Municipal Library. The vertical files, for example, contain an eclectic assortment of source materials. One such item, the Winter 2001-2002 edition of From the Archive, a publication of MTA Bridges and Tunnels, is especially informative and includes numerous historical photographs documenting construction of the bridge. According to the narrative, New York State authorized construction of a bridge across the narrows between Staten Island and Brooklyn in 1946. Nine years later, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), together with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, announced a proposal to build a 12-lane double deck suspension bridge. Ground was broken on August 13, 1959, and the $320 million structure opened to traffic on November 21, 1964.

Aerial View Of Verrazano-Narrows Bridge with construction almost completed, from Brooklyn looking toward Staten Island, ca. 1964. Department of Ports & Trade photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

It should come as no surprise that master builder Robert Moses played a significant role in planning and construction of the bridge. As Chairman of the TBTA (now MTA Bridges and Tunnels), Moses saw the Verrazano as the last of the suspension bridges needed to complete his web of arterial highways connecting the five Boroughs with each other and the mainland.

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Cable Spinning, March 7, 1963. Triborough, Bridge and Tunnel Authority. NYC Municipal Library.

Chart, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Cable Spinning, March 7, 1963. Triborough, Bridge and Tunnel Authority. NYC Municipal Library

The vertical file contains a small pamphlet titled, “Remarks of Robert Moses . . . at the Cable Spinning Ceremony at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Thursday, March 7, 1964.”  In a short speech transcribed in the pamphlet, Moses said of the bridge, “You see here the buckle in the chain of metropolitan arterials devised and approved by federal, state and local agencies, departments and officials too numerous to mention individually, a framework of bypasses and through routes of the most modern design which still requires years to finish.”  In a not very subtle allusion to the considerable opposition voiced by residents of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, whose homes were demolished to make way for the bridge, Moses went on to say, “The obstacles in our way become more formidable, the opposition more vociferous, the support less steady and certain, the courage or, if you please, obstinacy of those in charge less durable and the cost immeasurably greater as time goes on.”

Aerial view of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Photo taken from a helicopter, July 15, 1965. HPD Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Moses persevered, as he did, and the bridge was completed just a few months later. According to clippings from the Staten Island Advance, “The day dawned blustery and cold, but no dampers were put on the spirit of the Verrazano-Narrows bridge opening...”  (November 23, 1964.)  Other Advance stories reported how the cold weather discouraged politicians from making long-winded speeches. Spectators cheered Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s announcement that “I think I’ll file my speech for the record.”  

Aerial view of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Photo taken from a helicopter, July 15, 1965. HPD Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Story of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Triborough, Bridge and Tunnel Authority. NYC Municipal Library.

Reading through the chronologically arranged vertical file, an article dated March 3, 1962, from the World-Telegram, hints at stories that would dominate later coverage: “Staten Island: Goodbye to a Way of Life—Verrazano Bridge, Now Building, Will Double Population, End Rural Refuge.” Indeed, clippings from 1984, on the occasion of the bridge’s twentieth anniversary, echo the earlier prediction: “The Bridge took a toll on the Island’s mores,” headlined the Advance on November 18, 1984.

During the 1980s and 90s, stories about the bridge tolls proliferate in the clipping files. On June 22, 1983, The New York Times reported “New Law Gives S.I. Drivers a 25-cent Discount on Verrazano.” And beginning in 1970, thanks to the annual New York marathon that kicks off on the Verrazano Bridge on the first Sunday in November, the great suspension bridge always receives lots of media attention. 

Verrazano Bridge - Aerial, March 29, 1966. Department of Ports and Trade photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Giovanni da Verrazzano, The Discoverer of New York Bay, 1964. NYC Municipal Library.

Searching Municipal Library shelves revealed an illustrated pamphlet, Giovanni da Verrazzano, The Discoverer of New York Bay. Published in 1964, on the occasion of the inauguration of the bridge, it chronicles the life and history of the explorer. According to the introduction, “Here we wish to . . . help awaken interest in the daring, adventurous nobleman who gave New York its very first name of Angouleme, recorded its exact position on a map, and opened the path to the other voyagers who have come to these shores in ever-growing numbers from then on. Meet Giovanni da Verrazzano, the discoverer of New York Bay!” What the pamphlet apparently fails to mention is that he is believed to have been eaten by cannibals in the West Indies, according to the Encyclopedia of New York City. But there is a bronze statue of Verrazano in Battery Park and a beautiful suspension bridge to remind New Yorkers of his place in our history.