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Broad Channel, Queens

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104-522: Broad Channel is a neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Queens . It occupies the southern portion of Rulers Bar Hassock (known colloquially as "Broad Channel Island"), the only inhabited island in Jamaica Bay . The neighborhood stands on Big Egg Marsh, an area of fill approximately 20 blocks long and 4 blocks wide at the south end of Rulers Bar Hassock. The community

208-470: A bridge designed to look like a sailing ship. There is also a 75-year-old willow tree , nine red maple trees, and ninety burning bushes surrounding the playground. 40°36′18″N 73°49′12″W  /  40.605°N 73.820°W  / 40.605; -73.820 New York City New York , often called New York City or NYC , is the most populous city in the United States , located at

312-612: A decade between Irish immigrants and Black people for work. Rioters burned the Colored Orphan Asylum to the ground. At least 120 people were killed. Eleven Black men were lynched over five days, and the riots forced hundreds of Blacks to flee. The Black population in Manhattan fell below 10,000 by 1865. The White working class had established dominance. It was one of the worst incidents of civil unrest in American history . In 1886,

416-467: A dock, and a boardwalk to reach the salt marsh. Broad Channel American Park opened in May 1995, located at the southernmost end of Broad Channel, sits along Jamaica Bay . The park features two grass baseball fields, one asphalt baseball field, benches, water fountains, a parking area, four basketball standards, and a small play area. The flagpole area is surrounded by a nautically themed sitting area. The park

520-470: A drawbridge connecting Broad Channel with the Rockaway Peninsula (which replaced the original, narrow, 1925 drawbridge), the island became easily accessible by car. However, the drawbridge opened up many times per day, and whenever it opened, traffic would back up to Howard Beach, as well as on the Rockaway Peninsula. In the mid-to-late 1960s, a new bridge was constructed. It opened on May 28, 1970. It

624-510: A new building. Broad Channel was also home to St. Virgilius School, a Roman Catholic School that was part of the Diocese of Brooklyn. However, after a lengthy battle between parents and the Diocese, St. Virgilius School closed in 2006. Two years later, upon the retirement of its administrator, Rev. John P. Maloney, St. Virgilius Parish of Broad Channel merged with St. Camillus Parish of Rockaway Park. The Queens Public Library 's Broad Channel branch

728-685: A parcel within the town of Jamaica until the City of Greater New York was created in 1898. The northern (and larger) portion of the island is part of Gateway National Recreation Area and is managed as part of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, the only wildlife refuge managed the National Park Service . The waters and marsh islands of the refuge entirely surround the community. In 1915, the city leased Broad Channel Island, Goose Creek Island, and Raunt Island to Pierre Noel, who subleased it to

832-524: A result of Sandy, and the economic losses in New York City were estimated to be roughly $ 19 billion. The disaster spawned long-term efforts towards infrastructural projects to counter climate change and rising seas, with $ 15 billion in federal funding received through 2022 towards those resiliency efforts. In March 2020, the first case of COVID-19 in the city was confirmed. With its population density and its extensive exposure to global travelers,

936-476: A speech denying the request, which was paraphrased on the front page of the New York Daily News as "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD." The Municipal Assistance Corporation was formed and granted oversight authority over the city's finances. While a resurgence in the financial industry greatly improved the city's economic health in the 1980s, New York's crime rate continued to increase through that decade and into

1040-675: A swift water rescue team with certified EMTs on board and in some instances certified divers as well. In 2012, as a result of Hurricane Sandy, the fire department lost many resources, including both of its fire trucks and both of its ambulances . Therefore, a replacement fire truck from Chanhassen, Minnesota , was loaned to the Broad Channel Volunteer Fire Department. In addition, neighboring Minnesota towns sent resources, including extra boots and helmets from Victoria and Carver ; four air monitors, one Jaws of Life apparatus, and two power generators from Chaska ; and

1144-451: A truck with resources worth about $ 20,000 from the Sioux community there. The Broad Channel Volunteers, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that relies solely on door to door fundraising, grants from politicians and from the state, and since 1905 has been operated by 100% volunteers. Opened on August 21, 2019, Sunset Cove Park is located on 12.57 acres (5.09 ha) of land that

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1248-622: Is an inholding within the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge , managed by the U.S. National Park Service as part of the Gateway National Recreation Area . The area comprises several artificial canals separating dead-end residential blocks. It is connected to the rest of Queens by road and subway bridges. Broad Channel is located in Queens Community District 14 and its ZIP Code is 11693. It is patrolled by

1352-522: Is independent of those used elsewhere in the borough. The directional prefixes ensured no duplication with any other "Road" in Queens. There are no numerical north-south or even any named "Streets" in Broad Channel. Broad Channel is connected to the rest of Queens via four bridges: the tolled, vehicular Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge to the south; the free, vehicular Joseph P. Addabbo Memorial Bridge to

1456-518: Is located at 16-26 Cross Bay Boulevard. The non-profit Broad Channel Athletic Club was established in 1961. The baseball teams are registered with Little League and host an in-house baseball league, and participate in the Catholic Youth Organization. The football league plays in the Nassau and Suffolk Football League. The soccer league is completely run by the organization and participates in

1560-467: Is located. Until the American Civil War , most of Jamaica Bay's islands east of Bergen Island and Barren Island were not inhabited, including Broad Channel. The boundary line between the towns of Flatlands, Brooklyn , and Jamaica, Queens , ran through Jamaica Bay, cutting through Broad Channel, though the island was mostly part of Jamaica. After 1865, fisheries were developed in the bay, and by

1664-405: Is one of the world's most populous megacities . The city and its metropolitan area are the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States . As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York City, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. In 2021, the city was home to nearly 3.1 million residents born outside the U.S., the largest foreign-born population of any city in

1768-591: The American South . During construction in Foley Square in the 1990s, the African Burying Ground was discovered; the cemetery included 10,000 to 20,000 graves of colonial-era Africans, some enslaved and some free. The 1735 trial and acquittal in Manhattan of John Peter Zenger , who had been accused of seditious libel after criticizing colonial governor William Cosby , helped to establish freedom of

1872-837: The Atlantic port to the agricultural markets and commodities of the North American interior via the Hudson River and the Great Lakes . Local politics became dominated by Tammany Hall , a political machine supported by Irish and German immigrants . In 1831, New York University was founded. Several prominent American literary figures lived in New York during the 1830s and 1840s, including William Cullen Bryant , Washington Irving , Herman Melville , Rufus Wilmot Griswold , John Keese , Nathaniel Parker Willis , and Edgar Allan Poe . Members of

1976-664: The Bill of Rights there. The Supreme Court held its first organizational sessions in New York in 1790. In 1790, for the first time, New York City surpassed Philadelphia as the nation's largest city. At the end of 1790, the national capital was moved to Philadelphia . During the 19th century, New York City's population grew from 60,000 to 3.43 million. Under New York State's gradual emancipation act of 1799, children of slave mothers were to be eventually liberated but to be held in indentured servitude until their mid-to-late twenties. Together with slaves freed by their masters after

2080-697: The Caribbean . The attempt at a peaceful solution to the war took place at the Conference House on Staten Island between American delegates, including Benjamin Franklin , and British general Lord Howe on September 11, 1776. Shortly after the British occupation began, the Great Fire of New York destroyed nearly 500 buildings, about a quarter of the structures in the city, including Trinity Church . In January 1785,

2184-857: The Hudson River , which he named Río de San Antonio ('Saint Anthony's River'). In 1609, the English explorer Henry Hudson rediscovered New York Harbor while searching for the Northwest Passage to the Orient for the Dutch East India Company . He sailed up what the Dutch called North River (now the Hudson River), named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange . Hudson claimed

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2288-687: The Lower Hudson Valley . The first documented visit into New York Harbor by a European was in 1524 by explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano . He claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême (New Angoulême ). A Spanish expedition, led by the Portuguese captain Estêvão Gomes sailing for Emperor Charles V , arrived in New York Harbor in January 1525 and charted the mouth of

2392-699: The New York City Fire Department and 71 law enforcement officers. The area was rebuilt with a new World Trade Center , the National September 11 Memorial and Museum , and other new buildings and infrastructure, including the World Trade Center Transportation Hub , the city's third-largest hub. The new One World Trade Center is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere and the seventh-tallest building in

2496-530: The New York City Police Department 's 100th Precinct. Prior to European settlement, the Jameco and Canarsie bands of Lenape Native Americans frequented this area. During the 17th century, Dutch settlers established a community on the island and began harvesting oysters, clams, shrimp, and fish. The name "Broad Channel" itself originally referred to a channel in Jamaica Bay , within which the island

2600-503: The Statue of Liberty , a gift from France , was dedicated in New York Harbor. The statue welcomed 14 million immigrants as they came to the U.S. via Ellis Island by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is a symbol of the United States and American ideals of liberty and peace. In 1898, the City of New York was formed with the consolidation of Brooklyn (until then a separate city),

2704-683: The Stonewall riots were a series of violent protests by members of the gay community against a police raid that took place in the early morning of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village . They are widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights . Wayne R. Dynes , author of the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality , wrote that drag queens were

2808-586: The steamship General Slocum caught fire in the East River , killing 1,021 people. In 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire , the city's worst industrial disaster, killed 146 garment workers and spurred the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and major improvements in factory safety standards. New York's non-White population was 36,620 in 1890. New York City

2912-551: The waterfronts since Dutch colonial times; reclamation is most prominent in Lower Manhattan, with developments such as Battery Park City in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the natural relief in topography has been evened out, especially in Manhattan. The Raunt (LIRR station) The Raunt was a former Long Island Rail Road station on the Rockaway Beach Branch . It had no address and no station house, because it

3016-564: The 1950s to the 1970s, some mapmakers have shown the streets of Broad Channel as being part of the street naming system found in the rest of Queens besides the Rockaways, with the numbers of "Streets" increasing from west to east, the numbers of "Avenues" increasing from north to south, etc. However, Broad Channel streets have always had their own numbering format, including "East" and "West" (in relation to Cross Bay Boulevard), as well as named "Roads" numbered north to south; this street naming system

3120-525: The 19th century, the city was transformed by both commercial and residential development relating to its status as a national and international trading center , as well as by European immigration, respectively. The city adopted the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 , which expanded the city street grid to encompass almost all of Manhattan. The 1825 completion of the Erie Canal through central New York connected

3224-471: The Broad Channel Corporation. The 30-year lease specified payments of $ 16.57 per acre for the first three years and a maximum of $ 33.73 per acre for the last five years of the thirty-year term. The Broad Channel Corporation in turn made 10-year subleases to private individuals for the development of summer bungalows and houses. There was public criticism of the lease after the public learned about

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3328-652: The Broad Channel Volunteer Fire Association under its first Chief, Edward H. Schleuter. The current firehouse at 15 Noel Road was opened in the summer of 1908. In 1913, Chief Chris Hoobs died of a heart attack responding to a fire. The association received their fire charter from the state of New York in 1917 and were known from then on as the Broad Channel Volunteers. In 1956, then-Deputy Chief Robert H. Russell Sr. added volunteer ambulance services to provide first aid and ambulatory care to

3432-422: The Broad Channel Volunteers' quarters to assist in answering alarms on the island. The bridges at the northern and southern ends of the island were draw bridges and were frequently opened for large passing ships. The southern bridge was particularly active due to the numerous tankers carrying fuel to nearby Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport ). On average it took from 30 to 45 minutes from

3536-530: The Catholic Youth Organization. The swimming team participates in the Police Athletic League of New York City and the Catholic Youth Organization. The basketball league also participates in the Catholic Youth Organization. The Broad Channel Historical Society was established in 1994 by the Civic Association's then-president Danny Mundy after he read the local Channel News newsletter's "Glimpse of

3640-676: The Continental Army at the Battle of Fort Washington in November 1776 eliminated the last American stronghold in Manhattan, causing George Washington and his forces to retreat across the Hudson River to New Jersey , pursued by British forces. After the battle, in which the Americans were defeated, the British made the city their military and political base of operations in North America. The city

3744-558: The County of New York (which then included parts of the Bronx), the County of Richmond, and the western portion of the County of Queens. The opening of the New York City Subway in 1904, first built as separate private systems, helped bind the new city together. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the city became a world center for industry, commerce, and communication. In 1904,

3848-618: The Duke of York (the future King James II and VII). The duke gave part of the colony to proprietors George Carteret and John Berkeley . On August 24, 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War , Anthony Colve of the Dutch navy seized New York at the behest of Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest and rechristened it "New Orange" after William III , the Prince of Orange . The Dutch soon returned

3952-683: The Dutch West India Company had operated as a monopoly in New Netherland, on authority granted by the Dutch States General . In 1639–1640, in an effort to bolster economic growth, the Dutch West India Company relinquished its monopoly over the fur trade, leading to growth in the production and trade of food, timber, tobacco, and slaves (particularly with the Dutch West Indies ). In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant began his tenure as

4056-619: The FDNY firefighters would leave their apparatus parked on the Boulevard and join the volunteers on their apparatus because they were smaller than the FDNY apparatus and could maneuver down the very narrow streets. Over the years, the Broad Channel Volunteers have been in service, they have created a close working relationship with the local FDNY companies as well as the volunteer companies from Nassau & Suffolk Counties. The Broad Channel Volunteers are also dues paying members of many organizations such as

4160-425: The New York City neighborhoods most vulnerable to flooding, and had the highest proportion of repeated flood-related insurance claims as of 2018. Based on data from the 2010 United States Census , the population of the combined area of Breezy Point / Belle Harbor / Rockaway Park /Broad Channel was 28,018, an increase of 1,307 (4.9%) from the 26,711 counted in 2000. Covering an area of 2,033.88 acres (823.08 ha),

4264-405: The New York metropolitan area is the largest metropolitan economy in the world , with a gross metropolitan product of over US$ 2.16 trillion. If the New York metropolitan area were its own country , it would have the tenth-largest economy in the world . Despite having a 24/7 rapid transit system , New York also leads the world in urban automobile traffic congestion . The city is home to

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4368-532: The North Channel Bridge opened, connecting the island to Howard Beach. The Cross Bay Parkway Bridge also opened in 1925 (replaced in 1939, and again in 1970), connecting to the Rockaways. The railroad trestle across Jamaica Bay experienced around 30 fires between 1942 and 1950. One such fire, between The Raunt and Broad Channel stations on May 7, 1950, cut service on the middle section of the railroad line. The LIRR, then bankrupt, could not afford to repair

4472-597: The Past" column. Ada L. Smith , the New York State Senator representing the district, distributed funds, which the society used to purchase notebooks to record the community's history. Since June 1995, the society has held Annual Historical Day every year so visitors could look at the collection in the Broad Channel Library. The Broad Channel Library has been the home for the historical collection. The collection

4576-699: The Revolutionary War and escaped slaves, a significant free-Black population gradually developed in Manhattan. The New York Manumission Society worked for abolition and established the African Free School to educate Black children. It was not until 1827 that slavery was completely abolished in the state . Free Blacks struggled with discrimination and interracial abolitionist activism continued. New York City's population jumped from 123,706 in 1820 (10,886 of whom were Black and of which 518 were enslaved) to 312,710 by 1840 (16,358 of whom were Black). Also in

4680-479: The Southern New York Volunteer Firemans Association, the Firemans Association of the State of New York, and along with the 8 other volunteer fire departments in the 5 boroughs of New York City, they are members of Volunteer Firemans Association of the City of New York. In the late 1970s, The Broad Channel Junior Fire Department was organized to help train young teens in the aspects of the fire and EMS service as well as dispatching and clerical duties while still cleaning

4784-453: The area, and in subsequent days, widespread prolonged power cuts and shortages of food and water were reported. Press reports indicated that at least parts of the neighborhood were flooded from time to time by high tides. The city proposed steps such as raising the streets and sidewalks by three feet. The street raising and new sea walls, installation of which were ongoing as of 2017, serve to stop street flooding. Broad Channel remains as one of

4888-558: The arts and fashion , and, as home to the headquarters of the United Nations , international diplomacy . With an estimated population in 2023 of 8,258,035 distributed over 300.46 square miles (778.2 km ), the city is the most densely populated major city in the United States. New York City has more than double the population of Los Angeles , the nation's second-most populous city. With more than 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York City

4992-426: The assembly of the Congress of the Confederation made New York City the national capital. New York was the last capital of the U.S. under the Articles of Confederation and the first capital under the Constitution of the United States . As the U.S. capital, New York City hosted the inauguration of the first President, George Washington , and the first Congress , at Federal Hall on Wall Street . Congress drafted

5096-493: The beginning of the 1990s. By the mid-1990s, crime rates started to drop dramatically due to revised police strategies, improving economic opportunities, gentrification , and new residents, both American transplants and new immigrants from Asia and Latin America. New York City's population exceeded 8 million for the first time in the 2000 United States census ; further records were set in 2010 , and 2020 U.S. censuses. Important new sectors, such as Silicon Alley , emerged in

5200-430: The branch was abandoned west of Far Rockaway itself, along with the entire Rockaway Beach Branch south of Ozone Park . Both branches were sold to the New York City Transit Authority , which replaced the Rockaway Beach Branch, and the Queens half of the Far Rockaway Branch with the IND Rockaway Line . The Broad Channel station was replaced in 1956 as a New York City Subway station, but the small community at The Raunt

5304-534: The business elite lobbied for the establishment of Central Park , which in 1857 became the first landscaped park in an American city. The Great Irish Famine brought a large influx of Irish immigrants, of whom more than 200,000 were living in New York by 1860, representing over a quarter of the city's population. Extensive immigration from the German provinces meant that Germans comprised another 25% of New York's population by 1860. Democratic Party candidates were consistently elected to local office, increasing

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5408-446: The city acquired the island's property titles. In May 1944, Broad Channel's 4,000 residents, collectively living in 1,260 homes, secured an injunction that would prevent the city from evicting them by April 30, 1948. Later in 1944, the New York City Board of Estimate indicated that it would give residents the right to purchase the land under their houses. However, this right was denied for many years. The city made many attempts to alter

5512-510: The city from New Jersey. The East River—a tidal strait —flows from Long Island Sound and separates the Bronx and Manhattan from Long Island. The Harlem River , another tidal strait between the East and Hudson rivers, separates most of Manhattan from the Bronx. The Bronx River , which flows through the Bronx and Westchester County , is the only entirely freshwater river in the city. The city's land has been altered substantially by human intervention, with considerable land reclamation along

5616-439: The city rapidly replaced Wuhan , China as the global epicenter of the pandemic during the early phase, straining the city's healthcare infrastructure. Through March 2023, New York City recorded more than 80,000 deaths from COVID-19-related complications. New York City is situated in the northeastern United States , in southeastern New York State, approximately halfway between Washington, D.C. and Boston . Its location at

5720-419: The city to again attempt eviction proceedings against Broad Channel's residents, which prompted them to protest, and the Board of Estimate ordered the residents' leases to be renewed the following year, despite the real estate commissioner's protests. The government of New York City finally granted Broad Channel residents the right to purchase their property in 1982. The Joseph P. Addabbo Memorial Bridge replaced

5824-447: The city's economy. The advent of Y2K was celebrated with fanfare in Times Square . New York City suffered the bulk of the economic damage and largest loss of human life in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks . Two of the four airliners hijacked that day were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, resulting in the collapse of both buildings and the deaths of 2,753 people, including 343 first responders from

5928-615: The city's ties to the South and its dominant party. In 1861, Mayor Fernando Wood called on the aldermen to declare independence from Albany and the United States after the South seceded, but his proposal was not acted on. Anger at new military conscription laws during the American Civil War (1861–1865), which spared wealthier men who could afford to hire a substitute, led to the Draft Riots of 1863 , whose most visible participants were ethnic Irish working class. The draft riots deteriorated into attacks on New York's elite, followed by attacks on Black New Yorkers after fierce competition for

6032-405: The construction of the island's first adventure playground prior to his death. In 1987, the Broad Channel Civic Association and Queens Community Board 14 successfully petitioned to rename the playground after Gray. The playground, which cost $ 457,688, opened on November 12, 1987, to designs by Richard Dattner . The wooden play structures in the playground was themed to a nautical fortress, with

6136-491: The deal, which Pierre Noel, president of the Broad Channel Corporation, countered by pointing to $ 180,000 of improvements it had made, including digging a well to supply drinking water, building a power plant, adding landfill to reduce the need for houses on piles, and laying out streets on the island. Residents disputed the quality of these improvements, however, saying that the tap water was brown and not potable, that their houses had no electricity, and that there were no sewers on

6240-417: The development of large housing tracts in eastern Queens and Nassau County , with Wall Street leading America's place as the world's dominant economic power. The United Nations headquarters was completed in 1952, solidifying New York's global geopolitical influence, and the rise of abstract expressionism in the city precipitated New York's displacement of Paris as the center of the art world. In 1969,

6344-493: The dilapidated North Channel Bridge in 1993. In 1998, Broad Channel's Labor Day parade received negative media attention after video of a float that parodied the racially motivated dragging death of an African American man was made public. Three white participants on the float, all city emergency workers, were later fired from their jobs as a result of the parade incident. They sued the city for wrongful termination, and their claims were upheld in federal district court in 2003, but

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6448-418: The early 18th century, New York grew in importance as a trading port while as a part of the colony of New York . It became a center of slavery , with 42% of households enslaving Africans by 1730. Most were domestic slaves ; others were hired out as labor. Slavery became integrally tied to New York's economy through the labor of slaves throughout the port, and the banking and shipping industries trading with

6552-433: The firehouse and its apparatus. When its members turned 18, they were allowed to begin riding the apparatus as firefighters or start training as EMTs. The benefit was these teens were already knowledgeable in the operations of the department and it became a breeding ground for the departments future firefighters, officers and chiefs. They would later become a Boy Scout Explorer Post, #3069. In 1994, under Chief Dan McIntyre,

6656-436: The firings were upheld upon appeal in 2006. In August 2011, Broad Channel faced its first mandatory evacuation due to Hurricane Irene . In the aftermath, two homes on Church Road between East 12th and 14th Road collapsed into Jamaica Bay due to the high storm tide. In October 2012, Broad Channel faced another mandatory evacuation due to Hurricane Sandy . It sustained heavy damage with widespread flooding affecting most homes in

6760-461: The former territory of New Netherland , including the city of New Amsterdam , when the Kingdom of England seized it from Dutch control. In the pre-Columbian era , the area of present-day New York City was inhabited by Algonquians , including the Lenape . Their homeland, known as Lenapehoking , included the present-day areas of Staten Island , Manhattan , the Bronx , the western portion of Long Island (including Brooklyn and Queens ), and

6864-400: The four neighborhoods had a population density of 13.8 inhabitants per acre (8,800/sq mi). The racial makeup of the neighborhoods was 78.3% (21,946) White , 7.5% (2,095) African American , 2.1% (595) Asian , 0% (29) Native American , 0.0% (8) Pacific Islander , 0.2% (66) from other races , and 0.9% (259) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 10.8% (3,020) of

6968-410: The ice (and its subsequent retreat) contributed to the separation of what is now Long Island and Staten Island. That action left bedrock at a relatively shallow depth, providing a solid foundation for most of Manhattan's skyscrapers. The Hudson River flows through the Hudson Valley into New York Bay . Between New York City and Troy, New York , the river is an estuary . The Hudson River separates

7072-448: The island to England under the Treaty of Westminster of November 1674. Several intertribal wars among the Native Americans and epidemics brought on by contact with the Europeans caused sizeable population losses for the Lenape between 1660 and 1670. By 1700, the Lenape population had diminished to 200. New York experienced several yellow fever epidemics in the 18th century, losing ten percent of its population in 1702 alone. In

7176-441: The island's purpose, but the local community resisted them all. Proposed changes included the construction of a commercial port and the extension of John F. Kennedy International Airport . Rumors of high hepatitis rates spread in 1967 because of the island's bad sewage system. At the time, several homes still dumped sewage into the bay, causing activities like clamming, wading, and swimming to be banned. The health hazards prompted

7280-414: The island. The Broad Channel Corporation responded by saying the water was of the same quality as was available in the Rockaways and that it planned to install a filtration device to remove the iron from the tap water. It said that the streets had electric lights, and it said installing sewers was not possible on the island. For years, the only way to reach the island was by ferry or railroad, but in 1925,

7384-599: The last Director-General of New Netherland. During his tenure, the population of New Netherland grew from 2,000 to 8,000. Stuyvesant has been credited with improving law and order; however, he earned a reputation as a despotic leader. He instituted regulations on liquor sales, attempted to assert control over the Dutch Reformed Church , and blocked other religious groups from establishing houses of worship. In 1664, unable to summon any significant resistance, Stuyvesant surrendered New Amsterdam to English troops, led by Colonel Richard Nicolls , without bloodshed. The terms of

7488-534: The late 1870s, the town of Jamaica indicated that structures had been built in the bay without the town's permission. The Long Island Rail Road built its Rockaway Beach Branch across the bay in 1880, cutting through Broad Channel. The presence of the railroad led to the development of fishing villages with shacks, summer homes, boathouses, and stores. As part of the project, some other islands in Jamaica Bay were removed or connected to others. Broad Channel remained

7592-545: The local population as a representative of the Dutch colonists. A permanent European presence near New York Harbor was established in 1624, making New York the 12th-oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement in the continental United States , with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island . In 1625, construction was started on a citadel and Fort Amsterdam , later called Nieuw Amsterdam (New Amsterdam), on present-day Manhattan Island. The colony of New Amsterdam extended from

7696-590: The lowering of the traffic barriers , the opening and closing of the lift bridge, and the raising of the traffic barriers before traffic could again move. Occasionally, the bridge would get stuck in the open position effectively closing Cross Bay Boulevard for extended periods. This would impede responses by FDNY apparatus, EMS & NYPD companies to the island for any type of emergency. Also, Cross Bay Boulevard, then 4 lanes in each direction, would be jammed by beach goers and those looking to vacation at Rockaway's bungalows and hotels and its famous Rockaway Playland. Often

7800-419: The most populous urbanized area in the world in the early 1920s, overtaking London . The metropolitan area surpassed 10 million in the early 1930s, becoming the first megacity . The Great Depression saw the election of reformer Fiorello La Guardia as mayor and the fall of Tammany Hall after eighty years of political dominance. Returning World War II veterans created a post-war economic boom and

7904-544: The mouth of the Hudson River , which feeds into a naturally sheltered harbor and then into the Atlantic Ocean , has helped the city grow in significance as a trading port. Most of the city is built on the three islands of Long Island, Manhattan, and Staten Island. During the Wisconsin glaciation , 75,000 to 11,000 years ago, the New York City area was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet . The erosive forward movement of

8008-474: The neighborhood, compared to 20% of adults in that age range citywide who grew up near their childhood homes. This was among the highest resident retention rates of any neighborhood in the city. The New York City Subway 's IND Rockaway Line ( A and ​ S trains) has a subway station in Broad Channel. The Q52 and Q53 Select Bus Service routes and QM16 and QM17 express buses along Cross Bay Boulevard also serve Broad Channel. From

8112-539: The north; and the two IND Rockaway Line swing bridges . Cross Bay Boulevard , the island's only through road, traverses the two vehicular bridges, both of which also carry bicycle and pedestrian traffic. Lying between Howard Beach and the Rockaway Peninsula , it is connected to those communities by these bridges, at either end of the island. Following the construction of the Cross Bay Parkway bridge in 1939,

8216-492: The only " transgender folks around" during the June 1969 Stonewall riots. The transgender community in New York City played a significant role in fighting for LGBT equality. In the 1970s, job losses due to industrial restructuring caused New York City to suffer from economic problems and rising crime rates. Growing fiscal deficits in 1975 led the city to appeal to the federal government for financial aid; President Gerald Ford gave

8320-517: The population. The number of residents in Broad Channel itself is much lower: according to a New York Times article from 2010, there were roughly 3,000 residents on the island. A 2014 New York Times article said that many of Broad Channel's several thousand residents were civil servants or emergency workers. In 2015, according to the Census Bureau's Opportunity Atlas, about 47% of 34-to-40-year-old adults who grew up in Broad Channel still resided in

8424-697: The press in North America . In 1754, Columbia University was founded. The Stamp Act Congress met in New York in October 1765, as the Sons of Liberty organization emerged in the city and skirmished over the next ten years with British troops stationed there. The Battle of Long Island , the largest battle of the American Revolutionary War , was fought in August 1776 within modern-day Brooklyn. A British rout of

8528-523: The region for the Dutch East India Company. In 1614, the area between Cape Cod and Delaware Bay was claimed by the Netherlands and called Nieuw-Nederland (' New Netherland '). The first non–Native American inhabitant of what became New York City was Juan Rodriguez , a merchant from Santo Domingo who arrived in Manhattan during the winter of 1613–14, trapping for pelts and trading with

8632-452: The residents of Broad Channel. He would also go on to be elected to the rank of Chief of Department twenty-one times from 1957 to 1973, 1975–1977, and again in 1984. By the early 1960s, the department was growing rapidly in both stature in the community and as an organization as a whole. On summer weekends during the 1950s and 1960s, the FDNY would send a spare engine and a crew detailed from other firehouses, known as Engine Company No. 341, to

8736-622: The southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors . The city comprises five boroughs , each coextensive with a respective county . The city is the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area , the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. by both population and urban area . New York is a global center of finance and commerce , culture , technology , entertainment and media , academics and scientific output ,

8840-596: The southern tip of Manhattan to modern-day Wall Street , where a 12-foot (3.7 m) wooden stockade was built in 1653 to protect against Native American and English raids. In 1626, the Dutch colonial Director-General Peter Minuit , as charged by the Dutch West India Company , purchased the island of Manhattan from the Canarsie , a small Lenape band, for "the value of 60 guilders " (about $ 900 in 2018). A frequently told but disproved legend claims that Manhattan

8944-545: The surrender permitted Dutch residents to remain in the colony and allowed for religious freedom. In 1667, during negotiations leading to the Treaty of Breda after the Second Anglo-Dutch War , the victorious Dutch decided to keep the nascent plantation colony of what is now Suriname , which they had gained from the English, and in return the English kept New Amsterdam. The settlement was promptly renamed "New York" after

9048-404: The trestle, and the city of New York purchased the line in 1952, and it reopened as the New York City Subway 's IND Rockaway Line in 1956. Parks Commissioner Robert Moses announced his intention to build a park on the island in 1938; he planned recreation on the shore with a wildlife sanctuary on the north end of the island. The next year, the Broad Channel Corporation declared bankruptcy, and

9152-540: The two sheltered platforms, and was electrified on July 26, 1905. The Jamaica Bay Trestle was prone to fires, but The Raunt was the source of a May 7–8, 1950 fire that broke out between here and Broad Channel , destroyed the bridge over Jamaica Bay and thus doomed the entire line. Service on the Rockaway Beach Branch west of Hammels continued only via the Far Rockaway Branch , until October 3, 1955, when

9256-413: The volunteer ambulance corps was granted their New York State Certification. Since then, the department took the initiative to require all its firefighters to be New York State Certified in all aspects of the fire service as well as EMS. In 1994, Chief Dan McIntyre also started the departments Marine Company which is still in service to present day. The department operates a small Coast Guard-like Zodiac as

9360-578: The world by pinnacle height, with its spire reaching a symbolic 1,776 feet (541.3 m), a reference to the year of U.S. independence . The Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan began on September 17, 2011, receiving global attention and popularizing the Occupy movement against social and economic inequality worldwide. New York City

9464-483: The world's two largest stock exchanges by market capitalization of their listed companies: the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq . New York City is an established safe haven for global investors. As of 2023 , New York City is the most expensive city in the world for expatriates and has by a wide margin the highest U.S. city residential rents; and Fifth Avenue is the most expensive shopping street in

9568-521: The world. New York City traces its origins to Fort Amsterdam and a trading post founded on Manhattan Island by Dutch colonists around 1624. The settlement was named New Amsterdam in 1626 and was chartered as a city in 1653. The city came under English control in 1664 and was temporarily renamed New York after King Charles II granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York , before being permanently renamed New York in November 1674. New York City

9672-402: The world. New York City is home by a significant margin to the highest number of billionaires , individuals of ultra-high net worth (greater than US$ 30 million), and millionaires of any city in the world. In 1664, New York was named in honor of the Duke of York (later King James II of England ). James's elder brother, King Charles II , appointed the Duke as proprietor of

9776-552: Was heavily affected by Hurricane Sandy in late October 2012. Sandy's impacts included flooding that led to the days-long shutdown of the subway system and flooding of all East River subway tunnels and of all road tunnels entering Manhattan except the Lincoln Tunnel . The New York Stock Exchange closed for two days due to weather for the first time since the Great Blizzard of 1888 . At least 43 people died in New York City as

9880-525: Was a haven for Loyalist refugees and escaped slaves who joined the British lines for freedom promised by the Crown , with as many as 10,000 escaped slaves crowded into the city during the British occupation, the largest such community on the continent. When the British forces evacuated New York at the close of the war in 1783, they transported thousands of freedmen for resettlement in Nova Scotia , England, and

9984-525: Was a prime destination in the early 20th century for Blacks during the Great Migration from the American South, and by 1916, New York City had the largest urban African diaspora in North America. The Harlem Renaissance of literary and cultural life flourished during the era of Prohibition . The larger economic boom generated construction of skyscrapers competing in height. New York City became

10088-573: Was deteriorated to the point where it was beyond repair. It is maintained by the New York City Department of Transportation, and is free. Broad Channel is served by the New York City Department of Education . Elementary school students attend PS 47, which serves pre-K through eighth grades; the school facilities were completely remodeled during the 1990s. In the 2023-2024 school year, after 2 years of construction, PS 47 reopened in

10192-497: Was formerly occupied by a marina. In the process, some 1,000 cubic yards (760 m) of debris and 30,000 cubic yards (23,000 m) of polluted soil was removed, and a 4.5-acre (1.8 ha) salt marsh and 7-acre (2.8 ha) upland area was restored. Furthermore, a walkway and shoreline berm were constructed and 16,000 short tons (14,000 long tons; 15,000 t) of sand were imported to the site. A future construction phase, which will commence in 2021, will include an oyster garden,

10296-465: Was given its present name in March 1998. Broad Channel Park, also known as 17th Road Playground, is located on Cross Bay Boulevard and stretches between 16th and 18th Roads. This park includes a hockey rink, basketball courts, handball courts, playgrounds, and tennis courts. Gene Gray Playground, at Cross Bay Boulevard and East 9th Road, is named for Eugene Gray (1927–1973), a community activist who supported

10400-471: Was meant strictly as a dropping-off point for fishermen using a small island in Jamaica Bay . The station was located 1,300 feet (400 m) west of signal station "ER" (presumably #96), and near the WU Tower. It was named for the channel on the south side of the island where it stood. The Raunt station opened in 1888 by the New York and Rockaway Beach Railway . It had a wooden pedestrian bridge between

10504-511: Was microfilmed in 1997. The microfilm is available for viewing at the Central Branch in Jamaica, Queens . Also in 1997 the first annual Historical Calendar was published. The calendars feature old pictures of Broad Channel and tidal information. The department originally started in 1905 as bucket brigade to help minimize property loss due to fires. In 1907, this brigade was formally organized into

10608-415: Was purchased for $ 24 worth of glass beads. Following the purchase, New Amsterdam grew slowly. To attract settlers, the Dutch instituted the patroon system in 1628, whereby wealthy Dutchmen ( patroons , or patrons) who brought 50 colonists to New Netherland would be awarded land, local political autonomy, and rights to participate in the lucrative fur trade. This program had little success. Since 1621,

10712-482: Was renamed the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge in 1977. It is maintained by MTA Bridges and Tunnels , and a $ 3.75 toll ($ 2 with E-ZPass ) must be paid to use the bridge. The Joseph P. Addabbo Memorial Bridge connects Broad Channel to Howard Beach and the mainland. Opening in 1993, it was formerly known as the North Channel Bridge. It replaced an older North Channel Bridge built in 1925, which

10816-465: Was the U.S. capital from 1785 until 1790. The modern city was formed by the 1898 consolidation of its five boroughs : Manhattan , Brooklyn , Queens , the Bronx , and Staten Island . Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District, Manhattan , New York City has been called both the world's premier financial and fintech center and the most economically powerful city in the world. As of 2022 ,

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