Episode 403 of the Bowry Boys.

The Fulton Fish Market, history at the seaport.

Hey, it's the Bowry Boys.

Hey.

Hi there, welcome to the Bowry Boys. This is Greg Young.

And this is Tom Myers, and today we're visiting one of our favorite neighborhoods, the South

Street seaport in Lower Manhattan. It's a place full of history that links us back to the earliest

days of New York City. It's also a place full of seafood. Delicious, delectable seafood.

Yes, today it's lobster rolls, grilled octopus, steamed bass, buttery, buttery scallops.

Offerings of the minifinal restaurants of the seaport area.

But in today's show, we're taking you back to a time when this area was actually the heart

of the American fish industry to the chaotic, ever-changing, Fulton Fish Market.

In the 19th century, the Fulton Fish Market was to see food which Chicago stockyards were to

the meat industry. That is to say, the primary place where Americans got fish for their dinner

tables. By the mid-20th century, the market employed thousands of men as fishermen or no long

the peers or within the market itself or even as delivery men. Maybe you have parents or grandparents

who once worked the market. They might have stories about rusty old architecture or bizarre

new sea creatures for sale. Or maybe they have stories about the mobsters who kept certain aspects

of the market's distribution process under their control. Why did the fish market appear here?

It's this very specific spot in New York. And also, how did it even function in the city?

How did people manage to sell thousands of tons of seafood in the 19th century and to keep it

delicious and fresh before modern refrigeration? Two words, Tom. Wet eyes. Wet eyes.

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