It's one of the great narratives of American urban history.

The northward trek of New York society up the island of Manhattan in the late 19th century.

To bring you this special story, writer, tour guide and historian Keith Talian from Keith

York City joins Carl Raymond from the Guilded Gentleman podcast to analyze this unique

social migration.

And after you're done listening to this show, check out the latest episode of the Guilded

Gentleman podcast, which looks at the history of cocktails, the old fashioned, the margarita,

the sasarac, and many, many more, with resident historian of all things, spirits, dawnsphero.

Now enjoy the show.

It's kind of a miracle that Manhattan, as we know it today, exists at all.

The swampy, forested, rocky, oddly shaped, long, narrow island that was home to the Lenape

Bay, and which greeted the first European settlers in the 17th century wasn't exactly

the easiest place to establish a community.

As predominantly Dutch and English settlers created New Amsterdam and then New York, this

new settlement was all about making money.

Unlike other early American cities that were founded by those in search of places to practice

more spiritual belief systems, New York, from its earliest days, was in one way or another

about chasing the gold.

I heard in New York City tour guides say once that to understand the history of New York,

just follow the populations push up the island of Manhattan, particularly throughout the 19th

century, and where people stop and congregate for a time, well, something interesting

certainly will be going on.

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