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After the American Revolution

Historical Geography: • began to develop quickly. • People loyal to the Crown (Loyalists) Long Island in left LI for Canada or went back to the 19th Century England. • Patriots returned to find their land in near ruin.

Copyright 2011 AFG 1 2

After the American Revolution After the American Revolution

• Forests had been cut down. • Embargo Act of 1807 hurt Long Island merchants and shippers. • British forces had sacked farmsteads. • The interrupted coastal and • Farmland was overggyrown from years trans-Atlantic shippin g to and from LI. of neglect. • The British Navy blockaded Long Island. • Trade, shipping and fishing started to • LI residents feared a British invasion. return to normal in the first years of • More trees were cut down. the 1800s. • Peace returned in 1815 with the Treaty of Ghent.

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Catalysts for Development: Catalysts for Development Agriculture • LI picked up as •Grains(corn, wheat, oats, rye) • Agriculture • Steam engine being a major grew well on the Hempstead • Fishing • Long Island RR regional supplier of Plains. agricultural products. • Vegetables (peas, beans, carrots, turnips, pumpkins) were • Whaling • Industrial growth • Not the best land, it pltdlanted. drew farmers from • Berries (strawberries, cran- • Trading • Resorts and New England. berries, huckleberries) and summer homes • About 60%-80% of Fruits (plums, grapes, apples) the people were were picked. engaged in farming. • Long Island led NYS in the production of hay.

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Catalysts for Development: Catalysts for Development:

Agriculture, 2 Fishing • Cattle were kept for dairy and as a status of • From the time of the Indians, fishing was an wealth, not for meat. important source of food on LI and continued in the 1800s. • LI was the main supplier of dairy products to NYC. • Shallow coastal water and salt water marshes • Pigs were the major source of meat. produced bountiful harvests of fish and shellfish • Sheep were raised for wool. (oysters, clams, scallops, mussels and crabs). • The “Long Island duckling” came from China in 1873 on a merchant ship. Hence its name: “Pekin duck.”

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Catalysts for Development: Catalysts for Development:

Fishing, 2 Fishing, 3 • Along with seaweed, fish was used as a • Menhaden, a non-edible • By the 1850s the fish was fertilizer to enhance LI soils. type of herring, was netted by the millions. abundant around LI. • By the 1880s menhaden • Fishing ports were established in most • Ezra L’Hommedieu processing was a million deep water inlets. pioneered the use of dollar industry , creating jobs • North Shore, and South menhaden to fertilize and increasing farmers’ Shore communities focused on the sea. fields in the early 1800s profits. • After being processed • However, overfishing, odor • Great South Bay, shallow with few deep for oil, the remains were (processing and use), and water channels, could not support large sold to farmers who chemical fertilizers soon vessels. spread 8000 fish/acre. reduced its presence on LI.

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Menhaden Processing Plant Catalysts for Development:

Orient, LI Fishing, 4 Oysters • Oysters are native to LI Sound and Great South Bay and thrive in areas where clean salt and fresh water meet. • For hundreds of years they were gathered and eaten by Indians and colonists. • Oysters and most shellfish can be “cultivated.” • Shellfish are water-filtering animals.

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Catalysts for Development: Catalysts for Development:

Fishing, 5 Fishing, 6 • 1815: City Island residents (at the west Pollution end of LI Sound) decided to harvest • Sewage from urbanized areas along all the coasts made oysters grow fast but bacteria and oysters commercially. viruses ingested were transmitted to those who • This success was copied by residents on ate them. both sides of LIS and in Great South Bay. • 1880: polluted water from Connecticut oil refineries began to destroy LIS oyster beds. • 1824: Patchogue on GSB was prized for its • Between 1892 and 1924 there were illnesses oysters. nationwide traced back to LI oysters and the • Every North Shore bay from Flushing to industry collapsed. Mt. Sinai was planted with seed oysters. 13 14

Catalysts for Development: Catalysts for Development:

Fishing, 7 Fishing, 8 Cow Bay Oysters Fin Fishing • 1835 oysters were planted in Cow Bay. - A variety of bountiful fish (fluke, flounder, striped • It became a major supplier to NYC especially bass, snapper, eel, bluefish, and ocean fish) in LIS, Great after the City Island beds were depleted in the South Bay and the Atlantic Ocean created 1860s. a lfdfihiidlarge food fishing industry on t hNhhe North • 1880s saw two-thirds of its residents engaged in and South Forks. oystering. - Montauk, Sag Harbor and the Hamptons were commercial fishing ports. - Overfishing, pollution and habitat alteration reduced local fishing stocks.

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Catalysts for Development: Catalysts for Development: Whaling Whaling, 2 • Originally whales found on the beach were • Whales were hunted for their blubber, butchered and used. odorless spermaceti oil, meat and bone. • Indians in dugouts learned to drive a • A lucrative business, whaling ports grew whale to shallow waters where it beached on LI with themain whaling centers at Cold Spring Harbor on LIS and Sag Harbor in and died. Gardiners Bay. • Colonists brought ocean-going whaling • LI whaling never surpassed that of the technology to LI. main ports of Conn and Mass., peeking • Whales rarely swam into LIS. from the late-1700s to the mid-1800s.

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Catalysts for Development: Catalysts for Whaling, 3 Development: Cold Spring Harbor Sag Harbor • Located 100 mi from the • Located in a deepwater Whaling ocean, it developed into a inlet on the north side of whaling center because of the in the Jones family. Gardiner’s Bay. • In the 1700s their grand- • Designated the first east father had the monopoly on towing whales to port. coast international port of entry in 1789. • In the 1830s the company owned 9 whalers. • Thrived as a whaling center • Port activity fueled the from 1760-1850. The last whaler left in 1871 and town’s economy making it Prints showing whaling one of the busiest shipping never returned. expeditions out of Long center on LI in the 1840s. Island ports. 19 20

Catalysts for Development: Catalysts for Development: Industry Industry, 2 As farming and Logging North Shore The American Industrial Revolution began in the fishing communities trees was economically 1870s although in Brooklyn the terminus of the grew, the need for important for most of the Erie Canal in 1825 had already spurred specialized workers 1800s. Trees were cut to development there. increased. supply of wood for growing urban areas. NYS and NYC were industrial leaders. Blacksmiths, carpen- Many of the noisier, smellier and dirtier ters, rope makers, Older passenger ships industries were pushed from Manhattan to the were retrofitted for sail makers, masons, waterfront areas of Brooklyn and Queens. coopers, tanners, whaling in LI shipyards. glaziers, and millers set up shop. 21 22

Catalysts for Development: Catalysts for Development: Shipbuilding Shipbuilding • Because of its orientation to the sea, LI became a shipbuilding and repair center. Shipyard at Northport • Many LIS passenger and packet ships were Harbor, converted to whalers when they were deemed LI unsafe for people and whaling crews needed to go to sea in search of whales. • Port Jefferson, Northport, Stony Brook and Setauket had major shipyards and flourished in the mid-1800s.

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Catalysts for Development: Windmill Schematic Wind and water power

Hook Mill, East Hampton, 1806 Undershot water mill, 1644 25 26 Bridgehampton,

Catalysts for Development: Catalysts for Development: Recreation Recreation, 2 • Toward the end of 1800s LI became one • The LIRR encouraged travel by train to the of the destinations of people seeking to Long Island countryside. get away from the hot and humid urban • Bicycle riding, pleasure boating, sport areas. fishing, lawn games , huntin g, horse racing • Summer homes were built near the coast: and polo became LI fixtures as did the rise - South Shore beaches (Hamptons and of horse riding academies. points east) lured people. • 1891 golf was introduced to America via LI - North Shore landscape favored the and the Shinnecock Hill Golf Course was building of mansions (Gold Coast). the first American golf course

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Catalysts for Development: Question of the Day Long Island Railroad

Long Island’s Gold Coast Mansions: Should they be protected?

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Catalysts for Development: Catalysts for Development: Long Island Railroad Long Island Railroad

• In 1832 the Brooklyn & Jamaica Railroad Boston Company was created and ran from Brooklyn (today’s Brooklyn Hts.) to East to Jamaica. • In 1834 the Long Island Railroad was conceived and built as a freight line to shorten the distance between New York City and Boston by connecting Jamaica with Greenport on the . Greenport

Brooklyn 31 32

Catalysts for Development: Catalysts for Development: Long Island Railroad, 2 Long Island Railroad, 3 • Finished in 1844 the Brooklyn-Greenport-Boston • In 1848, an all-land line from NYC to route would take only 12 hours, including the ferry, about half the time of a packet ship. Boston via Connecticut was opened and • To provide maximum speed, surveyors were cargo shifted to that line. instructed to design a route on the flattest land, • With the main line located far from the and to avoid using bridges and curves. population centers, the LIRR began to • Since it was a freight line and because of build branch lines to the north and south popular fear of locomotives at the time, land for the right of way was purchased well away from shores population centers. the population centers, through the forests and did not offer a view.

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Catalysts for Development: Catalysts for Development: Long Island Railroad, 4 Long Island Railroad • With miles of track and no local customers the LIRR reinvented itself to create a demand for its service. • As a result it was instrumental in the development of Long Island from Brooklyn to Montauk Point through the 1930s. • It became a major hauler of LI agricultural produce to NYC and of people to LI towns.

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Catalysts for Development: Catalysts for Development: Long Island Railroad, 5 Long Island Railroad, 6 • The LIRR built spur • Westbury in the center • LIRR teamed with hotels in Brooklyn, lines into farms. of the dairying region Queens and Suffolk counties to deliver • It created special flat- became a major depot. bed cars that could • Patchogue: an oyster guests to seaside resorts. haul farmers ’ wagons depot. • Baggage cars were equipment with hooks without unloading • Speonk: a duck depot to transport bicycles the guests brought them. (They were ferried across the East River.) with them. • It created towns along • Carriages would meet arriving trains. its right of way for passenger service.

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Catalysts for Development: Long Island Railroad Catalysts for Development: Long Island Railroad

In 1900 the Pennsylvania Railroad bought the LIRR 1855 at a bargain price. timetable

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