That map in the beginning resonates so much to me as an Alaskan. To be such a massive landmass, but always condemned to be small, in the corner, and out of the way. I have met a person that genuinely though Alaska was an island.
In Scotland/ UK this often happens with the Shetland Islands, maps typically depicting them in a box close to the mainland and reduced in scale. Their member of the Scottish Parliament managed to get a law passed that requires all public bodies to show Shetland as it really is in any maps in official documents. I don't know how much that helps, but at least it's something.
I can guarantee you no New Yorker is unaware of Staten Island. We just like to make fun of their locals because they're weird and like to live alone, away from others, but claim to be New Yorkers.
My family is from upstate New York, in the capital region. About 30 minutes from the Adirondacks. Before I was born, my parents lived for a year in Albuquerque. Nobody in New Mexico could grasp the idea that they didn't live in a city, much less not far from the biggest state park in the country. When they moved back, and told New Yorkers they had spent a year in New Mexico, everyone asked if they needed a passport to go there. You can't make this stuff up 😂
I'm born and raised in Staten Island and I'm and Urban Studies and policy student. Amazing job, man. Perfect explanation of the geography. The future of this land is going to be just as interesting as the past!
Staten Island was destroyed in the 1950s. I have seen drawings of the proposed Verrazano bridge in 1948. Zoning like that which exists in other places restricting building ,ie construction of homes required. an acre or more between structures could have been enacted. I once lived in house on Atlantic and Laconia in what was sudvision of many brick stucco homes within 8-10 feet from one another were built in the 1950s by a builder named Petruzzi. This destroyed the place and made it the overcrowded place it is today. 😊
There are few thoroughfares across the island, and the roads are mostly designed for colonial carriages, not modern cars. 5th Generation Staten Islander here, thank you for this video. Richmond Avenue, Hylan Boulevard, Victory and Forest Avenues are the bloodlines of SI.
Staten Island may not have a subway, but not because they never tried. Fun Fact: The Staten Island Railway uses cars similar to the NYC Subway because it was supposed to be connected to the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Subway. In the 1920s, construction was begun on a tunnel to connect the SIR to the 4th Avenue Line. A tunnel shaft still exists in Owls Head Park. Construction was halted for two reasons. The first is that they didn't even know who was gonna operate the thing. Second was the project cost too much. So much that it was slowing construction on other subway lines being built.
The reason the port authority was created was to a build railroad tunnel between Brooklyn and Staten Island. As long as they don’t build it , they continue to exist. Once the tunnel is done so is the port authority.
When I first moved to Staten Island a few years ago. This was one of the facts that I learned about the Island. And the last part is something I’m just learning about also
was born and raised in Staten Island, the North shore is desperately in need of a train line. also some sort of train to get you from Elizabeth through Staten Island into Brooklyn. The traffic is horrible during rush hour.
Along Richmond Terrace or using that abandoned old rail space that's in Port Richmond would cut out so much bus and car traffic. A station connecting the railway to a lightrail with the Bayonne Bridge, and finally, a subway from St George or that Port Richmond Line to the SI Mall and the network is immediately improved. We need infrastructure.
My only concern with adding a North Shore train line is it would potentially spread the population out more by making public transit more convenient, and even as a South Shore native, I would prefer the North Shore not be infiltrated by South Shore people too much, as culturally I feel they’re very different and I wouldn’t want the North Shore to lose its distinct personality.
@Sir_Nickelz this would fix so much. Its crazy how if you want to take public transit to NJ you need to go through Manhattan, unless you live by those busses that *sometimes* run
Great video.. and just scratches the surface of life here on Staten Island. I live here since 1967 (I was five years old) and seen most of the massive changes over the years. The most important fact about the island you don’t cover (it really doesn’t concern the two questions you asked) is 1) how diverse the island has become and 2) how different the east and south shores are from mid-island and the north shore. I believe the rest of the city sees us as this monolithic community, when that is simply not the case. You should return and do more videos about the island. Your narration, editing, and presentation was excellent.
I moved to Eltingville in 1966, and did my senior year of high school at Tottenville High School. I knew many kids who had never been past New Dorp. My closest friend, who lived up the street, went to college on Staten Island, and when I saw him again in 1996, was living in the house he'd just inherited from his parents. He hardly ever left the island. Manhattan for business reasons, but for 30 years, as I'd been all over the USA, and been to 24 countries, he'd never wanted to even go see what New Jersey was like (not blaming him, there). let alone anywhere else.
I kind of resemble him a bit, with some key differences. Born in Brooklyn, but grew up in Grasmere (hence the screen name), from my parents' back yard we could see the Lower Manhattan skyline and the Twin Towers (where my grandfather worked), went to Curtis High in St George and I also could see the Manhattan skyline from certain classroom windows beckoning me, and would eagerly get on the ferry to explore. I dreamed of escaping Staten Island, which seemed such a dull backwater, and moving to Manhattan, and in my mid-20s, made it as far as Park Slope, which might as well have been the Upper West Side as far as I was concerned. After a little over a decade there, I got divorced and wound up moving back to my parents' house at age 36, for what I thought would be a temporary sojourn. At first I was very resentful and thought I was being sentenced to a penitentiary, but I've gotten re-accustomed to it here. During the pandemic years and afte I worked from home and rarely felt ther need to leave the borough except for quick jaunts to Bay Ridge (a 15-minute bus ride away), where most of my doctors are. Now I am back twice a week in the city.
@@grasmereguy5116 I left Eltingville for the Navy, and have never since lived on Staten Island, or in New York City, but I've been back quite a few times. My two most momentous returns were in the 90's when I went to the "new" Tottenville HS to get a copy of my class pictures from the yearbook, nicely facilitated by the librarian, but I got held up by the rent-a-cop on the door, who accused me of high crimes and misdemeanors, and wouldn't let me leave, because I came back to his post from the office, not from the library (although the librarian had redirected my pass). I yelled for his supervisor, and got an Asst. Principal who told me I did nothing wrong, and apologized for the trouble, and began a conversation with the guard as I left. Not a friendly conversation. The other time was a few years ago, the last time I drove onto the island, and I got pulled over by New York's finest on Hylan Boulevard, because they were curious about why a Ford F150 pickup with Texas plates was on Staten Island.
Thanks for this video, Daniel. I'm a born-and-bred New Yorker, and I remember when the Verrazano Bridge opened in 1964. The city government made a big to-do about it. Still, I prefer NYC's other bridges, particularly the Brooklyn Bridge and the George Washington Bridge. Back in the mid 90s I was hired to do research on an old house in Clay Pit Ponds State Park on Staten Island. One of my tasks was to establish a chain of title going back as far as I could manage, so I holed myself up in Staten Island Borough Hall to go through the docket books After two days of research, I finally reached the earliest recorded conveyance, in which King Charles II conveyed the land to "Yoeman Winant." I forget the exact year, but it was definitely in the 1660s. I made my way back into the sunlight, covered in dust, but inordinately pleased with myself. Now, why Charles II believed he had the right to convey the land in the first place is a different question. One interesting thing about going through the earliest records was that it became obvious that the clerk recording the title changes was Dutch, not English, which made things very difficult to decipher. The title docket entries were written using Old Dutch Script, and the language could best be described as "Dutchlist", with many Dutch words and phrases used when the clerk's English failed him.
The fact that Yeoman Winant or his descendants likely did indeed take hold of that land kinda proves that King Charles did actually have the right to title it! Accords to the ancient principles of “If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it”-Enrolled Blackfeet
All these words: grant, title, entitlement, property, convey, deed. They are shrouded in the feelings of ownership. The facts get less attention. Owning title to land, with specific boundaries, rights, and duties, is so easily confused with individuals asserting a dream of personal sovereignty on their scrap of dirt. It infects all classes.
I’m an old Staten Islander living in the wilds of Los Angeles. Great video! You hit a lot of good points and showed SI in a much better light than it usually gets. Made me miss my old hometown!
The Dutch didn’t just give up New Amsterdam. They traded it. In this trade the Dutch colonies of Dutch Honduras became English (now Belize), and New Amsterdam became New York, while the Dutch gained a British territory in South America that is now Suriname and the Dutch Antilles islands in the Caribbean. The flag of NYC is derived from the Dutch royal flag of New Amsterdam. The year of charter on it also predates the British as 1625.
Daniel: I rarely leave online reviews or comment on RUclips videos, but as a proud subscriber, lifelong Staten Islander, and lover of maps and history, this video-'Staten Island's Map, Explained'-was a delightful treat. I'm sharing it with some friends and colleagues. Thanks for 'not forgetting about us'! lol
5th Gen Staten Islander, thank you for an in depth video about our borough. I love thinking all the things and people that were once in the site my family's home now stands, and I feel a strong connection to those pockets of old buildings, some hundreds of years old that stand near more recent ones. Because the property value was never paramount until after the Verrazzano was built, it feels like plenty more neighborhoods preserve the original characteristics. My mom grew up in Westerleigh, formerly known as Prohibition Park, a Temperance Based Planned Community with a modern powered trolley line, hotel, community centers, and plenty of green parkland. Many Victorian Homes still stand around there, and one church is on the National Register of Historical Places, because it was an early example of a suburban neighborhood, but more akin to a Streetcar Suburb than a Levittown Suburb. Many of the original street names were also retained. Snug Harbor is one of the best spaces in NYC, and deserves more attention than it gets, it's an awesome collection of museums, gardens, and attractions through the year.
This one didn't turn out to be the explanation video of the how and why of a City map layout, as I was used to. But a really great video in the end, keep it up my friend!
My mother was born in Staten Island, and my father lived there since he was a baby ....he used to take us to the field where the mall is now to watch small planes take off...there were so many places to pick wild berries, as well as many mulberry trees. Horse back riding too. Thanks for giving S.I. some of the attention it deserves❤
I grew up on Staten Island and this was very exciting to see. A few things that you may find interesting 1. In the Greenbelt there is a feature called Moses "Mountain" which is entirely man made of all the highway dirt. Its relatively unassuming even when you're right net to it, but pretty fun getting to the top; 2. As of about a decade ago one of the on ramps to the unmade highway that you pictured was a popular spot for young people to party and drink. Before they removed some of the overpass it was not uncommon to find all manner of kids there. 3. Next to the old Seaview facility, also in the Green Belt, was the farm colony. This was a pretty large complex of buildings for indigent people in the early 1900s. It's very common for people to sneak in and explore, and is ground zero for many urban legends.
Excellent! I lived on Staten Island from 1972-76, and moved to the South right after the Bicentennial celebration. The tall ships, the war ships and the fireworks on the harbor were spellbinding. Living on the Island was the best of both worlds. One of the best experiences of my life. ❤
My mom took me down to the Harbor for that celebration. Once in a lifetime thing! S.I is somewhat of a hidden jewel from NYC. Hope to see a celebration next year for the 250th.
I'm a local history buff from Bay Ridge. I enjoyed the presentation, and I would like to add some information I have learned in the past few years. When the Verrazzano Bridge was being considered, thought was given to having a subway line go over it. I don't know that Moses killed it, but he was most definitely not in favor. Prior to the bridge being built, there was a planned rail tunnel to connect Brooklyn to Staten Island cutting across the Narrows at about 65th Street on the Brooklyn side. Construction began in 1923 and stopped in 1925 due to disagreement between the NYC mayor and the NYS governor. There is an abandoned tunnel branching off from the 59th street tunnel on the R line and extending 150 feet into the Narrows. Sources: NYT archives and the website Hey Ridge.
I love these videos, I love your excitement over learning and presenting it all, but most of all I love the historians you speak with who are also beyond thrilled to share their knowledge.
Lifelong Staten Islander here! Daniel did an excellent job giving the history, as well as a background to some of the controversies in the island’s somewhat sordid past. To me people underestimate just how *beautiful* and peaceful Staten Island can be… if you know where to look. I grew up in New Dorp, which was a great place to be a kid at the time. These days, all of SI is super congested and quite cosmopolitan, with the benefits and drawbacks that come with all that. But native Staten Islanders are a working class, family oriented, proud, and intensely loyal cohort of NYers. We embody the fabric NYC and as Pat Salmon points out here, Staten Island history is incredibly interesting and profoundly impacted the New York experience. Come visit! We have beautiful parks, great food, excellent beer, chill people, and a sense of humor. Cheers!
Im a third generation Staten Islander from the great Southern Migration . A lifer born when "The Bridge" opened up. I witnessed most of S.I's population boom. Many of my family and friends had large plots of real estate as middle class homeowners. Acquisition of such land Unheard of today. Growing up in the "Dorp" and "Hills" area , I watched the construction of many of the mega-properties on Todt Hill. I'd regularly drive thru there with my family on the way to Grandpa's house "on the Hill". Despite its growth S.I still gives a feeling of detachment from the city with its mostly suburban landscape. If we switched to being part of New Jersey's borders most Staten Islanders wouldn't know the difference. Thanks! Great video Daniel!
As a Flemish person and so dutch speaking Dorp is still used as town it isnt just an old dutch term and Hoboken in NJ is also a borough, or whatever its called, in Antwerp
Well done, Daniel! I’m another’old timer’ native of Staten Island. I remember when I was a page in one of the branch libraries in Manhattan in the early 1970s. I actually pranked some of my fellow pages by convincing them that there was an Indian reservation in Tottenville, and that every Saturday night the young locals and the young bucks would get likkered up and start fighting with each other and climbin’ the reservation walls until the elder chiefs and the local cops broke things up. My young colleagues in the library listened with wide eyes and rapt attention. Cowboys and Indians warring on Staten Island? Who knew? Some fun, eh!
I’m a Staten Island native, and this was fantastic!! So cool to see such deep spotlight on the borough as it’s rarely talked about. As an urban planner, loved how you explained how the transportation shaped the place. And I definitely learned a few new things too!
That gentleman Thomas Mateo mentioned he remembers cows grazing near the S.I. mall. I worked at the Burger King outside the mall from the early to mid '70's. There were several times my boss would say "we got cows in the parking lot again", and I would be sent out there to hold one of the cows until the farmer showed up with a stock trailer to take them back. I always thought how funny it must have looked to pull into the parking lot for a quick burger, and there was an employee in his BK uniform holding a cow. Talk about fresh beef! I met my wife there and we're still in love 49 years later. What great memories.
They recently replaced that Burger King in 2023 with Popeye's chicken. I predict, that no business will supecede the longevity that BK had at that location.
As soon as I hear the name “Staten Island,” I immediately think of Wu Tang because they definitely put that borough on the map for those of us who live nowhere near NYC.
I live across the river in NJ but I've worked on the island for the last 5 years. The old timers that grew up there told me how much the landscape has changed since they were young. It's crazy how it went from a semi rural chunk of swamp land (especially the south shore) to a busy residential/industrial area in such a short time. I always enjoy learning about local history so this video was right up my alley. Definitely gonna subscribe and check out the others as well.
When I was a kid (pre-teen) in Bensonhurst, we'd go on great adventures on the 69th St Ferry to SI. Especially when playing hooky from school. The Ferry was 5 Cents per trip back then. 1950s SI still had farms and pasture; no crowds at all. It was the country. I remember folks riding horses on the roads. A different island then today.
I grew up on Staten Island. My mother’s family lived there from the 1930’s. I attended a small Catholic school. The area was sparsely populated. My future husband lived in West Brighton. We both commuted to New York City, I worked for the stock Exchange he worked for a large insurance company. The ferry was the only way to get there. Once the Verrazano bridge was built population boomed. We eventually had a family and moved to New Jersey. I loved learning the history
As a former Islander raised just a few blocks from Snug Harbor; Thank you so much for not punching down on the Island that I see on so many other videos.
As a Long Islander, Robert Moses was a narrow-minded jerk. He actually thought that curvy highways are safer than straight. He also built bridges on two highways, that were too low for busses, to keep "unwanted" people out.
I was born and raised on Staten Island, and I have one side of my family who was Italian American and moved there after the bridge was built and the other half German American who were there since the 1800s- one side grew up in the narrow streets of Brooklyn and the other on farms on Staten Island, and it's fascinating to see the dichotomy of how they view the island due to the introduction of the bridge. The Verrazzano bridge really was the most monumental point in the history of the island I'd say, and the modern Staten Island woudl have looked incredibly different had it not come to pass. P.S- We all really do hate Robert Moses!
You must be really perceptive. I'm from Staten Island and it's so unique. I don't live there any longer but I miss it so much. I had a Cockney friend who ran the Laundromat. Everyone was so friendly- beautiful parks and delicious food
Great video and really accurate, I'm from brooklyn but my grandmother lives and staten island and used to spend a lot of my summers there as a kid and the island gets trashed on a lot but it's not all that bad!
Another note to add about the mention of cows grazing where the Mall is now. My husband's family had a horse ranch on that land as well. The people who kept horses there were part of Staten Island Sheriff's Mounted Posse.
Hi! I'm Omar from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, border city with El Paso, Texas. There's so much history from both our cities that are relevant to our countries. I’m currently studying Geoinformatics and love Human and Urban Geography. My dad is an architect with a masters in Urban Planning, he made the Urban Development Plan for our city. If you ever do a video about our region, please, feel free to contact me. It would be an honor to help :)
Staten Islander here. Awesome video, loved the dropping of little fun facts but one that was missed (my favorite) is that the single most influential boxer EVER, was born here. He literally invented slipping/blocking punches. He went on to become quite possibly the best boxer in the world at the time and revolutionized pugilism as the world knew it. (Bill Richmond, 1763)
I’m a fourth generation native NYer. I’ve had family in one of the five boroughs since their arrival to this country at the turn of the century. I moved to SI as a toddler, and while I’m not considered a native Staten Islander, it’s the only home I remember. My grandfather moved & purchased his first home on SI in 1970, and while he was, by no means a native, he loved this island more than anyone else ever could! Buying his home here was arguably his proudest achievement.
I love Staten Island. Snug Harbor, which contains the Noble Maritime Museum, Staten Island Museum, and more, is an amazing place. You can actually get there by mta bus 10 minutes from staten island ferry but it is a world away. Excellent content.
Excellent video! I'm a 75 year old native Islander - just a couple of comments: on the timeline in 1993, where it says S.I. voted to "succeed" from the city, you meant "secede." Also, as part of the highway system that was created after the bridge, in addition to the Richmond Parkway (as it was known then) not being completed through the greenbelt, there was another that wasn't finished. The MLK expressway (F/K/A Willowbrook expressway) that goes from the SI expressway to the Bayonne bridge was originally supposed to continue through the greenbelt to Great Kills Park. You can still see where it was supposed to be on satellite photos and maps. On Google maps, it still shows "Willowbrook Parkway" in the Oakwood area.
16:17, due to the wealth of Vanderbilt family and the relative quiet it offered, Staten Island attracted a unique group of social elites. H.H Richardson, Frederick Law Olmsted, Richard Morris Hunt, William Emerson (Ralph Waldo's brother), etc. Because of that there are unique architectural gems in Staten Island. The only Frank Llyod Wright design residence in NYC (The Crimson Beech), the only H.H Richardson designed building in NYC (his own home in Clifton), Olmsted's farm from which he picked up landscaping (Olmsted-Beil House) and the impressive Vanderbilt Mausoleum (designed by both Hunt and Olmsted) where the entire family is buried like pyramids.
Interesting comment at the beginning about the representation of the island on the map shaping your impressions of it. I was just watching a RUclips video about Shetland in the UK, and they said the same thing (it was always an inset and shrunk in size in order to fit on a traditional map of the UK). But then the Scottish parliament passed legislation that every official map of Scotland had to include Shetland in its actual location and to its actual scale. Which is a meaningful measure for an island grouping with only 30 000 inhabitants!
28:17 growing up on north shore staten island, I always wondered why that never ended up getting built. I was told it was because the rich people on todt hill didnt want such a large roadway so close to their homes, lol. That's a much better reason. I also didn't know that the landfill was closed in response to the secession movement.
This is awesome! You are one of the best map/geography/history RUclipsrs on the platform! I learn so much and show these to my kids during homeschool to encourage understanding of maps and a historic worldview. Please keep them coming!
Staten island had a North shore train that is abandoned. I know it went through port Richmond. I was in a small teenage Pageant and i gave a speech on the French Huguenots. Years ago, before dump closed, when you were inside of the fresh kills landfill, it didnt smell. The dump was used to sort through out 9 11 debris.
Any time you want to do an episode on the Kansai region of Japan (essentially the Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto tri-city area, the workhorse heart of the country), I will be here for it. Well, for any episode of yours, really.
Your statement on Staten Island being deceptive in the first map you show reminds me of How to Lie with Maps by Mark Monmonier. It gave me a nice refresher in types of maps I had forgotten about, but also how decisions made in design can perpetuate certain ideas or deceptions.
native born, pre bridge. back before Brooklyn moved in ;-) back in the day city employees had to live in the city. Staten Island was a place where a young cop or fireman could afford a house and raise a family with some green space.
You mean the Brooklyn Allstars? I was born in Pleasant Plains in the late 50's. Cried over what the Island has become. Moved away in 1985. I curse Robt. Moses at least once a week.
My great great great grandparents came over on the boat around 1850 and met there, married and stayed in Staten Island. My great great, great and grandmother were born there also.
Theres a beautiful wooden laser cut topo map of nyc in my school (cooper union). Seeing the huge flat side and steeper midlands started making the patterns of development seen on satellite snd the redlining that took place. One of the greatest videos of all time once again!
Love your videos! Thank you for all the effort you put in your videos and the knowledge you provide. Also I didn't skip the ad cause Headspace is awesome.
When my Mom, Pollyanne, was on Community Board 1 back in the 80s, her big "thing" was The Greenways. A word that was pretty new at the time. Besides her 20 with the NYPD, she was most proud of helping get that off the ground. So are we. Great job on the Forgotten Borough. (SNL's "WaIking in Staten", don't miss it. Spot on).
The middle of the 20th century always breaks my heart when it comes to Staten Island. There was such opportunity for Staten Island to remain truly rural… one of the last places of close access for true countryside for NYC. Now, it’s just suburbia. At least it still has a riding school. In recent years, there have been pushes to get rid of horses from all of NYC.
Geraldo Rivera’s news career was jump started because of the horrors he found at Willowbrook, a place where disabled kids were kept, and horribly treated. Most of Willowbrook is gone because that’s where the College of Staten Island was built but there are some creepy looking original buildings left past the edges of the campus. Todt Hill is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the city. Vito Corlone’s house in the first Godfather is on Staten Island, though they built temporary walls and a gate to make it look like a bigger property. I don’t remember if they said where the house was in the film, but I think it was supposed to be Long Island (Apparently it’s now an Air BnB, though the inside of the house was not used for the film (interior scenes used a studio set))
I used to live on Todt Hill! Pretty rough to go up or down in winter when it gets really icy. On the literal "struggle bus" afraid it would slide off the hill 😂
Great Video. I'm a Staten Islander. Maybe you could come back and highlight how the the Staten Island Expressway operates sort of like a divider of sorts. The VAST majority of the low-income and minority population on Staten Island lives north of the Staten Island Expressway, which is a fraction of the total geography compared to the entire borough.
Native Staten Islander here. I remember watching the bridge being built. In those days we went to NJ regularly, but a trip to the "City" (Manhattan) was a big deal. I, too, remember cows grazing on the South Shore. By the time I graduated high school in '73, the island had changed almost beyond recognition, and mostly for the worse. Left in '78 and only go back occasionally, mainly for the food.
Great history! But this felt like a change from other map explained videos. I think the really unique part of this series is how much you breakdown the history of specific roads in the area that is the subject of the video. I hope when you do Queens there is more of that again.
The Outerbridge Crossing was named for Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge, the First Chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It was his sister, Mary Ewing Outerbridge, who introduced tennis to the United States. She is buried at Silver Mount Cemetery on Staten Island along with her parents. Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge is buried at Moravian Cemetery on Staten Island. The Outerbridge family is still a very prominent, powerful and wealthy Bermuda family to this day.
The old grounds of the Staten Island Tennis Club in Livingston is now Walker Park, a city park where there are numerous tennis courts and facilities. Literally the oldest tennis courts in the USA.
As someone who grew up on the north shore of Staten Island, I learned so much history from this video! I've always thought that SI was an interesting sort of microcosm of the US, illustrating how accessible public transportation (or lack thereof) radicalizes. Also wild to glimpse one of the houses I used to dog sit for in here!
As someone who was born and raised here and my fathers side has been here since the 1800’s I hope to keep the islands history alive and keep it less dense then the rest of the city
Keep it up, Daniel. High quality information and a pleasure to watch. My thought is that SI has gained more from being part of NYC than it would ever have gained from simply being part of NY state. The bridge would have happened anyway and its isolation from Upper NY would have been a source of frustration.
He did a pretty good job of describing our history, but he didn't cover that Staten Island already had bridges to bayonne, elizabeth, and perth amboy as well as the railroad bridge by the time the Verrazzano was built. Staten Island didn't need that bridge to develop, it already had shipyards, factories etc- plenty of industry.
@@marcoi99495 The significance of the Verrazzano is it being the only direct connection to the 5 boroughs of NYC. The bridges you mentioned all connect to N.Jersey.
The answer as to why Staten Island is way less exciting than a boat race: it became a part of the colony of New York when the Dutch Ceded the land as part of the Treaty of Breda. The boat story makes for a fun origin story, but all evidence points to it being decided during the treaty that the land belonged to the Colony of New York. The better question is why did the English determine the island to be part of New York?
When I was a young Boy Scout we used to take the 69th st ferry and then a bus to Pouch Boy Scout camp. I loved Staten Island so much I moved here as an adult
Robert Moses was responsible for the massive construction of public housing projects on Staten Island in the early 1950s. The first tenants were from other boroughs.
As a kid growing up in SI in the late 60s, I remember overhearing grownups talking about the “guinea gangplank”. Local nickname for the VZ bridge. My own 2nd gen Italian American grandparents had done same migration from Brooklyn in the 1940s, to the north shore. Most of the newer transplants moved into massive ugly housing developments on south end, where a gazillion identical homes were quickly built on swampland.
Man, the people you meet in Japan and New York and so on - this dedication to history, these tiny islands of knowledge are gonna be gone in 10 or 20 years. They dedicate their life to something that to some might seem meaningless, like the history of a specific borough of NYC. But it's not meaningless, it's someone knowledgable of the history of thousands of people, and that history mattered to them. I hope the younger generations keep that flame of knowledge alive. I believe there's people in Gen Z and everywhere else who have the motivation, intelligence and curiosity to keep the spirit on and I hope they find this history as fascinating as I do! Daniel, please continue, I can't wait to hear about places *I'm* not familiar with but that matter so much to the people there!
It is surprising that in a history of Staten Island you never mention one of its most famous residents Daniel D. Tompkins. He is he namesake of the town of Tompkinsville and Tompkins Avenue and Street, who served as the 4th Governor of New York State, and the 6th Vice President of the United States under the 5th United States President James Monroe.
Also Tomkins Square Park, in Manhattan's East Village. Perhaps he should be best known for signing (as governor) the abolition of slavery in New York State into law.
The oldest schoolhouse in the US was built by the Dutch on Staten Island ('states island'). I was born there, when it was beautifully green. My father was transferred to Italy and we moved there as work on the Verrazano Narrows bridge. When we came back it was finished & the liner we were on anchored overnight on one side of the bridge. By morning we had floated to the other side.
Secret that most Staten Islanders won't tell you. We allow the rest of the city residents to complain about the toll and show fake empathy towards them. But we get a 55% discount on the VN-bridge tolls.
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That map in the beginning resonates so much to me as an Alaskan. To be such a massive landmass, but always condemned to be small, in the corner, and out of the way. I have met a person that genuinely though Alaska was an island.
That’s the New York City subway map. I cover the subway system in all my videos. Check it out if you want to know what it is
In Scotland/ UK this often happens with the Shetland Islands, maps typically depicting them in a box close to the mainland and reduced in scale. Their member of the Scottish Parliament managed to get a law passed that requires all public bodies to show Shetland as it really is in any maps in official documents. I don't know how much that helps, but at least it's something.
Same with hawaii i guess
I can guarantee you no New Yorker is unaware of Staten Island. We just like to make fun of their locals because they're weird and like to live alone, away from others, but claim to be New Yorkers.
My family is from upstate New York, in the capital region. About 30 minutes from the Adirondacks. Before I was born, my parents lived for a year in Albuquerque. Nobody in New Mexico could grasp the idea that they didn't live in a city, much less not far from the biggest state park in the country. When they moved back, and told New Yorkers they had spent a year in New Mexico, everyone asked if they needed a passport to go there. You can't make this stuff up 😂
I'm born and raised in Staten Island and I'm and Urban Studies and policy student. Amazing job, man. Perfect explanation of the geography. The future of this land is going to be just as interesting as the past!
This means so much!! Thank you! 🙏🏻
Staten Island was destroyed in the 1950s. I have seen drawings of the proposed Verrazano bridge in 1948. Zoning like that which exists in other places restricting building ,ie construction of homes required. an acre or more between structures could have been enacted. I once lived in house on Atlantic and Laconia in what was sudvision of many brick stucco homes within 8-10 feet from one another were built in the 1950s by a builder named Petruzzi. This destroyed the place and made it the overcrowded place it is today. 😊
There are few thoroughfares across the island, and the roads are mostly designed for colonial carriages, not modern cars. 5th Generation Staten Islander here, thank you for this video. Richmond Avenue, Hylan Boulevard, Victory and Forest Avenues are the bloodlines of SI.
Wasn't staten island with the confederates,
Staten Island may not have a subway, but not because they never tried. Fun Fact: The Staten Island Railway uses cars similar to the NYC Subway because it was supposed to be connected to the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Subway.
In the 1920s, construction was begun on a tunnel to connect the SIR to the 4th Avenue Line. A tunnel shaft still exists in Owls Head Park. Construction was halted for two reasons. The first is that they didn't even know who was gonna operate the thing. Second was the project cost too much. So much that it was slowing construction on other subway lines being built.
There's an abandoned north shore train line. I think it either connected or went into nj by port ivory. I know it went through port Richmond.
They literally named the street Hylan Blvd in the 1923 AS HYLAN WAS MAYOR (!!!) because they were convinced he was bringing the subway to SI.
The reason the port authority was created was to a build railroad tunnel between Brooklyn and Staten Island. As long as they don’t build it , they continue to exist. Once the tunnel is done so is the port authority.
@@Pocketfarmer1
Bullshit.
When I first moved to Staten Island a few years ago. This was one of the facts that I learned about the Island. And the last part is something I’m just learning about also
was born and raised in Staten Island, the North shore is desperately in need of a train line. also some sort of train to get you from Elizabeth through Staten Island into Brooklyn. The traffic is horrible during rush hour.
Along Richmond Terrace or using that abandoned old rail space that's in Port Richmond would cut out so much bus and car traffic. A station connecting the railway to a lightrail with the Bayonne Bridge, and finally, a subway from St George or that Port Richmond Line to the SI Mall and the network is immediately improved. We need infrastructure.
My only concern with adding a North Shore train line is it would potentially spread the population out more by making public transit more convenient, and even as a South Shore native, I would prefer the North Shore not be infiltrated by South Shore people too much, as culturally I feel they’re very different and I wouldn’t want the North Shore to lose its distinct personality.
@Sir_Nickelz this would fix so much. Its crazy how if you want to take public transit to NJ you need to go through Manhattan, unless you live by those busses that *sometimes* run
You're asking for a trillion dollar tunnel bruh.
you can take S53/S79-SBS to go from SI to Brooklyn
As a Staten Islander THANK YOU FOR COVERING US! I love your channel and I was so happy when I saw this in my recommended
my condolences
Great video.. and just scratches the surface of life here on Staten Island. I live here since 1967 (I was five years old) and seen most of the massive changes over the years.
The most important fact about the island you don’t cover (it really doesn’t concern the two questions you asked) is 1) how diverse the island has become and 2) how different the east and south shores are from mid-island and the north shore.
I believe the rest of the city sees us as this monolithic community, when that is simply not the case.
You should return and do more videos about the island. Your narration, editing, and presentation was excellent.
I moved to Eltingville in 1966, and did my senior year of high school at Tottenville High School. I knew many kids who had never been past New Dorp. My closest friend, who lived up the street, went to college on Staten Island, and when I saw him again in 1996, was living in the house he'd just inherited from his parents. He hardly ever left the island. Manhattan for business reasons, but for 30 years, as I'd been all over the USA, and been to 24 countries, he'd never wanted to even go see what New Jersey was like (not blaming him, there). let alone anywhere else.
I kind of resemble him a bit, with some key differences. Born in Brooklyn, but grew up in Grasmere (hence the screen name), from my parents' back yard we could see the Lower Manhattan skyline and the Twin Towers (where my grandfather worked), went to Curtis High in St George and I also could see the Manhattan skyline from certain classroom windows beckoning me, and would eagerly get on the ferry to explore. I dreamed of escaping Staten Island, which seemed such a dull backwater, and moving to Manhattan, and in my mid-20s, made it as far as Park Slope, which might as well have been the Upper West Side as far as I was concerned. After a little over a decade there, I got divorced and wound up moving back to my parents' house at age 36, for what I thought would be a temporary sojourn. At first I was very resentful and thought I was being sentenced to a penitentiary, but I've gotten re-accustomed to it here. During the pandemic years and afte I worked from home and rarely felt ther need to leave the borough except for quick jaunts to Bay Ridge (a 15-minute bus ride away), where most of my doctors are. Now I am back twice a week in the city.
@@grasmereguy5116 I left Eltingville for the Navy, and have never since lived on Staten Island, or in New York City, but I've been back quite a few times. My two most momentous returns were in the 90's when I went to the "new" Tottenville HS to get a copy of my class pictures from the yearbook, nicely facilitated by the librarian, but I got held up by the rent-a-cop on the door, who accused me of high crimes and misdemeanors, and wouldn't let me leave, because I came back to his post from the office, not from the library (although the librarian had redirected my pass). I yelled for his supervisor, and got an Asst. Principal who told me I did nothing wrong, and apologized for the trouble, and began a conversation with the guard as I left. Not a friendly conversation. The other time was a few years ago, the last time I drove onto the island, and I got pulled over by New York's finest on Hylan Boulevard, because they were curious about why a Ford F150 pickup with Texas plates was on Staten Island.
Thanks for this video, Daniel. I'm a born-and-bred New Yorker, and I remember when the Verrazano Bridge opened in 1964. The city government made a big to-do about it. Still, I prefer NYC's other bridges, particularly the Brooklyn Bridge and the George Washington Bridge.
Back in the mid 90s I was hired to do research on an old house in Clay Pit Ponds State Park on Staten Island. One of my tasks was to establish a chain of title going back as far as I could manage, so I holed myself up in Staten Island Borough Hall to go through the docket books After two days of research, I finally reached the earliest recorded conveyance, in which King Charles II conveyed the land to "Yoeman Winant." I forget the exact year, but it was definitely in the 1660s. I made my way back into the sunlight, covered in dust, but inordinately pleased with myself. Now, why Charles II believed he had the right to convey the land in the first place is a different question.
One interesting thing about going through the earliest records was that it became obvious that the clerk recording the title changes was Dutch, not English, which made things very difficult to decipher. The title docket entries were written using Old Dutch Script, and the language could best be described as "Dutchlist", with many Dutch words and phrases used when the clerk's English failed him.
The fact that Yeoman Winant or his descendants likely did indeed take hold of that land kinda proves that King Charles did actually have the right to title it! Accords to the ancient principles of “If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it”-Enrolled Blackfeet
All these words: grant, title, entitlement, property, convey, deed. They are shrouded in the feelings of ownership. The facts get less attention. Owning title to land, with specific boundaries, rights, and duties, is so easily confused with individuals asserting a dream of personal sovereignty on their scrap of dirt. It infects all classes.
I know a few islanders who still live there! They're much older and have never really left the island. Very interesting that you did all that!
I’m an old Staten Islander living in the wilds of Los Angeles. Great video! You hit a lot of good points and showed SI in a much better light than it usually gets. Made me miss my old hometown!
The Dutch didn’t just give up New Amsterdam. They traded it. In this trade the Dutch colonies of Dutch Honduras became English (now Belize), and New Amsterdam became New York, while the Dutch gained a British territory in South America that is now Suriname and the Dutch Antilles islands in the Caribbean.
The flag of NYC is derived from the Dutch royal flag of New Amsterdam. The year of charter on it also predates the British as 1625.
😯😯😯😯😯
Daniel: I rarely leave online reviews or comment on RUclips videos, but as a proud subscriber, lifelong Staten Islander, and lover of maps and history, this video-'Staten Island's Map, Explained'-was a delightful treat. I'm sharing it with some friends and colleagues. Thanks for 'not forgetting about us'! lol
🙏🏻🙏🏻 thank you! This is really kind. I’m glad you enjoyed!
At 28:22, your graphic says "Staten Island votes to succeed from NYC". I think you meant to use secede.
And?
@@EPMTUNES So what?
@@EPMTUNES A lot of people like to know when they make a mistake, so I don't believe it is a problem to point something out.
Ya sure can tell the replies that are from Staten Island... wow...
Was coming to post this just as an FYI. Honest mistake I’m sure.
I’ve been living here since 2007 and I haven’t moved i love this little island
5th Gen Staten Islander, thank you for an in depth video about our borough. I love thinking all the things and people that were once in the site my family's home now stands, and I feel a strong connection to those pockets of old buildings, some hundreds of years old that stand near more recent ones. Because the property value was never paramount until after the Verrazzano was built, it feels like plenty more neighborhoods preserve the original characteristics. My mom grew up in Westerleigh, formerly known as Prohibition Park, a Temperance Based Planned Community with a modern powered trolley line, hotel, community centers, and plenty of green parkland. Many Victorian Homes still stand around there, and one church is on the National Register of Historical Places, because it was an early example of a suburban neighborhood, but more akin to a Streetcar Suburb than a Levittown Suburb. Many of the original street names were also retained. Snug Harbor is one of the best spaces in NYC, and deserves more attention than it gets, it's an awesome collection of museums, gardens, and attractions through the year.
This one didn't turn out to be the explanation video of the how and why of a City map layout, as I was used to. But a really great video in the end, keep it up my friend!
My mother was born in Staten Island, and my father lived there since he was a baby ....he used to take us to the field where the mall is now to watch small planes take off...there were so many places to pick wild berries, as well as many mulberry trees. Horse back riding too. Thanks for giving S.I. some of the attention it deserves❤
I grew up on Staten Island and this was very exciting to see. A few things that you may find interesting
1. In the Greenbelt there is a feature called Moses "Mountain" which is entirely man made of all the highway dirt. Its relatively unassuming even when you're right net to it, but pretty fun getting to the top;
2. As of about a decade ago one of the on ramps to the unmade highway that you pictured was a popular spot for young people to party and drink. Before they removed some of the overpass it was not uncommon to find all manner of kids there.
3. Next to the old Seaview facility, also in the Green Belt, was the farm colony. This was a pretty large complex of buildings for indigent people in the early 1900s. It's very common for people to sneak in and explore, and is ground zero for many urban legends.
Excellent! I lived on Staten Island from 1972-76, and moved to the South right after the Bicentennial celebration. The tall ships, the war ships and the fireworks on the harbor were spellbinding. Living on the Island was the best of both worlds. One of the best experiences of my life. ❤
My mom took me down to the Harbor for that celebration. Once in a lifetime thing! S.I is somewhat of a hidden jewel from NYC. Hope to see a celebration next year for the 250th.
I'm a local history buff from Bay Ridge. I enjoyed the presentation, and I would like to add some information I have learned in the past few years. When the Verrazzano Bridge was being considered, thought was given to having a subway line go over it. I don't know that Moses killed it, but he was most definitely not in favor.
Prior to the bridge being built, there was a planned rail tunnel to connect Brooklyn to Staten Island cutting across the Narrows at about 65th Street on the Brooklyn side. Construction began in 1923 and stopped in 1925 due to disagreement between the NYC mayor and the NYS governor. There is an abandoned tunnel branching off from the 59th street tunnel on the R line and extending 150 feet into the Narrows.
Sources: NYT archives and the website Hey Ridge.
I love these videos, I love your excitement over learning and presenting it all, but most of all I love the historians you speak with who are also beyond thrilled to share their knowledge.
Lifelong Staten Islander here! Daniel did an excellent job giving the history, as well as a background to some of the controversies in the island’s somewhat sordid past. To me people underestimate just how *beautiful* and peaceful Staten Island can be… if you know where to look. I grew up in New Dorp, which was a great place to be a kid at the time. These days, all of SI is super congested and quite cosmopolitan, with the benefits and drawbacks that come with all that. But native Staten Islanders are a working class, family oriented, proud, and intensely loyal cohort of NYers. We embody the fabric NYC and as Pat Salmon points out here, Staten Island history is incredibly interesting and profoundly impacted the New York experience. Come visit! We have beautiful parks, great food, excellent beer, chill people, and a sense of humor. Cheers!
Im a third generation Staten Islander from the great Southern Migration . A lifer born when "The Bridge" opened up. I witnessed most of S.I's population boom. Many of my family and friends had large plots of real estate as middle class homeowners. Acquisition of such land Unheard of today. Growing up in the "Dorp" and "Hills" area , I watched the construction of many of the mega-properties on Todt Hill. I'd regularly drive thru there with my family on the way to Grandpa's house "on the Hill". Despite its growth S.I still gives a feeling of detachment from the city with its mostly suburban landscape. If we switched to being part of New Jersey's borders most Staten Islanders wouldn't know the difference. Thanks! Great video Daniel!
As a Flemish person and so dutch speaking Dorp is still used as town it isnt just an old dutch term and Hoboken in NJ is also a borough, or whatever its called, in Antwerp
I'd translate 'dorp' as village rather than town, but I guess that's mostly down to semantics.
In Rotterdam we have a part that is called Land van Hoboken
Well done, Daniel! I’m another’old timer’ native of Staten Island. I remember when I was a page in one of the branch libraries in Manhattan in the early 1970s. I actually pranked some of my fellow pages by convincing them that there was an Indian reservation in Tottenville, and that every Saturday night the young locals and the young bucks would get likkered up and start fighting with each other and climbin’ the reservation walls until the elder chiefs and the local cops broke things up. My young colleagues in the library listened with wide eyes and rapt attention. Cowboys and Indians warring on Staten Island? Who knew? Some fun, eh!
I’m a Staten Island native, and this was fantastic!! So cool to see such deep spotlight on the borough as it’s rarely talked about. As an urban planner, loved how you explained how the transportation shaped the place. And I definitely learned a few new things too!
That gentleman Thomas Mateo mentioned he remembers cows grazing near the S.I. mall. I worked at the Burger King outside the mall from the early to mid '70's. There were several times my boss would say "we got cows in the parking lot again", and I would be sent out there to hold one of the cows until the farmer showed up with a stock trailer to take them back. I always thought how funny it must have looked to pull into the parking lot for a quick burger, and there was an employee in his BK uniform holding a cow. Talk about fresh beef! I met my wife there and we're still in love 49 years later. What great memories.
They recently replaced that Burger King in 2023 with Popeye's chicken. I predict, that no business will supecede the longevity that BK had at that location.
"in 1993".......ENTER THE WU TANG was released, making Staten Island (SHAOLIN) famous around the world. End of story.
Presidents come and go. Wu Tang is forever.
As soon as I hear the name “Staten Island,” I immediately think of Wu Tang because they definitely put that borough on the map for those of us who live nowhere near NYC.
@ Before WTang, the NYC club DJs would ignore giving borough shoutouts to Staten Island. We had to give our own😆
I live across the river in NJ but I've worked on the island for the last 5 years. The old timers that grew up there told me how much the landscape has changed since they were young. It's crazy how it went from a semi rural chunk of swamp land (especially the south shore) to a busy residential/industrial area in such a short time. I always enjoy learning about local history so this video was right up my alley. Definitely gonna subscribe and check out the others as well.
When I was a kid (pre-teen) in Bensonhurst, we'd go on great adventures on the 69th St Ferry to SI. Especially when playing hooky from school. The Ferry was 5 Cents per trip back then. 1950s SI still had farms and pasture; no crowds at all. It was the country. I remember folks riding horses on the roads. A different island then today.
I grew up on Staten Island. My mother’s family lived there from the 1930’s. I attended a small Catholic school. The area was sparsely populated. My future husband lived in West Brighton. We both commuted to New York City, I worked for the stock Exchange he worked for a large insurance company. The ferry was the only way to get there. Once the Verrazano bridge was built population boomed. We eventually had a family and moved to New Jersey. I loved learning the history
As a former Islander raised just a few blocks from Snug Harbor; Thank you so much for not punching down on the Island that I see on so many other videos.
As a Long Islander, Robert Moses was a narrow-minded jerk. He actually thought that curvy highways are safer than straight. He also built bridges on two highways, that were too low for busses, to keep "unwanted" people out.
I was born and raised on Staten Island, and I have one side of my family who was Italian American and moved there after the bridge was built and the other half German American who were there since the 1800s- one side grew up in the narrow streets of Brooklyn and the other on farms on Staten Island, and it's fascinating to see the dichotomy of how they view the island due to the introduction of the bridge. The Verrazzano bridge really was the most monumental point in the history of the island I'd say, and the modern Staten Island woudl have looked incredibly different had it not come to pass.
P.S- We all really do hate Robert Moses!
as someone from uk ..Staten Island seems to have some charm to it
You must be really perceptive. I'm from Staten Island and it's so unique. I don't live there any longer but I miss it so much. I had a Cockney friend who ran the Laundromat. Everyone was so friendly- beautiful parks and delicious food
I think you would appreciate that Delaware has a Murderkill River, in Kent County
This was excellent. You make wonderful videos. Thank you. We still have our fingers crossed for a future Quebec City video. 🙂
Oh I lived there for a spell! Would love a video about it.
Great video and really accurate, I'm from brooklyn but my grandmother lives and staten island and used to spend a lot of my summers there as a kid and the island gets trashed on a lot but it's not all that bad!
Your videos are so good that I actually watch your ad breaks. Thanks for keeping up such consistently excellent work, friend!
Another note to add about the mention of cows grazing where the Mall is now. My husband's family had a horse ranch on that land as well. The people who kept horses there were part of Staten Island Sheriff's Mounted Posse.
Staten Islander here, thank you very much for such an interesting video. 👏
This is the best series to ever come to RUclips. I wish you could have your own documentary or something
Hi! I'm Omar from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, border city with El Paso, Texas. There's so much history from both our cities that are relevant to our countries. I’m currently studying Geoinformatics and love Human and Urban Geography. My dad is an architect with a masters in Urban Planning, he made the Urban Development Plan for our city. If you ever do a video about our region, please, feel free to contact me. It would be an honor to help :)
Thanks for posting this introduction to the history of our island.
Staten Islander here. Awesome video, loved the dropping of little fun facts but one that was missed (my favorite) is that the single most influential boxer EVER, was born here. He literally invented slipping/blocking punches. He went on to become quite possibly the best boxer in the world at the time and revolutionized pugilism as the world knew it. (Bill Richmond, 1763)
Woah! From SI and love your videos! Can’t wait to watch this!
Love that we ended on a mention of Eugenius Outerbridge, 1st chairman of the Port Authority
I never knew Outerbridge was a person; I thought it was because of its location.
The guy was still alive when it opened! Imagine knowing that it was named after you, and that you had the most perfectly fitting name possible for it.
I’m a fourth generation native NYer. I’ve had family in one of the five boroughs since their arrival to this country at the turn of the century. I moved to SI as a toddler, and while I’m not considered a native Staten Islander, it’s the only home I remember. My grandfather moved & purchased his first home on SI in 1970, and while he was, by no means a native, he loved this island more than anyone else ever could! Buying his home here was arguably his proudest achievement.
I love Staten Island. Snug Harbor, which contains the Noble Maritime Museum, Staten Island Museum, and more, is an amazing place. You can actually get there by mta bus 10 minutes from staten island ferry but it is a world away. Excellent content.
I would just like to say that these are currently my literal favourite videos on RUclips
Excellent video! I'm a 75 year old native Islander - just a couple of comments: on the timeline in 1993, where it says S.I. voted to "succeed" from the city, you meant "secede." Also, as part of the highway system that was created after the bridge, in addition to the Richmond Parkway (as it was known then) not being completed through the greenbelt, there was another that wasn't finished. The MLK expressway (F/K/A Willowbrook expressway) that goes from the SI expressway to the Bayonne bridge was originally supposed to continue through the greenbelt to Great Kills Park. You can still see where it was supposed to be on satellite photos and maps. On Google maps, it still shows "Willowbrook Parkway" in the Oakwood area.
16:17, due to the wealth of Vanderbilt family and the relative quiet it offered, Staten Island attracted a unique group of social elites. H.H Richardson, Frederick Law Olmsted, Richard Morris Hunt, William Emerson (Ralph Waldo's brother), etc. Because of that there are unique architectural gems in Staten Island. The only Frank Llyod Wright design residence in NYC (The Crimson Beech), the only H.H Richardson designed building in NYC (his own home in Clifton), Olmsted's farm from which he picked up landscaping (Olmsted-Beil House) and the impressive Vanderbilt Mausoleum (designed by both Hunt and Olmsted) where the entire family is buried like pyramids.
Interesting comment at the beginning about the representation of the island on the map shaping your impressions of it. I was just watching a RUclips video about Shetland in the UK, and they said the same thing (it was always an inset and shrunk in size in order to fit on a traditional map of the UK). But then the Scottish parliament passed legislation that every official map of Scotland had to include Shetland in its actual location and to its actual scale. Which is a meaningful measure for an island grouping with only 30 000 inhabitants!
28:17 growing up on north shore staten island, I always wondered why that never ended up getting built. I was told it was because the rich people on todt hill didnt want such a large roadway so close to their homes, lol. That's a much better reason.
I also didn't know that the landfill was closed in response to the secession movement.
This is awesome! You are one of the best map/geography/history RUclipsrs on the platform! I learn so much and show these to my kids during homeschool to encourage understanding of maps and a historic worldview. Please keep them coming!
Great work man, wishing you all the success this platform offers.
Staten island had a North shore train that is abandoned. I know it went through port Richmond.
I was in a small teenage Pageant and i gave a speech on the French Huguenots.
Years ago, before dump closed, when you were inside of the fresh kills landfill, it didnt smell. The dump was used to sort through out 9 11 debris.
The old Fresh Kills dump is being transformed into a world class park with hiking trails and great views. It don’t smell no more either. 😂
@Ondatrain79 thank you for letting me know. i think the last time ivwas on SI was 2013.
Any time you want to do an episode on the Kansai region of Japan (essentially the Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto tri-city area, the workhorse heart of the country), I will be here for it. Well, for any episode of yours, really.
Your statement on Staten Island being deceptive in the first map you show reminds me of How to Lie with Maps by Mark Monmonier. It gave me a nice refresher in types of maps I had forgotten about, but also how decisions made in design can perpetuate certain ideas or deceptions.
native born, pre bridge. back before Brooklyn moved in ;-) back in the day city employees had to live in the city. Staten Island was a place where a young cop or fireman could afford a house and raise a family with some green space.
You mean the Brooklyn Allstars? I was born in Pleasant Plains in the late 50's. Cried over what the Island has become. Moved away in 1985. I curse Robt. Moses at least once a week.
Madonna's Papa Don't Preach music video was shot on Staten Island.
My great great great grandparents came over on the boat around 1850 and met there, married and stayed in Staten Island. My great great, great and grandmother were born there also.
Excellent video. I am a native Staten Islander. I love the history.
Theres a beautiful wooden laser cut topo map of nyc in my school (cooper union). Seeing the huge flat side and steeper midlands started making the patterns of development seen on satellite snd the redlining that took place. One of the greatest videos of all time once again!
Love your videos! Thank you for all the effort you put in your videos and the knowledge you provide. Also I didn't skip the ad cause Headspace is awesome.
When my Mom, Pollyanne, was on Community Board 1 back in the 80s, her big "thing" was The Greenways. A word that was pretty new at the time. Besides her 20 with the NYPD, she was most proud of helping get that off the ground. So are we. Great job on the Forgotten Borough. (SNL's "WaIking in Staten", don't miss it. Spot on).
these videos are such an asset while reading alongside The Power Broker. great work
The middle of the 20th century always breaks my heart when it comes to Staten Island. There was such opportunity for Staten Island to remain truly rural… one of the last places of close access for true countryside for NYC. Now, it’s just suburbia. At least it still has a riding school. In recent years, there have been pushes to get rid of horses from all of NYC.
Never would have thought I'd bother to learn anything about Staten Island, but I watched the whole video
It’s a pretty interesting place. Doesn’t get its due, but that may be a good thing. Keeps it relatively quiet. 😅
Geraldo Rivera’s news career was jump started because of the horrors he found at Willowbrook, a place where disabled kids were kept, and horribly treated. Most of Willowbrook is gone because that’s where the College of Staten Island was built but there are some creepy looking original buildings left past the edges of the campus.
Todt Hill is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the city.
Vito Corlone’s house in the first Godfather is on Staten Island, though they built temporary walls and a gate to make it look like a bigger property. I don’t remember if they said where the house was in the film, but I think it was supposed to be Long Island (Apparently it’s now an Air BnB, though the inside of the house was not used for the film (interior scenes used a studio set))
I used to live on Todt Hill! Pretty rough to go up or down in winter when it gets really icy. On the literal "struggle bus" afraid it would slide off the hill 😂
Congratulations- well done. I enjoyed this so much
Great Video. I'm a Staten Islander. Maybe you could come back and highlight how the the Staten Island Expressway operates sort of like a divider of sorts. The VAST majority of the low-income and minority population on Staten Island lives north of the Staten Island Expressway, which is a fraction of the total geography compared to the entire borough.
Native Staten Islander here. I remember watching the bridge being built. In those days we went to NJ regularly, but a trip to the "City" (Manhattan) was a big deal. I, too, remember cows grazing on the South Shore. By the time I graduated high school in '73, the island had changed almost beyond recognition, and mostly for the worse. Left in '78 and only go back occasionally, mainly for the food.
Left in early '82, parents moved to SI prior to the bridge opening. Never went back since the late 80s. Life is better outside of NYC.
Great history! But this felt like a change from other map explained videos. I think the really unique part of this series is how much you breakdown the history of specific roads in the area that is the subject of the video.
I hope when you do Queens there is more of that again.
Thanks for another great video. I knew next to nothing about Staten Island before.
These videos are so well made and always so interesting. Should be over 1M subs, very underrated channel
Your videos are always a joy to watch! Thanks for putting in so much work.
I love that tennis is just shoved in at the end. Tennis has had a huge influence on the city (more so Queens) and the country as a whole.
The Outerbridge Crossing was named for Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge, the First Chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It was his sister, Mary Ewing Outerbridge, who introduced tennis to the United States. She is buried at Silver Mount Cemetery on Staten Island along with her parents. Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge is buried at Moravian Cemetery on Staten Island.
The Outerbridge family is still a very prominent, powerful and wealthy Bermuda family to this day.
The old grounds of the Staten Island Tennis Club in Livingston is now Walker Park, a city park where there are numerous tennis courts and facilities. Literally the oldest tennis courts in the USA.
Your videos just keep getting better.
As someone who grew up on the north shore of Staten Island, I learned so much history from this video! I've always thought that SI was an interesting sort of microcosm of the US, illustrating how accessible public transportation (or lack thereof) radicalizes. Also wild to glimpse one of the houses I used to dog sit for in here!
As someone who was born and raised here and my fathers side has been here since the 1800’s I hope to keep the islands history alive and keep it less dense then the rest of the city
Keep it up, Daniel. High quality information and a pleasure to watch. My thought is that SI has gained more from being part of NYC than it would ever have gained from simply being part of NY state. The bridge would have happened anyway and its isolation from Upper NY would have been a source of frustration.
He did a pretty good job of describing our history, but he didn't cover that Staten Island already had bridges to bayonne, elizabeth, and perth amboy as well as the railroad bridge by the time the Verrazzano was built. Staten Island didn't need that bridge to develop, it already had shipyards, factories etc- plenty of industry.
@@marcoi99495 The significance of the Verrazzano is it being the only direct connection to the 5 boroughs of NYC. The bridges you mentioned all connect to N.Jersey.
The answer as to why Staten Island is way less exciting than a boat race: it became a part of the colony of New York when the Dutch Ceded the land as part of the Treaty of Breda. The boat story makes for a fun origin story, but all evidence points to it being decided during the treaty that the land belonged to the Colony of New York.
The better question is why did the English determine the island to be part of New York?
Found a gem of a channel ! Keep up there good work 💪
When I was a young Boy Scout we used to take the 69th st ferry and then a bus to Pouch Boy Scout camp. I loved Staten Island so much I moved here as an adult
Robert Moses was responsible for the massive construction of public housing projects on Staten Island in the early 1950s. The first tenants were from other boroughs.
As a kid growing up in SI in the late 60s, I remember overhearing grownups talking about the “guinea gangplank”. Local nickname for the VZ bridge. My own 2nd gen Italian American grandparents had done same migration from Brooklyn in the 1940s, to the north shore. Most of the newer transplants moved into massive ugly housing developments on south end, where a gazillion identical homes were quickly built on swampland.
Man, the people you meet in Japan and New York and so on - this dedication to history, these tiny islands of knowledge are gonna be gone in 10 or 20 years. They dedicate their life to something that to some might seem meaningless, like the history of a specific borough of NYC. But it's not meaningless, it's someone knowledgable of the history of thousands of people, and that history mattered to them. I hope the younger generations keep that flame of knowledge alive. I believe there's people in Gen Z and everywhere else who have the motivation, intelligence and curiosity to keep the spirit on and I hope they find this history as fascinating as I do! Daniel, please continue, I can't wait to hear about places *I'm* not familiar with but that matter so much to the people there!
Thank you for all the hard work on these videos 🙏🏼
It is surprising that in a history of Staten Island you never mention one of its most famous residents Daniel D. Tompkins. He is he namesake of the town of Tompkinsville and Tompkins Avenue and Street, who served as the 4th Governor of New York State, and the 6th Vice President of the United States under the 5th United States President James Monroe.
Also Tomkins Square Park, in Manhattan's East Village.
Perhaps he should be best known for signing (as governor) the abolition of slavery in New York State into law.
I look forward to every video and am captivated every time. 👏🏻👏🏻
Thanks!
Thank you!!
One of only a few movies featuring states island- Copland - fantastic performances by several great actors. Fantastic soundtrack too.
The ground pools make an appearance in the movie too!
There's also a scene at a mini-mall next to Best Buy Electronics in the movie GoodFellas. It hasn't changed much since 1990.
super interesting!! i adore these videos, thank you
Always learn so much and in such a fun and interesting way! Keep it up Daniel
Your sources are always amazing, such great personalities!
The oldest schoolhouse in the US was built by the Dutch on Staten Island ('states island').
I was born there, when it was beautifully green. My father was transferred to Italy and we moved there as work on the Verrazano Narrows bridge. When we came back it was finished & the liner we were on anchored overnight on one side of the bridge. By morning we had floated to the other side.
Born and raised in Staten Island and this was so interesting! Great job 🎉
I always liked how Staten Island was so quiet compared to other boroughs. The toll for the bridge sucks though.
Secret that most Staten Islanders won't tell you. We allow the rest of the city residents to complain about the toll and show fake empathy towards them. But we get a 55% discount on the VN-bridge tolls.