Burning Gotham

New York 1835: A City at its tipping point. It’s ten years since the completion of the Erie Canal. New York City’s population is now over 270,000. Most of these people live below Fourteenth Street in wooden or brick buildings no taller than five stories. The gap between rich and poor is rapidly expanding as each week thousands of new men and women pour onto New York’s dangerously overcrowded streets. Many come to earn an honest living. Others for more nefarious reasons. Several historical lives converge in this scripted audio fiction series about the fastest growing city in the world, and the opportunists who shaped it.

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Burning Gotham

Beyond Burning Gotham: Episode 3

December 16, 2022 • The WallBreakers

Beyond Burning Gotham: Episode 3

These episodes are the history compendium for the preceding Burning Gotham chapters. They’ll help paint the picture on what was really going on in 1835. Our characters live in a New York rapidly becoming the most important city in the western world.

In this episode we’ll focus on The spoils system, John Jacob Astor, and development up Manhattan island. Burning Gotham Chapter five is called: Irving and Astor.

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Download Episode Transcript

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Featured interviews:

Daniel Levy
Glen Umberger
Jeff Broxmeyer
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Important Links
New York Landmarks Concervancy
Electoral Capitalism: The Party System in New York's Gilded Age — By Jeff Broxmeyer
Manhattan Phoenix: The Great Fire of 1835 and the Emergence of Modern New York — Daniel Levy

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Director & Post-Producer:
James Scully

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