Tomorrow: The 400 Celebrate New York’s 400th

As generally happens to me on September 11, yesterday I found myself thinking the phrase “I love New York so MUCH”. In In the Shadow of the Towers,Art Spiegelman said that the closest emotion to patriotism he feels is his love for New York City, and I know precisely what he means (although I do possess a qualified version of American patriotism too at the odd, disarming moment). There should be a word for love of one’s city beyond “civic pride”, which always sounds to me like an anti-littering campaign or something. You can be sure the Athenians and the Romans knew what that emotion is, as do Londoners, Parisians, Berliners, etc.

My New York love is completely intertwined with a love for this city’s history. As it happens we are in the midst of a kind of sliding benchmark. Sometimes dates are better measured in calculus than in hard calendar days. The Dutch founding of NYC sort of happened in stages about 400 years ago. The symbolic one we all know (and used to cherish) about the sale of Manhattan in exchange for a handful of trinkets is next year (2026). I wrote a little about that event here, and will definitely be observing it next year. Last year (2024) was the 400th anniversary of the first settlement here, on Nutten (now Governor’s) Island. That one was facilitated by the Dutch West India Company, but the 30 families were came were actually French Huguenots.

And tomorrow? Will be a celebration of the establishment of Fort Amsterdam on the Southern tip of Manhattan, which consisted of a military style stockade with barracks, a warehouse, a chapel, and a trading post. Not yet a city — in fact there were already a few such fortified trading posts in North America by this point. But it was an important step in the genesis of what would become a world class city within a couple of centuries. Tomorrow (September 13), the Colonial Dames of America, The Netherland American Foundation et al are putting on a black tie do at the Mount Vernon Hotel, including a panel discussion entitled “New York in 1625 and New York in the Future”. It’s a steep ticket, but I don’t know of any more populist celebration in the works, and this one is worth noting. If you flash them a big enough wad you might be able to squirrel yourself a last minute ticket. Get info and tickets here.