New York City: The late nineteenth century
The end of the Civil War saw much of the country devastated but New York intact, and it was fairly predictable that the city would soon become the wealthiest and most influential in the nation. New York was also the greatest business, commercial and manufacturing center in the country. Cornelius Vanderbilt controlled a vast shipping and railroad empire, and J.P. Morgan , the banking and investment wizard, was instrumental in organizing financial mergers that led to the formation of the prototypical corporate business.The latter part of the nineteenth century was in many ways the city's golden age: elevated railways sprung up to transport people quickly and cheaply around the city; Thomas Edison lit the streets with his new electric light bulb, powered by the first electricity plant on Pearl Street; and in 1883, to the wonderment of New Yorkers, the Brooklyn Bridge was completed, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan. Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens and the part of Westchester known as the Bronx, along with Manhattan, were officially incorporated into New York City in 1898. All this commercial expansion stimulated the city's cultural growth; Walt Whitman eulogized the city in his poetry, while Henry James recorded its manners and mores in such novels as Washington Square .
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