The Bowery Boys: New York City History
On the afternoon of December 22, 1984, shots rang out beneath the streets of New York, from the subway’s 2 Seventh Avenue express train. A Greenwich Village man named Bernhard Goetz shot four black teenagers who he believed were about to assault him. The incident made international news, amplified by the city’s shameless tabloid newspapers because it so… Read More
On August 6, 1930, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater stepped into a taxi on West 45th Street and vanished without a trace. For 27 days, nobody reported him missing—not his wife waiting in Maine, not his Tammany Hall cronies, not the courts. When the story finally broke, it became the most famous missing persons case in New York… Read More
For more information on New York City’s history with snow removal, listen to our 2019 show on the history of the city’s Department of Sanitation. For some of New York City’s history, snowstorms have been completely paralyzing, and most residents had to clear their own streets, an impossibility in areas of a more rural character.… Read More
“A Highway is Crumbling. New York Can’t Agree on How to Fix It.” That was a headline in the New York Times back in November about the highly problematic section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway located beneath the Brooklyn Promenade, the romantic walkway that offers sumptuous views of lower Manhattan. Everybody loves the Promenade. Nobody loves… Read More
On Lexington Avenue sits a special food store named Kalustyan’s with a second floor stocked with international spices, syrups and bitters. In 1881, this was the home of Chester A. Arthur, and it was here in the early morning hours of September 20, that he became the 21st President of the United States. He is… Read More
PODCAST The ultimate history of New Year’s celebrations in New York City. This is the story of the many ways in which New Yorkers have ushered in the coming year, a moment of rebirth, reconciliation, reverence and jubilation. In a mix of the old and new, we present a history of early New Year’s festivities, before… Read More
We would like to thank Founded by NYC for sponsoring the Bowery Boys Podcast in 2025 and giving us the opportunity to feature upcoming New York City events in our shows this year. To mark the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026, Founded By NYC continues to highlight how the City has helped shaped history… Read More
PODCAST The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree has brought joy and sparkle to Midtown Manhattan since the early 1930s. The annual festivities may seem steady and timeless but this holiday icon actually has a surprisingly dramatic history. Millions tune in each year to watch the tree lighting in a music-filled ceremony on NBC, and tens of… Read More
A special presentation of the live show Bowery Boys History Live, recorded at City Winery on December 12, 2025, a holiday themed history-variety show with Bridgerton vibes. Bowery Boys History Live is a live-show series at City Winery hosted by Greg Young featuring a variety of historians and tour guide. The last installment this summer featured author Liz… Read More
New Yorkers have gotten around their cities by subways, buses, elevated trains, streetcars and ferries. And the ways in which they have paid for them have changed as well. And keeps changing! This month, the city is saying farewell to the MetroCard, the magnetic-stripe card that has gotten the town moving since the early 1990s.… Read More
This month marks the 190th anniversary of one of the most devastating disasters in New York City history — The Great Fire of 1835. This massive fire, among the worst in American history in terms of its economic impact, devastated the city during one freezing December evening, destroying hundreds of shops and warehouses and changing the… Read More
What are we looking forward to here in New York City? Well, we’re not quite done with 2025, and a year of celebrating the city’s 400th anniversary will come to a fitting end with the Times Square Ball Drop in Manhattan on New Year’s Eve. In a tradition that goes back nearly 120 years, the… Read More
She stands in New York Harbor as America’s most recognizable symbol—but the story of the Statue of Liberty begins thousands of miles away, in the charming Alsatian city of Colmar, France. In this on-location episode, Tom ventures to the picturesque town where sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was born in 1834. Walking through Colmar’s cobblestone streets… Read More
Did you hear Greg today on WNYC’s All of It with Alison Stewart? They talked about New York City’s greatest and most underappreciated bridges. And lots of history! We’ve covered many, many bridges on the podcast over the years. Take a dive into one of these: #424 Kosciuszko! The Man. The Bridge. The Legend. #410… Read More
What is Thanksgiving without the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? The annual march through Manhattan — terminating at Macy’s Department Store — has delighted New Yorkers for a century and been a part of the American tradition of Thanksgiving since it was first broadcast nationally on television in the 1950s. Macy’s began the parade in 1924… Read More