It Happened Today in New York City

On December 30, 1868, Andrew Haswell Green proposed the amalgamation of Greater New York. The visionary city planner had already served on the school board and the Central Park Commission and was active in the creation of the New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Central Park Zoo. But consolidating the city of New York with Brooklyn and the small towns that made up Staten Island, Queens, and the Bronx would become his crowning achievement. Nearly three decades later, on January 1, 1898, the vision he proposed on this day finally came to pass. Today’s metropolis would not resemble itself in the slightest without his vision and innovation.

• Posted in: Almanac