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    How New Yorkers Lived 150 Years Ago: From The First Hipster Bar To The 70-Pound Bike

    by Gothamist Sponsor
    Published August 7, 2012
    Modified July 30, 2014
    Gallery
    14 Photos
    BICYCLING  was starting to become more widespread.  While early versions were built in the first half of the 19th century, two Frenchmen added mechanical crank pedals and the "velocipede" was born.  Made entirely of either wood or metal (including the tires), these were also called "boneshakers" and one of the recommended manufacturers was Mercer and Monod (54 William Street).  An 1869 book said of M&M velocipede, "The steering post is inclined backward which bring the handle within easy reach of the body, and the whole machine under perfect control; and gives it a particularly rakish and natty appearance upon the road… The defect of this machine is its weight, which is about seventy pounds… A good rider on this machine can obtain a speed of ten or twelve miles an hour."  Of course, this was a luxury for those who could afford the $100-150 machine (around $1600-2400 today!).  With velocipedes hitting the streets, schools were opening to educate riders. A Scientific American reporter visited a facility 928 Broadway where, "on any week-day evening," "upward of a hundred and fifty gentlemen—doctors, bankers, merchants and representatives from almost every profession—engaged in this training school preparatory…. We frequently drop into the Velocinasium to witness the novel amusement which the exhibition always affords.  [T]wo well-known stock brokers, jaded by the excitement of Wall Street, with their coats off and faces burning with zeal, gyrating around the room in the most eccentric manner." 19th century New York's elite and underbelly await you in BBC America's COPPER. Watch the premiere of the riveting new series from Academy Award®-winner Barry Levinson and Emmy® Award-winner Tom Fontana on Sunday, August 19, at 10/9c, only on BBC America. For more updates on the series, be sure to like COPPER on Facebook and follow COPPER on Twitter.

    BICYCLING was starting to become more widespread. While early versions were built in the first half of the 19th century, two Frenchmen added mechanical crank pedals and the "velocipede" was born. Made entirely of either wood or metal (including the tires), these were also called "boneshakers" and one of the recommended manufacturers was Mercer and Monod (54 William Street). An 1869 book said of M&M velocipede, "The steering post is inclined backward which bring the handle within easy reach of the body, and the whole machine under perfect control; and gives it a particularly rakish and natty appearance upon the road… The defect of this machine is its weight, which is about seventy pounds… A good rider on this machine can obtain a speed of ten or twelve miles an hour." Of course, this was a luxury for those who could afford the $100-150 machine (around $1600-2400 today!). With velocipedes hitting the streets, schools were opening to educate riders. A Scientific American reporter visited a facility 928 Broadway where, "on any week-day evening," "upward of a hundred and fifty gentlemen—doctors, bankers, merchants and representatives from almost every profession—engaged in this training school preparatory…. We frequently drop into the Velocinasium to witness the novel amusement which the exhibition always affords. [T]wo well-known stock brokers, jaded by the excitement of Wall Street, with their coats off and faces burning with zeal, gyrating around the room in the most eccentric manner." 19th century New York's elite and underbelly await you in BBC America's COPPER. Watch the premiere of the riveting new series from Academy Award®-winner Barry Levinson and Emmy® Award-winner Tom Fontana on Sunday, August 19, at 10/9c, only on BBC America. For more updates on the series, be sure to like COPPER on Facebook and follow COPPER on Twitter.

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    BICYCLING was starting to become more widespread. While early versions were built in the first half of the 19th century, two Frenchmen added mechanical crank pedals and the "velocipede" was born. Made entirely of either wood or metal (including the tires), these were also called "boneshakers" and one of the recommended manufacturers was Mercer and Monod (54 William Street). An 1869 book said of M&M velocipede, "The steering post is inclined backward which bring the handle within easy reach of the body, and the whole machine under perfect control; and gives it a particularly rakish and natty appearance upon the road… The defect of this machine is its weight, which is about seventy pounds… A good rider on this machine can obtain a speed of ten or twelve miles an hour." Of course, this was a luxury for those who could afford the $100-150 machine (around $1600-2400 today!). With velocipedes hitting the streets, schools were opening to educate riders. A Scientific American reporter visited a facility 928 Broadway where, "on any week-day evening," "upward of a hundred and fifty gentlemen—doctors, bankers, merchants and representatives from almost every profession—engaged in this training school preparatory…. We frequently drop into the Velocinasium to witness the novel amusement which the exhibition always affords. [T]wo well-known stock brokers, jaded by the excitement of Wall Street, with their coats off and faces burning with zeal, gyrating around the room in the most eccentric manner." 19th century New York's elite and underbelly await you in BBC America's COPPER. Watch the premiere of the riveting new series from Academy Award®-winner Barry Levinson and Emmy® Award-winner Tom Fontana on Sunday, August 19, at 10/9c, only on BBC America. For more updates on the series, be sure to like COPPER on Facebook and follow COPPER on Twitter.
    Gothamist
    BICYCLING  was starting to become more widespread.  While early versions were built in the first half of the 19th century, two Frenchmen added mechanical crank pedals and the "velocipede" was born.  Made entirely of either wood or metal (including the tires), these were also called "boneshakers" and one of the recommended manufacturers was Mercer and Monod (54 William Street).  An 1869 book said of M&M velocipede, "The steering post is inclined backward which bring the handle within easy reach of the body, and the whole machine under perfect control; and gives it a particularly rakish and natty appearance upon the road… The defect of this machine is its weight, which is about seventy pounds… A good rider on this machine can obtain a speed of ten or twelve miles an hour."  Of course, this was a luxury for those who could afford the $100-150 machine (around $1600-2400 today!).  With velocipedes hitting the streets, schools were opening to educate riders. A Scientific American reporter visited a facility 928 Broadway where, "on any week-day evening," "upward of a hundred and fifty gentlemen—doctors, bankers, merchants and representatives from almost every profession—engaged in this training school preparatory…. We frequently drop into the Velocinasium to witness the novel amusement which the exhibition always affords.  [T]wo well-known stock brokers, jaded by the excitement of Wall Street, with their coats off and faces burning with zeal, gyrating around the room in the most eccentric manner." 19th century New York's elite and underbelly await you in BBC America's COPPER. Watch the premiere of the riveting new series from Academy Award®-winner Barry Levinson and Emmy® Award-winner Tom Fontana on Sunday, August 19, at 10/9c, only on BBC America. For more updates on the series, be sure to like COPPER on Facebook and follow COPPER on Twitter.
    One of the most popular VENUES was Niblo’s Garden, a 3,200 seat auditorium at the corner of Broadway and Prince Street. There, attendees could enjoy refreshments and high-brow as well as low-brow performances.Its manager was actor William Wheatley and he directed The Black Crook, considered the first American musical, in 1866. The show was extremely popular because it featured Parisian ballet dancers and an unprecedented amount of "female flesh"—"the sale of men's opera glasses had reached an all-time high," according to Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. And Mark Twain wrote, "The scenery and legs are everything... Girls—nothing but a wilderness of girls— stacked up, pile on pile, away aloft to the dome of the theatre... dressed with a meagerness that would make a parasol blush."  19th century New York's elite and underbelly await you in BBC America's COPPER. Watch the premiere of the riveting new series from Academy Award®-winner Barry Levinson and Emmy® Award-winner Tom Fontana on Sunday, August 19, at 10/9c, only on BBC America. For more updates on the series, be sure to like COPPER on Facebook and follow COPPER on Twitter.
    One of the more well known BARS of the 1860s is PFAFF'S, which opened in 1855 on Broadway just north of Bleecker. One of the beer cellar's regulars was Walt Whitman, who once wrote, "The vault at Pfaffs where the drinkers and laughers meet to eat and drink and carouse, While on the walk immediately overhead pass the myriad feet of Broadway."Another regular was Henry Clapp, Jr., who was considered the "King of Bohemia"—he founded The Saturday Press, New York's answer to the Atlantic Monthly. Some have said this was "the first hipster bar" and today, it's open once again... for hipsters and others alike. 19th century New York's elite and underbelly await you in BBC America's COPPER. Watch the premiere of the riveting new series from Academy Award®-winner Barry Levinson and Emmy® Award-winner Tom Fontana on Sunday, August 19, at 10/9c, only on BBC America. For more updates on the series, be sure to like COPPER on Facebook and follow COPPER on Twitter.
    STREET RAILROAD CAR COMPANIES ruled the city.  By 1860, 14 companies were carrying more than 38 million passengers a year, at around five cents a ride. (Flash forward to 2011: The MTA's annual subway ridership was 1,640,434,672.)  In 1868, Harpers Weekly ran this cartoon: "New York Street Railroad Cars—A Rear View" showing men shoving to board a crowded trolley, proving mass transit ETIQUETTE lessons are timeless! With so many railroad cars and routes, plans started to emerge for underground and elevated railroads. The first "el" trial was in 1868, along Greenwich Street, and it wasn't until 1871 that the Ninth Avenue "el" opened. 19th century New York's elite and underbelly await you in BBC America's COPPER. Watch the premiere of the riveting new series from Academy Award®-winner Barry Levinson and Emmy® Award-winner Tom Fontana on Sunday, August 19, at 10/9c, only on BBC America. For more updates on the series, be sure to like COPPER on Facebook and follow COPPER on Twitter.
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    #gothamist collaboration
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