City Hall Park

Park around New York City Hall in Lower Manhattan. In Wedding of the Waters ten thousand people rally there for De Witt Clinton in 1824.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
Wedding of the Waters - The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation	Peter L. Bernstein	setting	Ten thousand New Yorkers hold an ‘indignation meeting’ after Clinton is removed from the canal board.

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Wedding of the Waters - The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation — Peter L. Bernstein (2005)

Source: Wedding of the Waters - The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation · Original · Readwise highlight

The ten thousand protesters finally gathered for their “indignation meeting” in City Hall Park, not far from the headquarters of Tammany Hall; one participant thirty years later recalled the assembly as “tens of thousands.”

• Role: setting
• In the book: When the legislature removes Clinton from the canal commission in April 1824, mass meetings are held in Albany and New York; the New York crowd of ten thousand is too big for any hall and gathers in City Hall Park, near Tammany Hall’s headquarters. Earlier, in December 1815, the City Hotel meeting on Broadway nearby had launched the memorial that revived the canal.
• Why it matters: The rally shows how popular the canal had made Clinton, and it carried him back to the governorship.