When I was an undergraduate, one of the most popular classes was one taught by Professor Kenneth Jackson: The History of the City of New York. Some came because they heard good things about it; other because they were fascinated by the Burns documentary in which Professor Jackson appears.

My personal fascination was a bit of both: In my first semester, I had a computer science class in a large auditorium. With over 300 students it was easily my biggest class, so nothing seemed strange when I slipped into a seat in the packed lecture hall, out of breath from running. What did seem strange was that the room was dark, but sometimes Professor Sklar would show us videos of robots playing soccer and the like. What was strange, was that we were watching a movie about New York. I kept waiting for the connection — none came. Eventually, I realized I was in the wrong class: and I wasn’t twenty minutes late, I was forty minutes early!

I stayed in my seat, entranced by the commentary. You can look straight up any of the avenues in New York and see all the way to the top of the city. True! Had I noticed it? No! New York was a city founded by the Dutch to make a buck. It began as a real estate transaction between the Dutch and the American Indians. On and on it went.

The class was too demanding when I finally returned my senior year; Professor Jackson mandated the students attend multiple walking tours and write several papers. But I will always regret missing out on the Midnight Bike Ride through the city, that he took the class on every year. I passed by them in a car on the way home from a date. I wanted to follow them; I had no bike. But nostalgia and regret cannot take away from the pleasure of watching the Burns documentary, New York.

It shocks me that the Flatiron building went up in 1903. That New York invented the Express Train. That the first subways cost a nickel, and remained that way for fifty years. That Ellis Island, on its busiest days, let in 16,000 immigrants. How the city tripled in size in the 19th – 20th century due to immigration. How people from all over the world came here, awed by Lady Liberty, settling into a city of skyscrapers and hopes and dreams, and managed not to kill one another. Much.

More Italians than in Naples; more Irish than in Dublin. “By 1905, four out of five New Yorkers were either the children of immigrants, or immigrants themselves. Forever after, many Americans would view New York as a foreign country.” Did you know Penn Station used to be BEAUTIFUL!