Follow-up

Immediately after the fire, downtown rental costs increased more than twofold as hundreds of businesses began to crowd into the undamaged west side of the island. Dry goods stores that had been previously located in the neighborhood of the fire eventually laid claim to the area west of Broadway, while an exclusively financial district sprung up from the ruins of the Great Fire on the east side.

Because the city had grown haphazardly until then, many New Yorkers viewed the disaster as an opportunity to widen streets and revise the urban grid, a project that was completed quickly before rebuilding began. Other internal improvements followed. The outcry generated by the city’s inability to fight the fire helped spur the construction of the Croton Aqueduct, which insured a steady, safe, and quick supply of water for the city and its fire fighters. After five years of construction and at a cost of $11.5 million, the Aqueduct was completed in 1842 to enormous fanfare.

In addition to a reliable water supply, fire fighters were able to combat fire emergencies armed with greatly improved, state-of-the-art equipment. For instance, in 1851, a sophisticated alarm system linked many buildings to fire headquarters and by 1857, the city had purchased its first steam-powered fire engine.

Throughout the 1850s and 1860s there were numerous attempts to professionalize the fire department and alleviate the problems associated with having an all-volunteer force. In the absence of professional fire fighters, many private fire squads were formed by insurance companies to protect individual property. By the spring of 1865, however, the state legislature elected to replace all of these companies, private and volunteer, with a paid force of 700 men, who patrolled both Manhattan and Brooklyn. The Metropolitan Fire Department (MFD), as it was originally called, was replaced by the FDNY in 1870.

New York was transformed rapidly in the ensuing years, but the city’s residents, perpetually fascinated by disaster, were loath to forget the Great Fire of 1835. The vast array of Fire memorials—including statues, plaques, commemorative plates, and etchings—which found their way into city museums, parks, and New Yorkers’ troves of mementos, insured that they did not have to.