Within the Haunting Bedrock | Part 12. The Fire of 1835: Watchmen in Towers, Volunteer Firemen, and a Frozen River

In 1835, about 1,500 neighborhood men formed Manhattan’s volunteer fire department. Engine houses were exclusive neighborhood clubs, more like competing fraternities.

Watchmen scanned the skyline from the City Hall cupola and a few church steeples. When one spotted a fire, he rang massive bells in code to indicate the district. Church bells across the city echoed the alarm. Volunteer firemen left what they were doing and ran to the engine house. They dragged their heavy wooden gooseneck engines through the cobblestone streets by hand, pulling them with long ropes.

To pump water, 10 to 24 firemen stood in two rows and used their body weight to work long pump levers in rhythm. Thick strips of leather, sewn together or held by copper rivets, formed the hoses, if used. The heavy hoses leaked, stiffened, or cracked in cold weather. Water came from public wells, underground rain-fed cisterns, or from the East and Hudson Rivers. For distant fires, engines relayed water from the source, each pumping into the next until the last sprayed the flames.

On the evening of December 16, 1835, the temperature fell fast, and high winds whipped across downtown Manhattan. A night watchman in the Financial District smelled smoke and found it at the intersection of Exchange and Pearl Streets. The fire spread from a large warehouse and tore through Lower Manhattan. Frigid winds stoked the fire while the fire hydrants froze over. Thick ice covered the East River. Any retrieved water froze in the hose. The chaos spread when the embers set a few Brooklyn rooftops on fire.

Brooklyn and Philadelphia firemen came to assist. Marines and sailors from the Brooklyn Navy Yard provided crowd control. Agents used gunpowder to set several buildings at the edges ablaze to deprive the fire of its fuel.

By December 17, the fire had razed 17 blocks and 700 buildings, causing $20 million worth of damage. Just two died, yet thousands lost their jobs and 400 faced arrest for looting.