Urban Colossus: Why Is New York America’s Largest City?

[...]What explains New York’s ongoing ability to dominateAmerica’s urban landscape? In this paper, we explore theeconomic history of the city and argue that three themesemerge. First, New York’s emergence as the nation’s premier port was not the result of happenstance followed by lemminglikeagglomeration. While there are limits to geographicdeterminism, the clear superiority of New York’s port in termsof its initial depth, the Hudson River and its location, and theother advantages provided by the water-borne connection tothe Great Lakes ensured that this port would be America’s port.In this case, geography really was destiny, and the significanceof trade and immigration to the early republic ensured thatNew York would dominate.The second theme to emerge from New York’s history is theimportance of simple transportation cost and scale economies.The rise of the city’s three great manufacturing industries in thenineteenth century—sugar refining, publishing, and thegarment trade—depended on New York’s place at the center ofa transport hub. In all three industries, manufacturingtransformed products from outside the United States intofinished goods to be sold within the country. Because NewYork was a hub and products were dispersed throughout thecountry and the world after entry into that hub, it made perfectsense to perform the manufacturing in the city.[...]