History of New York City (1784–1854) as the financial and mercantile capital of the western hemisphere. The Great New York City Fire of 1845 destroyed 345 wooden buildings in the Financial District. The Hudson River Railroad (which grew into the New York Central) opened October 3, 1851; it extended the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, the first railroad built in the state, south to New York City. The city and its nearby suburbs grew rapidly for several reasons. The natural harbor at the base of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the New Jersey ports at Newark and Elizabeth provided almost unlimited capacity for trading ships and protection from storms.
Jersey City, New Jersey and 2010 substantially increased the number of housing units and that new populations may have been undercounted by as many as 30,000 residents based on the city's calculations. Preliminary findings indicated that 19,000 housing units went uncounted. As of the 2000 United States Census, the population was 240,055 making Jersey City the 72nd-most-populous city in the U.S. Among cities with a population higher than 100,000 ranked in the 2000 Census, Jersey City was the fourth most densely populated large city in the United States, behind New York City; Paterson, New Jersey; and San Francisco. There were 88,632 households, and 55,660