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.
West Hudson, New Jersey West Hudson, New Jersey West Hudson is the collective name of the municipalities of Kearny, Harrison and East Newark located west of the Hackensack River and east of the Passaic River in Hudson County in northeastern New Jersey. The Passaic River separates it from Newark and Belleville, and the Hackensack River separates it from Jersey City, the county seat. Residential districts are concentrated along the banks of the Passaic, while along the Hackensack there is more industry, brownfields, or protected areas of the New Jersey Meadowlands known as the Kearny Meadows or the Kearny Marsh The area was known as