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 accessible to Lower Manhattan in New York City and its Chinatown by rapid transit, was home to an estimated 8,420 Chinese Americans, according to the 2016 American Community Survey, representing a notably rapid growth of 49.2% from the 5,643 Chinese Americans enumerated in the 2010 United States Census. Chinese nationals have also been obtaining EB-5 immigrant visas by investing US$500,000 apiece in new Downtown Jersey City residential skyscrapers. New Jersey's largest Vietnamese American population resides in Jersey City. There were an estimated 1,485 Vietnamese Americans in Jersey City, according to the 2016 American Community Survey, representing a7.6% decline from 1,607