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.
Pearl River, New York Pearl River, New York Pearl River is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Orangetown, Rockland County, New York, United States. It is located east of Chestnut Ridge, south of Nanuet, west of Blauvelt, New York, and north of Montvale and Old Tappan, New Jersey. The population was 15,876 at the 2010 census. Pearl River is north of midtown Manhattan and lies just north of the New Jersey border. It is the first (traveling north) of three New York stops on New Jersey Transit's Pascack Valley Line. In 2011, CNNMoney.com ranked Pearl River 78th on its annual "100