The Burning of the City Hall, New York, August 18, 1858.

The image on the cover of the August 28^th, 1858 issue of Harper’s Weekly depicts a fire at City Hall in New York City caused by fireworks honoring the success of the laying of the transatlantic telegraph cable. According to PBS, this cable ran from the US to Newfoundland to Ireland and permanently transformed long distance communication. The audience for this image was national. It covered the full front page of the issue, catching readers’ attention all across the country. However, there is an interesting irony depicted in this image. The laying of this cable was one of the most honorable events that New York had ever been a part of. The city was growing at such a rapid pace at this time. Technology was constantly improving, and this fete was marked as one of the greatest in the 19^th century. As illustrated in the image, thousands of people in New York City were gathered to celebrate the achievement of connecting the old world to the new world, however, it ended in a tragic state with one of the city’s landmarks severely damaged.

As we read in the Blumin introduction in the George Foster article, and in Washington Square, in 1850, residents of New York City were constantly moving up town due to the rapid commercial influx into the city. The change was so rapid that people had a hard time figuring out how to approach it. This can be compared to the composition of the image in Harper’s Weekly Magazine. The sky in the illustration is contrastingly split between light from the fire and the dark sky. A firework meant for celebration is shown breaking out of a building that it ended up causing a lot of damage in. This moment of confusion and chaos overall represented how New York City was becoming established during this time. The influx of immigrants and industrialization were having a positive effect on the city, but at the same time a lot of turmoil was occurring due to this change. George Foster mentioned some of these dark realities in his article. His writing left an impression of New York City as this hellish, immoral place, and the fire in this picture can be seen as a metaphor for the corruption, disease, and prostitution that was taking place at the time. New York City was becoming one of the largest and most important cities on the east coast and the transatlantic telegraph celebration brought a lot of attention to the city. However, the realities of these situations were filled with negative elements that raised a lot of obstacles in a critical developing time.