Special Features
What's in an Oyster? The Key to New York City's History
Published October 13th, 2014
Running time: 7 Minutes
By Eliza Loehr
It's hard to tell the history of New York City without mentioning oysters. When the Dutch first settled on the island of Manhattan, the shallow harbor was teeming with oysters. In the 19th century, six cents bought you all the oysters you could eat. Today, the harbor has virtually no oysters. So what happened?