1.
Sands Point, New York
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Sands Point is a village located at the northernmost tip of the Cow Neck Peninsula on the North Shore of Long Island in Nassau County, New York, United States. The Incorporated Village of Sands Point lies within the town of North Hempstead, the population was 2,675 at the 2010 census. The village was incorporated in 1910, in 1917, the village absorbed the communities of Barkers Point and Motts Point. It was originally owned by three families, the Sands, Vanderbilts, and Cornwells, in 1917 Daniel Guggenheim bought his 216-acre Hempstead House, formerly Castle Gould. His son Harry Guggenheim, founder of Newsday, later erected his estate Falaise nearby in 1923, today, the estate belongs to the Friends of the Sands Point Preserve, which is a non for profit organization that maintains the property. In the 1960s, under less strict building codes, many homes were built on 1-acre parcels, current zoning allows subdivisions of 2 acres or more. The Sands Family Cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, Sands Point is bordered almost entirely by water - Long Island Sound to the north, Manhasset Bay to the west and Hempstead Harbor on the east. It shares land borders with the villages of Port Washington, Port Washington North, Manorhaven, Sands Point is located at 40°50′55″N 73°42′42″W. Sands Point and Port Washington are located in the area known as Cow Neck Peninsula bordered by Manhasset Bay, Hempstead Bay. According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has an area of 5.6 square miles. As of the census of 2010, there were 2,675 people,872 households, the population density was 636.9 people per square mile. There were 934 housing units at a density of 222.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 88. 6% White,0. 8% African American,8. 2% Asian,1. 1% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 4. 7% of the population. 10. 4% of all households were made up of individuals and 7. 1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 3.03 and the average family size was 3.21. In the village, the population was out with 26. 4% under the age of 18,5. 6% from 18 to 24,15. 4% from 25 to 44,34. 0% from 45 to 64. The median age was 45.4 years, for every 100 females there were 95.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.4 males, as of 2013, the median income for a household in the village was $197,188, and the median income for a family was $218,400. Males had an income of $158,500 versus $44,943 for females
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Gilded Age
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The Gilded Age in United States history is the late 19th century, from the 1870s to about 1900. The early half of the Gilded Age roughly coincided with the portion of the Victorian era in Britain. It began as the US Reconstruction Era ended in 1877, the Gilded Age was an era of rapid economic growth, especially in the North and West. As American wages were higher than those in Europe, especially for skilled workers. The rapid expansion of industrialization led to real wage growth of 60% between 1860 and 1890, spread across the ever-increasing labor force, the average annual wage per industrial worker rose from $380 in 1880 to $564 in 1890, a gain of 48%. Railroads were the growth industry, with the factory system, mining. Immigration from Europe and the eastern states led to the growth of the West. Labor unions became important in the rapidly growing industrial cities. Two major nationwide depressions—the Panic of 1873 and the Panic of 1893—interrupted growth, the South after the Civil War remained economically devastated, its economy became increasingly tied to cotton and tobacco production, which suffered from low prices. With the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877, African-American people in the South were stripped of political power, the political landscape was notable in that despite some corruption, turnout was very high and national elections saw two evenly matched parties. The dominant issues were cultural, and economic, with the rapid growth of cities, political machines increasingly took control of urban politics. In business, massive, powerful and wealthy trusts formed, unions crusaded for the 8-hour working day and the abolition of child labor, middle class reformers demanded civil service reform, prohibition, and womens suffrage. Local governments across the North and West built public schools chiefly at the elementary level, the numerous religious denominations were growing in membership and wealth, the Catholics moving to the largest totals. They all expanded their missionary activity to the world arena, Catholics and Lutherans set up parochial schools and the larger denominations set up numerous colleges, hospitals and charities. Many of the problems faced by society, especially the poor, the term Gilded age was applied to the era by historians in the 1920s, who took the term from one of Mark Twains lesser known novels, The Gilded Age, A Tale of Today. The book satirized the promised golden age after the American Civil War, in the 1920s and 30s Gilded Age became a designated period in American history, with the term applied to the post Civil War period up to 1900. For them, Gilded Age was a term used to describe a time of materialistic excesses combined with extreme poverty. The early half of the Gilded Age roughly coincided with the portion of the Victorian era in Britain
4.
North Shore (Long Island)
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The North Shore of Long Island is the area along the northern coast of New York States Long Island bordering Long Island Sound. Known for its wealth and lavish estates, the North Shore exploded into affluence at the turn of the 20th century. Historically, this refers to the coastline communities in the towns of North Hempstead, Oyster Bay. The easternmost Gold Coast mansion is the Geissler Estate, located just west of Indian Hills Country Club in Fort Salonga, within the Town of Huntington. Being a remnant of glacial moraine, the North Shore is somewhat hilly, large boulders known as glacial erratics are scattered across the area. The North Shore was first settled in the mid-1600s, much of the area was initially controlled by the Dutch colony of New Netherland. Towns in the part of the North Shore were settled by the English under the jurisdiction of the New Haven Colony. This arrangement ended in 1664 with the English takeover of New Netherland, in its early days the North Shore was largely agricultural. Whaling was also a component of the economy, as is commemorated in Cold Spring Harbors Whaling Museum & Education Center. During the Second Industrial Revolution, great fortunes were made in steel, transportation, beginning in the early 1890s, lavish private estates were erected on what became known as the Gold Coast of Long Island. In all, over 500 mansions were built during this spree, among those were expansive faux chateaux and castles belonging to the Vanderbilts, Astors, Whitneys, Charles Pratt, J. P. Morgan, F. W. Woolworth, and others. Otto Kahns Oheka Castle was reputed to be the second largest private home in the United States, second only to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, alternatively, some eschewed formal mansions and erected large shingle-style and clapboard cottages, such as Theodore Roosevelts Sagamore Hill. The greatest architects, landscapers, decorators and firms were employed, including Stanford White, John Russell Pope, Guy Lowell, architectural styles included English Tudor, French Chateau, Georgian, Gothic, Mediterranean, Norman, Roman, Spanish, and combinations of these. Rooms, outdoor structures, and entire buildings were dismantled in Europe, privacy was maintained with the huge land holdings, hedges and trees, fences, gates and gate houses, private roads, and lack of maps showing the location of the estates. Following World War II many Gold Coast mansions were demolished and their estates subdivided into suburban-style developments, delineated perceptually by the Queens-Nassau border, the North Shore is marked by a series of necks and populated harbors. North Hempstead, Oyster Bay and Huntington Towns comprise the land ownership of this area and this recent trend, beginning in the 1980s with the conversion of potato farms, has given the North Fork the distinction of being the most productive agricultural area in New York State. Despite this, North Fork, contrasts starkly with the more populated, the North Fork terminates at Orient Point, where the Cross Sound Ferry Company has a terminal for ferries bound for New London, CT. and Block Island, RI. Greenport, a village in Southold midway between Orient and Riverhead, is an economic center for the North Fork and as such, is the eastern terminus of the Long Island Rail Roads Main Laine
5.
Long Island
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Long Island is an island located just off the northeast coast of the United States and a region within the U. S. state of New York. Stretching east-northeast from New York Harbor into the Atlantic Ocean, the island comprises four counties, Kings and Queens to the west, then Nassau, more generally, Long Island may also refer collectively both to the main Island as well as its nearby, surrounding outer barrier islands. North of the island is the Long Island Sound, across from which lie the states of Connecticut, across the Sound, to the northwest, lies Westchester County on mainland New York. To the west, Long Island is separated from the Bronx and the island of Manhattan by the East River. To the extreme southwest, it is separated from the New York City borough of Staten Island and the U. S. state of New Jersey by Upper New York Bay, the Narrows, to the east lie Block Island and numerous smaller islands. Its population density is 5,595.1 inhabitants per square mile, Long Island is culturally and ethnically diverse. Some of the wealthiest and most expensive neighborhoods in the Western Hemisphere are located on Long Island, nine bridges and 13 tunnels connect Brooklyn and Queens to the three other boroughs of New York City. Ferries connect Suffolk County northward across Long Island Sound to the state of Connecticut, the Long Island Rail Road is the busiest commuter railroad in North America and operates 24/7. At the time of European contact, the Lenape people inhabited the western end of Long Island, giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to record an encounter with the Lenapes, after entering what is now New York Bay in 1524. In 1609, the English navigator Henry Hudson explored the harbor, adriaen Block followed in 1615 and is credited as the first European to determine that both Manhattan and Long Island are islands. Native American land deeds recorded by the Dutch from 1636 state that the Indians referred to Long Island as Sewanhaka, sewan was one of the terms for wampum, and is also translated as loose or scattered, which may refer either to the wampum or to Long Island. The name t Lange Eylandt alias Matouwacs appears in Dutch maps from the 1650s, later, the English referred to the land as Nassau Island, after the Dutch Prince William of Nassau, Prince of Orange. It is unclear when the name Nassau Island was discontinued, the very first settlements on Long Island were by settlers from England and its colonies in present-day New England. Lion Gardiner settled nearby Gardiners Island, the first settlement on the geographic Long Island itself was on October 21,1640, when Southold was established by the Rev. John Youngs and settlers from New Haven, Connecticut. Peter Hallock, one of the settlers, drew the long straw and was granted the honor to step ashore first and he is considered the first New World settler on Long Island. Southampton was settled in the same year, Hempstead followed in 1644, East Hampton in 1648, Huntington in 1653, and Brookhaven in 1655. While the eastern region of Long Island was first settled by the English, until 1664, the jurisdiction of Long Island was split, roughly at the present border between Nassau County and Suffolk County. The Dutch founded six towns in present-day Brooklyn beginning in 1645 and these included, Brooklyn, Gravesend, Flatlands, Flatbush, New Utrecht, and Bushwick
6.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
7.
Alva Belmont
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Alva Belmont, née Alva Erskine Smith, and known as Alva Vanderbilt from 1875 to 1896, was a prominent multi-millionaire American socialite and a major figure in the womens suffrage movement. Known for having an aristocratic manner that many people, she was also noted for her energy, intelligence, strong opinions. She was married first to William Kissam Vanderbilt, with whom she had three children, and secondly to Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont. Alva Erskine Smith was born on January 17,1853 at 201 Government Street in Mobile, Alabama to Murray Forbes Smith, a commission merchant, Murray Smith was the son of George Smith and Delia Forbes of Dumfries, Virginia. Phoebe Desha was the daughter of US Representative Robert Desha and Eleanor Shelby, Alva was one of six children. Two of her sisters, Alice and Eleanor, both died as children before she was born and her brother, Murray Forbes Smith, Jr. died in 1857 and was buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile. Two other sisters, Armide Vogel Smith and Mary Virginia Jennie Smith, were her siblings to survive into adulthood. Jennie first married the brother of Alvas childhood best friend, Consuelo Yznaga, following a divorce from Fernando Yznaga in 1886, Jennie remarried to William George Tiffany. As a child, Alva summered with her parents in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1859 the Smiths left Mobile and relocated to New York City, where they briefly settled in Madison Square. When Murray went to Liverpool, England, to conduct his business, her mother, Phoebe Smith, after the Civil War, the Smith family returned to New York, where her mother died in 1869. At a party for one of William Henry Vanderbilts daughters, Smiths best friend, Consuelo Yznaga introduced her to William Kissam Vanderbilt, on April 20,1875, William and Alva were married at Calvary Church in New York City. The couple would have three children, Consuelo Vanderbilt was born on March 2,1877, followed by William Kissam Vanderbilt II on March 2,1878, and Harold Stirling Vanderbilt on July 6,1884. Alva would maneuver Consuelo into marrying Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough on November 6,1895, the marriage would be annulled much later, at the Dukes request and Consuelos assent, in May 1921. The annulment was fully supported by Alva, who testified that she had forced Consuelo into the marriage, by this time Consuelo and her mother enjoyed a closer, easier relationship. Consuelo went on to marry Jacques Balsan, a French aeronautics pioneer, William Kissam II would become president of the New York Central Railroad Company on his fathers death in 1920. Harold Stirling graduated from Harvard Law School in 1910, then joined his father at the New York Central Railroad Company. He remained the only representative of the Vanderbilt family in the New York Central Railroad after his brothers death, serving as a director. Supposedly, this forced Astor to come calling, in order to secure an invitation to the ball for her daughter, the chief effect of the ball was to raise the bar on society entertainments in New York to heights of extravagance and expense that had not been previously seen
8.
William Kissam Vanderbilt
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William Kissam Vanderbilt I was an American heir, businessman, philanthropist and horsebreeder. Born into the Vanderbilt family, he managed his family railroad investments, William Kissam Vanderbilt I was born on December 12,1849. His father was William Henry Vanderbilt and his paternal grandfather was Cornelius Vanderbilt. He managed his family railroad investments, in 1879, after taking over P. T. Barnums Great Roman Hippodrome which was on railroad property by Madison Square Park, he renamed the facility Madison Square Garden. Vanderbilt was one of the founders of The Jockey Club and he was a shareholder and president of the Sheepshead Bay Race Track in Brooklyn, New York and the owner of a successful racing stable. In 1896, he built the American Horse Exchange at 50th Street, in 1911 he leased it the Shubert Organization who then transformed it into the Winter Garden Theatre. Among the horses he owned was the U. S, racing Hall of Fame filly Maskette, purchased from Castleton Farm in Lexington, Kentucky for broodmare services at his French breeding farm. She was born in 1853, in Mobile, Alabama, to Murray Forbes Smith, a commission merchant, Consuelo Vanderbilt was born on March 2,1877, followed by William Kissam Vanderbilt II on March 2,1878, and Harold Stirling Vanderbilt on July 6,1884. Alva later coerced Consuelo into marrying Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough on November 6,1895, alva divorced Vanderbilt in March 1895, at a time when divorce was rare among the elite, and received a large financial settlement reported to be in excess of $10 million. The grounds for divorce were allegations of Vanderbilts adultery, alva remarried to one of their old family friends, Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, on January 11,1896. In 1903, Vanderbilt married Anne Harriman, daughter of banker Oliver Harriman and she was a widow to sportsman Samuel Stevens Sands and to Lewis Morris Rutherfurd, Jr. son of the astronomer Lewis Morris Rutherfurd. Her second husband died in Switzerland in 1901 and she had two sons by her first marriage and two daughters by her second marriage. She had no children by Vanderbilt, like other Vanderbilts, he built magnificent houses. His residences included Idle Hour on Long Island and Marble House, designed by Richard Morris Hunt, in Newport, Hunt also designed Vanderbilts 660 Fifth Avenue mansion. Vanderbilt was a co-owner of the yacht Defender, which won the 1895 Americas Cup, Vanderbilt was a founder and president of the New Theatre. He was also a member of the Jekyll Island Club aka The Millionaires Club, Vanderbilt made significant charitable contributions to Vanderbilt University, a private university in Nashville, Tennessee named for his grandfather. Vanderbilt died in Paris, France on July 22,1920 and his remains were brought home and interred in the Vanderbilt family vault in the Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp, Staten Island, New York. Vanderbilts portrait, painted by F. W. Wright from a painting by Richard Hall between 1911 and 1921, was donated to Vanderbilt University in 1921, it is hung in Kirkland Hall
9.
Oliver Belmont
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Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont was an American socialite and United States Representative from New York. Belmont was a member of the firm of August Belmont. He became publisher of the Verdict, a weekly paper, Belmont was born on November 12,1858 in New York City, New York. Olivers father was August Belmont, a Hessian Jew who came to the United States in 1837 as an agent for the Rothschilds, and accumulated enormous personal wealth. His mother, Caroline Slidell, was the daughter of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry and his maternal great-uncle and namesake was Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the victor of the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813. Belmont attended St. Pauls School in Concord, New Hampshire and he entered the United States Naval Academy on June 10,1880. He was commissioned as a midshipman and served until June 1,1881, Belmont was a member of the banking firm of August Belmont and Co. He became publisher of the Verdict, a weekly paper and he was not a candidate for renomination in 1902. Oliver received an inheritance when his father died in 1890. Oliver was a bachelor at the time of his fathers death, richard Morris Hunt was the architect for Olivers Newport mansion, Belcourt. Belmont designed Belcourt as he pleased, Hunt was hesitant with the design of Belcourt, but he concentrated on his guiding principle that it was his clients money he was spending. The entire first floor was composed of a multitude of stables for Belmonts prized horses, the monumental Gothic rooms with their huge stained-glass windows were emblazoned with the Belmont coat of arms. Belmont was a member of the Rhode Island Society of the Sons of the Revolution in 1896. He was eligible for membership in the Society by right of his descent from Captain Christopher Raymond Perry who has served as a privateer in the American Revolution, in 1882, without his parents consent, Oliver proposed marriage to debutante Sara Swan Whiting, a popular and beautiful socialite. His parents, August and Caroline Belmont, objected to the engagement, thinking Oliver was not mature enough for marriage because of his gambling and playboy lifestyle. As a result, he was sent to Bremen, Germany, to learn the trade from the Rothschild family. Oliver became dissipated and developed a penchant for absinthe, when Mrs. Belmont realized his decline, she agreed to the marriage. Oliver Belmont married Sara Swan Whiting in Newport, Rhode Island, on December 27,1882, at her family home, the newlyweds traveled to Paris for their honeymoon, where they were joined several weeks later by Saras mother and two older sisters
