Who Was That Major Deegan Anyway?

Each day, millions of people “take” the Major Deegan, the Hutchinson Expressway, the Outerbridge Crossing, and the Holland Tunnel. Few travelers remember that, before these names became an urban shorthand for congestion, they were actual people. Join CUNY Prof Rebecca Bratspies, author of Naming Gotham, on this quirky virtual tour using the names of New York City’s roads, bridges, and institutions as a window into urban social structure and the City’s ever-changing inhabitants. The lives of Revolutionary War leaders, civil rights heroes, robber barons and Tammany Hall politicos introduce us to the outsized roles that immigration, power politics, corruption, and the slave economy played and continue to play in New York City.