2-798-708 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Bowling-Green, and Broadway, 1845. Fire in New York City. 'This formerly cool and refreshing spot was soon transformed into a scorching and arid waste. The heat all around it was so great, that nothing but hardihood could approach it. Dense volumes of smoke so obscured it, that a distinct view could not be had of the fountain, even from the iron railing. In no quarter, perhaps, were the destructive effects of the conflagration more apparent than at the Bowling green, where, but yesterday, ail was green, fresh exhilarating, and beautiful, but where now all is changed into a dreary desert'. From "Illustrated London News", 1845, Vol VII.