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On this day in New York · April 17, 1524

A Florentine Sails Into New York Harbor

Five hundred years before anyone paid rent here, a ship flying French colors nosed through the Narrows and found people already waiting on the shore.

The facts

Date
April 17, 1524
Ship
La Dauphine, sailing under the French crown
Sponsor
King François I of France, funding a search for a route to Asia
Where he anchored
The Narrows, the strait between what are now Staten Island and Brooklyn

On April 17, 1524, the Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed his ship La Dauphine through the strait now called the Narrows, becoming the first European known to enter New York Harbor. He was working for King François I of France, hunting for a sea route to Asia, not for New York itself. Lenape people paddled out to greet him, and he found steep hills, a deep tidal river, and a wide inner bay he took for a lake. He named the land Angoulême and the bay Santa Margarita for the king's family, names that never stuck. A shift in the wind pushed his ship back out to sea after only a day, so his look at the place was brief.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

  1. We found a very pleasant place, situated amongst certain little steep hills; from amidst the which hills there ran down into the sea a great stream of water, which within the mouth was very deep, and from the sea to the mouth of same, with the tide, which we found to rise 8 foot, any great vessel laden may pass up.

    Giovanni da Verrazzano, describing what is now New York Harbor, in his letter to King François I of France, 1524

    Source: Dianne L. Durante, Writing Addict + Adept

  2. The people are almost like unto the others, and clad with feathers of fowls of divers colors. They came towards us very cheerfully, making great shouts of admiration, showing us where we might come to land most safely with our boat.

    Giovanni da Verrazzano, describing the Lenape who met his ship in New York Harbor, letter to King François I of France, 1524

    Source: Dianne L. Durante, Writing Addict + Adept

Why it still matters

This was the first recorded meeting between Europeans and the people of New York, a full century before the Dutch showed up to actually build something here. The bridge across that same stretch of water still carries Verrazzano's name, so every car crossing from Brooklyn to Staten Island is retracing his route.

Sources

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