Four Million New Yorkers Turn Out for Lindbergh

On June 13, 1927, three and a half weeks after he landed the Spirit of St. Louis outside Paris and became the first person to fly the Atlantic alone, Charles Lindbergh flew from Washington to New York for the city's own homecoming. He rode up Broadway from the Battery to City Hall, the stretch of street that would later be named the Canyon of Heroes, as an estimated four million people packed the sidewalks, windows, and rooftops to watch him pass through a storm of ticker tape and torn paper. At City Hall, Mayor Jimmy Walker pinned a medal to his chest and told the twenty-five-year-old flyer the city belonged to him. Lindbergh then went on to a second reception at the Central Park Mall, where he received the city's medal for valor in front of a crowd estimated at 200,000.