Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Short Stuff: Selling the Brooklyn Bridge

Transcript

Short Stuff: Selling the Brooklyn Bridge · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: that's Chuck and we're flying solo today and that's okay
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: because we've got something to say. Mostly this is short stuff.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: You really bailed on that one, didn't you. Uh. This
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: is about selling the Brooklyn Bridge, which I I think
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I had heard that this was a thing in history
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: at some point, but big thanks to the New York Times,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: How Stuff Works dot com and n y C Walks
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: dot com to bring it's the story of George C. Parker,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: a man who sold the brook the Brooklyn Bledge many
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: times over, as well as some other notable New York
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: places you know yet see would be okay with mo Man,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: oh man, He's gonna become a regular part of the show,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: I think so. Yeah. George C. Parker was like a
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: con man extraordinaire, like this guy. Supposedly he at least
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: he claimed to have sold the Brooklyn Bridge multiple times
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: a week, every week for years. That's how good he was,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: which is probably no, that is almost certainly not true.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: But it is documented that he did sell successfully sell
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Bridge to a number of suckers over the years.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Like it wasn't just a one time thing just once
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: would have made a legion, but the fact that this
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: guy did it over and over again is really something. Yeah,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: and apparently this used to be a thing, and not
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: just the Brooklyn Bridge. But you were in a situation
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: in the you know, sort of latest eighteen hundreds in
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: New York City where you had millions of immigrants coming
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: through uh Ellis Island who were hopeful. Many of them
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: were poor, but not all of them because you have
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: to have some money to buy the Brooklyn Bridge, although
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: sometimes they sold these things for like not very much money,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: which is even sadder. Uh. So they were they were targets.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: They were sort of greenhorn targets. And some of them
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: did have money though, and they would use I think
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: like um, I guess scouts or something. What would you
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: call that, someone to kind of like informant informants at
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Ellis Island that could maybe be paid off to pass
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: along information like, Hey, this immigrant came in. They think
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: America is the land of opportunity. They're really excited and
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: they got a little cash in their pocket. Right. So
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the whole jam was with Parker's Brooklyn Bridge scam was
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: he would find one of these people a well, healed
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: immigrant who just thought of America as the land of opportunity,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: and um, I thought that this was a golden opportunity.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: He would find them and show them, you know, some
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: sort of deed that said that he owned the Brooklyn
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Bridge and he wanted to unload it, so he would
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: sell it to somebody and and just basically tell them like,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: it's not just sown in the Brooklyn Bridge, which is
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: amazing enough. You can charge a toll and you could
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: make your money back in like a month and then
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: just get rich from air. And that was how apparently
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: he actually attracted people. Yeah, and all this stuff is
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: so it's very easy in two to say, well, why
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: didn't they say, well, why aren't you doing this? Weren't
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: you making this money? Why aren't there tolls and things
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: like that? And who knows the answer. I think it
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: was just a different time period. Um. As far as
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: tolls on the bridge, uh, they did used to charge
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: when it first opened. It cost a penny to cross
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: by to to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge by foot,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: uh and nicol if you had a horse uh and
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: a rider ten cents for a horse and wagon and
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: then uh extra money for farm animals if you were,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: you know, toting your farm animals, which is very funny
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: to think about now, Uh, across across the brick, it's
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: pretty funny. So there was there was at least a
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: history where an immigrant may have heard that this was
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: the case. Uh, they stopped doing this in and I
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: think even the roadway tolls went away in nineteen eleven,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: so you know, they didn't stop it until eighteen ninety one.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: So if it's EWO or three, then you could sort
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: of forgive someone for believing it. Yeah. Plus they were
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: still charging those roadway tolls for for decades longer. So yeah,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I think the very presence of tolls on the Brooklyn
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Bridge made people think like, Okay, yeah, this is the thing.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: This guy owns this bridge. I'm going to take over
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: this enterprise from it. Yeah. And another thing you have
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: to think about is the Brooklyn Bridge is very large,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: and it would be very easy to walk someone up
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: there and maybe even show them a toll booth without
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: arousing suspicion, without getting caught, without uh you know, them
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: necessarily thinking they needed to go over and verify anything
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: with the toll bridge. Yeah. Imagine also if you had
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: an inn with one of the toll booth operators you
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: can introduce as your employee. You know, I'm bringing in money.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Hand about fist here right. The other thing about the
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Brooklyn Bridge too, And and like you said, people sold
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: other stuff, monuments, plots of land and parks in New
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: York City, basically anything you can imagine that they didn't own.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: But the Brooklyn Bridge in particular was like the scam
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: because it was such a monument in America at the
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: time of the turn of the twentieth century. Like there
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: was the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge, and
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: that was like the two big symbols of America. So
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: people wanted to own it as well. The idea of
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: owning this huge symbol of America. I just got off
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: the boat from Croatia and now I'm I own one
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: of two symbols of America. Um, you could imagine how
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: somebody would jump at that opportunity if they if they
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: really thought that this guy was legit. Sure, and I
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: think a lot of times he would just do it
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: to make a few hundred bucks at a time to
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: some real greenhorn. But apparently it's legend, has it he
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: got up to fifty tho dollars, which I did not
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: fail to do the calculation. Did you happen to do that? Shamefully? Now,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know why we didn't do that. Let's let's
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: just say it's ten million dollar. Yeah, it's a lot
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: of money today. Yeah, I'll bet I'm right. Should we
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: take a break, Yes, let's take a break and figure
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: out how much they are? If you want to know,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: then you're in luck. Just Chuck Shore. So we're back, Chuck,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: And I was essentially right, Oh well, how much was it? Uh?
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: So I said ten million? Right, you said ten million. Uh,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: it turns out it's um, it looks like it's about
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: fifty million. Now no, no, I'm sorry. Let's see one,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: two three, it's five million zero five million. That's a jeez.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: He really took somebody then. Yeah, imagine Lucy five million
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: dollars buying the Brooklyn Bridge. Because again, like you're an immigrant,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: you're not really kind of hip to how things work here.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Yet imagine going to the cops and then being like
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: you're you're joking, like you just gave somebody five million
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: dollars to buy the Brooklyn Bridge. Like that had to hurt.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Like to add insult to injury. Yeah, and you know
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: there was some wife in that decision that was going,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: you idiot, that's every penny we have, and some husband
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: going it'll be worth it, right. I also just bought
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: some magic beans. Right. Uh. Here's one thing that's pretty
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: interesting is this became so common because it wasn't just
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: George Parker doing this. Um. There's one story that we
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: couldn't quite get to the bottom of that there was
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: someone named William mcclownde a k a I O U
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: O'Brien who did this. But then other people have said no,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: that was actually an alias Parker. But there were definitely people.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: This was a not the most common thing, but it
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: was a grift that other people did to the extent
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: that eventually on Ellis Island they had signage up and
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: pamphlets that said, like, these things are not for sale.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome to America, do not try and buy the Statue
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: of Liberty. Yeah. The thing I've seen bandied about is
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: you can't buy public buildings or streets. And I was like,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: is it is that true? And I looked it up
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: and I don't know if it's true. Chuck, Well, what
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: do you mean? But which one. Public buildings are streets
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: that they handed out pamphlets Llis Island. Don't you think
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: that somebody would have saved that pamphlet and there'd be
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: an image of it on the internet somewhere. I don't know.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: That's your reasoning, that's part of it. It also appears
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: in one book in one New York Times article. In
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: the New York Times article prints it from a quote
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: from somebody else who also wrote a book about But
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: did the Paper of Record? Yeah, but I mean New
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: York Times. It's also Friday at five the New York Times. Sometimes. Okay,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: all right, well, who knows it makes for a good story,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: though it is a good story. But aren't those the
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: most fun? To just be sure? I know that it
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: did get harder to sell these public buildings. I think
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: they were trying to do that up through like the
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: nineteen twenties. But um, you know, people became a little
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: more wise to this thing over the years. Even though
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Parker I believe, in his day sold uh the Statue
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: of Liberty, Madison Square, Garden, Grant's tomb Uh in the
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: met not bad amazing. No, imagine buying the met too.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: You get all the art inside too, you're not going
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: to move the art no arts included. Oh no. What
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: I would have said is no, you know, you don't
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: own the art, but you can you get a lot
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: of money for charging for the art to be there. Right,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: that's true. What happened to him though he got caught right, Yeah,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: he finally didn't. Apparently there was a four strikes in
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: your out law in New York at the time called
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the Bomb's Law, and um, they said that if you
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: were convicted of a fourth felony, that judge had no
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: choice but to give you life in prison. And that's
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: what happened to uh to mr Parker. He passed a
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollar check that bounced supposedly, the only
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: in Evening Times said that it bounced back with startling elasticity,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: which is hilarious. Um, and he served the rest of
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: his life in Sing Sing Sings prison as a result.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: After all of those griffs and scams, he got life
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: in jail for a hundred and fifty dollar bounced check.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: You know, there are four strikes in baseball at the time,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: so that all makes sense. Okay, now it makes sense.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. Wait a minute, is that true? Wouldn't
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: that be funny if that's how the judicial system worked? Like, Wow,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: what's baseball doing? Right? What's baseball I have to say about?
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Is the three strikes or four? That's what we'll do. Yeah,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: you can steal first I guess. Oh wait, you couldn't
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: steal figures. I think this one ended, uh in just
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: the best way possible. I think it ended about thirty
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: seconds too late. Uh as short stuff is out, everybody.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: favorite shows. H