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New York City on ice \u2014 a tribute to the forgotten industry which kept the city cool in the age before refrigeration and air conditioning.\n\nBelieve it or not, ice used to be big business.\n\nIn 1806 a Boston entrepreneur named Frederic Tudor cut blocks of ice from a pond on his family farm and shipped it to Martinique, a Caribbean county very unfamiliar with frozen water.\xa0He was roundly mocked \u2014 why would people want ice in areas where they can\u2019t store it? \u2014 but the thirst for the frozen luxury soon caught on, especially in southern United States.\n\nNew Yorkers really caught the ice craze in the 1830s thanks to an exceptionally clear lake near Nyack. Within two decades, shops and restaurants regularly ordered ice to serve and preserve foods. And with the invention of the icebox, people could even begin buying it up for home use.\n\nThe ice business was so successful that \u2014 like oil and coal \u2014 it became a monopoly. Charles W. Morse and his American Ice Company controlled most of the ice in the northeast United States by the start of the 20th century.\n\nHe was known as the Ice King. And he had one surprising secret friend \u2014 the Mayor of New York City Robert A. Van Wyck.\n\nPLUS: The 19th century technologies that allowed American to harvest and store ice. The Iceman cometh!\n\nboweryboyshistory.com\n\nSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys