The 10 Year Plan: What do Alexander Hamilton, the Canyon of Heroes and the New York Rangers have in common?

Ticker tape parades along lower Broadway are a great tradition in New York. Since the first parade in 1886 when stock traders dumped ticker tape from windows (supposedly because everyone else had the day off to attend the parade), each parade has snaked north on Broadway and passed Trinity Church and its graveyard. With the construction of skyscrapers along Broadway, the route became known as the Canyon of Heroes. And rightly so. Many great or famous people have been celebrated over the past 120+ years, including the likes of Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart, David Ben-Gurion, Charles de Gaulle, many Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts, Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, plus athletic champions--professionals and Olympians alike (including, of course, the 1993-1994 Cup winners, the Rangers).

York Rangers Ticker Tape Parade, 1994 - Photos - Great New York Ranger ...

The Captain and the Broadway Blueshirts

The parades, the Canyon of Heroes and modern New York City might never have come to pass were it not for the contributions of three Americans in permanent residence in the Trinity Church graveyard. Those Americans are General Horatio Gates, Alexander Hamilton and Colonel Marinus Willett. Each played a critical role in a battle considered to be a turning point in the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Saratoga in upstate New York. Many historians agree that victory there was not assured and, without a decisive victory, the French might never have entered the war on the American side. With the victory at Saratoga in October 1777, the French (yes, the French) began providing much needed military support to the Americans. Four years later, almost to the day, a siege of Yorktown and a French naval blockade left British General Cornwallis with no escape. He surrendered to General Washington's Continental Army. The rest is history.

So, Gates, Hamilton and Willett deserve praise for their role. Of course, it is always easy to overstate the importance of one person's act among the actions and sacrifices of many people or the significance of one event among a long series of events and larger forces at work. Still, Gates, Hamilton and Willett played important roles in the conduct of the war and the formation of an independent nation. So, perhaps it is very fitting that each has a front row seat to see all of the past and future ticker tape parades through the Canyon of Heroes.

Recently, Alexander Hamilton has been receiving renewed attention for his role in our nation's founding. The renewed attention was sparked by two acclaimed biographies (Ron Chernow's biography Alexander Hamilton (2004) and Richard Brookhiser's biography Alexander Hamilton, American (1999)), the Broadway musical Hamilton (a Tony award contender?), and the efforts of the recently formed Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society. Mr. Hamilton's daring, intelligence, leadership and character have become a fresh source of pride and celebration.