I live here in NYC [[part-time) and you are simply wrong. NYC was NEVER a mighty industrial center.
I never said NYC had NO industry; obviously every place on earth has industry. There is industry off Telegraph in Bloomfield Township, would you then say Bloomfield is an industrial center?
The Brooklyn Navy Yard was only a huge shipbuilding center during WWII wartime production, and then immedately shut down afterwards. Prior to that, it had not been a shipbuilding center for over a century.
Camden Yards is in Baltimore, so I don't know what you're referring to.
Soho was made up of factories at one time, but never heavy-industry. It was primarily small-scale manufacturing and garment industry uses.
Very few refineries existed within city limits [[in Staten Island). There were [[and are) more refineries in NJ, though. And if one looks at the metropolitan area as a whole, then NJ certainly had its share of industry. However, relative to the other cities under discussion, NYC was never remotely as tied to industry, heavy or otherwise.
During peak manufaturing decades, NYC had roughly half the proportion of workforce employed in industry as in Chicago. NYC was always more white-collar and trade/commerce oriented than production-oriented.
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