In a message dated 5/12/2006 2:28:01 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
[log in to unmask] writes:
What I find most aggravating is the fact that many real players in the 
construction of the original canal (i.e. Canvass White, Andrew Bartow) exist side by 
side with other characters that Chalmers seems to have created.
Jack Finney's famous "Time and Again" states that the Dakota apartment house 
was built in "1882".   It is well known that the Dakota was completed in 1884 
- a fact not even mangled by the most careless walking tour guides.  

But after mentioning in print the Dakota (a building on which I have spent 
three decades of research) in an article, I frequently receive "helpful" 
correspondance from those who point out my "error" of dating it to 1884, when "in 
fact" it's 1882, "because it's in 'Time & Again'".

I once asked Mr. Finney why he used 1882 and he said he had just "heard it".

Christopher Gray
Office for Metropolitan History
246 West 80th Street, #8, NYC  10024
212-799-0520  fax -0542

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www.MetroHistory.com