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NEW YORKERS like the big picture. When they look at the city, they see its skyscrapers and bridges, its trendy stores and busy avenues, its dazzling steel towers and smooth glass facades.
But a stroll down practically any residential street - especially in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn - reveals a wealth of decorative details. On doors, windows, railings and lampposts, remnants of the city's past can be found in the curving, flowing forms of wrought iron.
Some of the work is fanciful, with curlicues and elaborate floral motifs; some is starkly linear, with thin spikes pointing skyward. If these metallic accents are on a somewhat smaller scale than we are accustomed to noticing, they are also one of the most manageable, human aspects of New York architecture.
Wrought iron is formed by hammering rods of hot iron over an anvil and bending or twisting them into different shapes. (It differs from cast iron, which is manufactured by pouring molten iron into a mold.)
Though the forging of wrought iron dates back to ancient times (remember the myth of Vulcan making weapons for the Roman gods), it did not become popular in New York City until the mid-19th Century. At that time, wrought iron was used to embellish the facades of brownstones and tenement buildings and to lend a harmony and order to the grid-like streets. Through the years, it was crafted to fit the various architectural revival styles that were in vogue in the city - Federal, Greek, Romanesque and Queen Anne.
Examples of these genres can be found all over the city. On the...