The Outlaws Who Built NYC Walking Tour

In the crisp autumn air, our tours feel especially immersive, timed perfectly for the Halloween season when New York’s history seems at its darkest.

Scandal. Subterfuge. Street-level rebellion. The real architects of New York City weren’t saints. They were schemers.

If you think NYC was built by polite handshakes and zoning meetings, think again. This tour throws you straight into the alleyways of history with the outlaws, hustlers, and political schemers who actually built the bones of the city, one bribe, brawl, and backroom deal at a time.

Forget the gangland clichés. This walking tour uncovers the radical, corrupt, and wildly enterprising figures who shaped New York City, from pirate captains and Wall Street bombers to bank fraudsters, rogue publishers, and NYPD whistleblowers. It’s a crash course in how NYC was built not just by power and politics, but by those who bent the rules, challenged authority, and sometimes blew things up!