WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS

[Music] it's two o'clock in the morning in new york city but hunts point market is alive and brimming with action several thousand drivers buyers sellers inspectors and others are working all night through to the early morning hours to bring millions of people tomorrow's supply of fruits and vegetables today discovery visits three of new york's wholesale markets to find out about an exciting world that comes alive while the city sleeps [Music] discovery 70 the award-winning program for young people with virginia gibson hi welcome to discovery today we're inside the first working unit of hunts point terminal market built four years ago this section is the wholesale area for all of new york city's fruits and vegetables its yearly business exceeds two billion dollars when completed the entire hunts point area of the bronx will become the world's largest food center through here in daily succession will come most of the meat poultry fish fruits and vegetables that the 30 million people of new york and its surrounding areas will need to live [Music] [Applause] uh long before the first streak of dawn appears over manhattan thousands of these trucks flow in an endless procession off the bridges and highways that surround hunts point market traveling through the night these giant refrigerated trucks come from farms in every state of the [Music] union [Music] at this hour crates boxes and baskets of produce pile up along the curbs reaching sometimes two stories high the owners of these establishments are called commission merchants because they keep a percentage or commission of the selling price [Music] hunts point is a market of specialization this door handles nothing but tomatoes it may turn over 30 carloads or 150 pounds a day these tomatoes are being assorted according to grade moving on you'll find in this typical fall morning artichokes from california belgian and eve cantaloupes from mexico watermelons from texas pineapples from puerto rico figs from greece and surprisingly these wicker baskets from morocco filled with fresh snails also strawberries cucumbers and many more [Music] until now the northeastern states have provided much of the regular daily fare of fruits and vegetables but with the coming of the first frost the merchants turn almost completely to california into texas the carolinas arizona and selected countries throughout the world this is the domain of the market man a space for the samples to be set out a billing desk cashiers and two-story iron racks inside the shed [Music] at the back of the stall is the freight dock where the uncoupled refrigerated freight cars are diverted from the main railroad line at the rear of the market and unpacked right at the door into this small area of the individual hunts point merchant comes most of the produce to feed the 8 million people of new york city and another 30 million or so in the surrounding areas as the dawn breaks all the day's deliveries have been indexed organized and graded and the business of selling begins 15 peppers and what else 25 peppers right [Applause] most of the buyers arrive at the market by three in the morning these men have known each other for many years and the give and take of their bargaining is obviously a source of excitement and pleasure between now and around seven in the morning buyers walk up and down on the docks inspecting checking grade but mostly comparing prices looking for the best deal [Music] each merchant has access to the latest farm prices and he may be on the phone day and night with his growers but he makes his last minute decision on the basis of a night's movement the price goes up as the amount of each item dwindles and goes down when there's an oversupply by five or 5 30 the buyers have completed their circuit and made their choices and now a new group of truckers arrives to pick up the night sails and deliver them to the city marketplace the process of loading the produce back onto trucks will continue until about 10 in the morning [Music] so in a few hours the freight cars will begin coming into the switch yard and the day-in day-out process of the marketplace begins again [Music] for the merchant hours of work remain and many admit it's not an easy life most businesses are passed down from father to son with an occasional variation of a son-in-law or a nephew but the young people aren't anxious to go into a business where each day they must wake up just as everyone else is going to sleep for all the modernization at hunts point the process of providing fresh produce for millions of people is difficult and demanding but what about the other markets that help feed a huge city well there's one that's devoted exclusively to fish compared to the streamlined operation at hunts point the fulton fish market has done business in much the same way for a hundred and forty years we'll visit this historic link to a city's past and we'll do that in just a minute [Music] we're at pier 17 of the fulton fish market one of the last links to manhattan's great seafaring past it's almost a miracle that the market has survived so long in a city that lives so completely in the present against the background of the east river these old ships in harbor and these more than 100 year-old buildings you can experience waterfront life as it must have been a century ago south street the main street of the fulton fish market was once lined with tall sailing ships that carried the american flag to the four corners of the earth the fulton market was the successor to the old dutch fly market which supplied much of new york's meat and vegetables by 1824 a large part of the market was occupied by fish stalls and by 1847 a full-scale fish market was in operation along the river then as now were the massive sheds that today house the 19 stands of the fulton fishmongers association [Music] across the street from the sheds are another 80 or so specialist and independent fish dealers housed in buildings that were constructed years before the civil war business is done pretty much as it always was except that almost all of the 195 varieties of fish come from canada's great lakes area with contributions from the new england seaports and from the coasts of florida in california [Music] then there are imports from around the world shrimp from many foreign countries lobster tales from brazil alaskan king crab and salmon from the canadian [Music] pacific there is still about 350 dockings a year trawlers and draggers from new england work out of the fulton market between october and april when it becomes too cold further north the fishermen mostly of portuguese descent operate in the time-honored tradition of payment by shares sixty percent divided among the crew with the captain taking one-tenth of the owner's remaining forty percent share over breakfast at myers hotel the fishermen and their market friends discussed the catch the prices and what kind of life the fish business has become today this hotel built in 1873 and remarkably unchanged over the years once had 40 rooms filled with merchants and sea captains a typical night's work at the fish market goes something like this trucks start unloading from about [Music] midnight the market handles about 250 million pounds of fish each year activity continues through the night much in the way it does at hunts point the buyers start arriving at 5 or 5 30 and by dawn the streets are alive with a horse shouting of bargaining and selling fish is sold on old-fashioned hanging the selling code that each merchant uses is an unusual remnant of the past in older days each merchant wished to keep his prices secret from the other so elaborate codes were developed [Applause] [Applause] 582 when a sale is made the code is called out to the cashier who over the din of competing codes never misses his own after a hundred years it is said everyone knows everyone else's code but tradition dies hard at the fulton fish market [Music] the fish dealers a tough and weathered collection of individuals have names like caleb haley r.j cornelius and solomon rubenstein owners and laborers work side by side wear the same white uniforms and heavy boots and use the same tools baling hooks and hatchets which are here called tomahawks as the selling hours end in the early morning the hubbubs subside somewhat as loaders called journeymen put the day sails onto the buyers trucks an unusual quiet pervades by noon a bus full of children tour the market [Music] a few men are washing down the cobblestone streets and hosing the stalls before locking them up in another year or two the date is unsure the fulton fish market will be moved to the hunts point complex some of the owners regret having to leave after nearly 50 years in the fulton fish market but they will join most of the other merchants at their new location and civic groups are acting now to preserve the seafaring character of the area so that the great link to the past can be discovered anew by future generations of americans we'll be back in just a minute if your impression of new york city is that of a drably colored canyon of skyscrapers cut off from the hues of nature then this two-block span of downtown manhattan should come as a pleasant surprise this is the city's wholesale flower market it's an oasis in the middle of the city practically unknown to many of its inhabitants along the streets and in the stores that line 28th street can be found on a year-round basis almost every conceivable kind of flower foliage shrub or plant few of us who live in cities ever get a chance to discover such quantity and variety of flowers in one place right now there are about a hundred different kinds of flowers being sold in one store or another but for each of these there are many different colors and sizes available so all together there are really thousands of different flowers here tonight many of the stores have delicate beautiful orchids a flower so prized it is usually handled and sold alone all the flowers to be found here were grown in greenhouses rather than the backyard variety you may have at home each flower has been carefully bred and picked at just the right [Music] [Applause] moment many of the men here remember earlier days when most of the flowers came from in and around the city and delivery was made by horse and carriage but today the art of raising and selling flowers has become big business most of the sales at the flower market are made by telephone prices are competitive but still they don't fluctuate widely from day to day and most regular customers call in the day before stating their needs those needs are not limited to fresh flowers in this door for instance there's a heavy demand for dried flowers and plants [Music] tropical plant stores such as this one resemble south american jungles and stepping into this warm room from the chill of the early morning you can almost imagine that you hear a parrot talking and monkeys chittering overhead [Music] the last group of wholesalers in the market doesn't deal in real flowers or plants at all but still they have a place here they're the distributors of artificial flowers and displays such as these [Applause] the displays are mostly seasonal with christmas the most popular but it's the fresh flowers that give the market and the city its special fresh spring-like quality all through the year that add a touch of color and brightness to the huge metropolis we'll be back in just a minute [Music] we hope you've enjoyed today's program on the world of the all-night markets if you'd like to find out more about what happens while the city sleeps then ask your librarian for any of these books meet from ranch to table by walter buer night people by c b colby and this book the trucks that haul by night by leonard a stevens be sure to be with us next week for another exciting program as discovery continues to discover the world bye bye [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey [Music] do [Music] this has been a jules power production in association with abc news you