Dave Goldberg

Washington Heights

The pale/bucket that De Witt Clinton used to pour water from Lake Erie into New York Harbor upon completion of the Erie Canal. (You can see it as slide 6 in this NYTimes slideshow: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/01/03/nyregion/CUOMO-6.html)

This object nicely encapsulates the moment when the City of New York became the gateway to the rest of the country, solidifying New York's status as the Empire State.