How to find the history of how Gansevoort Street in New York City was named.

Dear irat,

Today's Gansevoort Street in New York City follows roughly an old
Indian trail along the Hudson River. Its original name was "Old Kill
Road", "Great Kill Road" and later "Great Kills Road", but these names
had nothing to do with murders or battles on that site. In fact, these
were corrupted forms of "kiln", since a large kiln was located
alongside the road.

Great Kills Road received its new name "Gansevoort Road" in 1837. It
was named after Fort Gansevoort at the foot of the street, a fortress
built between 1808 and 1812. The fort itself was named for Peter
Gansevoort (1749-1812), a New York General from the Revolutionary War.

Fort Gansevoort was demolished between 1849 and 1854, but the street
kept the name until today. By the way: "Gansevoort" is Dutch and
means, translated literally, "geese ford".

In case you would like to learn more about General Peter Gansevoort,
please follow this link to a short biography:
Peter Gansevoort (1749-1812), by Gregory F. Ketcham, 1998
http://www.nyhistory.net/~drums/gansevoort.htm

Here, you can find out more about streets in New York's Greenwich
Village which have changed their names:
Forgotten NY: The Street Necrology of Greenwich Village, by Kevin
Walsh, 2002
http://www.forgotten-ny.com/streetnecrology/greenwich/greenw.html

Please click here to find out in detail about the history of
Gansevoort Street and nearby Gansevoort Market:
Save Gansevoort Market: A Walking Tour, by the Greenwich Village
Society for Historic Preservation, 2001
http://www.savegansevoortmarket.org/Walking_Tour.pdf (Acrobat Reader
file)

Visit this website to learn about the history of forts in New York,
among them Fort Gansevoort:
New York's Forts: E to L, by the New York State Division of Military
and Naval Affairs, Col. Michael J. Stenzel, 2001
http://www.dmna.state.ny.us/forts/forts2.html

Search terms used:
"gansevoort street" "forgotten ny":
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22gansevoort+street%22+%22forgotten+ny%22&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=
"Gansevoort street" renamed "great kill":
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22Gansevoort+street%22+renamed+%22great+kill%22&meta=
"Fort Gansevoort":
http://images.google.de/images?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22Fort+Gansevoort%22&sa=N&tab=wi&meta=

Hope this is what you were looking for!
Regards,
Scriptor

I think the voort in Gansevoort is not Ford 
Voort or 'voorde'usualy means :
A place where the river is so shallow that you can walk through

Dear neefeef,

That's exactly what I meant. According to my dictionary, a ford *is* a
shallow place in a river ...

Have a nice day!