"Downfall of Water Street" is an American "Straight" Jig in 2/4 time and A Major. The parts are played AB. A straight jig is a syncopated duple-time dance tune, derived from banjo playing and meant to accompany dances akin to a soft shoe, clog or step dancing, precursors to tap dancing. This dance type is also known as a "sand" jig (because it was performed on a sanded stage floor). There are Water Streets in both New York and Boston, cities in which contributors to the Ryan collection resided. The tune was first published in Elias Howe's Musician's Omnibus Nos. 6 & 7 (1880-1882), and just a year or two later it was printed by William Bradbury Ryan, an employee of the Howe firm, in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883). Contrary to some assumptions that Ryan got the majority of his material from the previous forty years of the Howe catalogue, the version of "Downfall of Water Street" that Ryan printed is not only not identical to Howe's but likely records the unique arrangement of a skilled fiddler. Ryan's version uses 1/16 and 1/32 notes. I have presented it using 1/8 and 1/16 notes to make the melody easier to follow. It was printed in Cole's 1000 Fiddle Tunes (1940), Elias Howe's Musician’s Omnibus Nos. 6 & 7 (1880-1882) and Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883).