When Manhattan was wild: How did your 'hood look 400 years ago?

[Harry 1,088]

It’s certainly where the wild things were: Exactly 400 years ago, when Henry Hudson first sailed into Manhattan on a September afternoon in 1609, black bears roamed blueberry bogs in Central Park, wolves howled atop hills in midtown, and fish swam in glittering streams that snaked their way through the Financial District.

 

The first locals, the Lenape, the Native American tribe who originally named the island “Mannahatta” for “land of many hills,” lived in one-bedroom wigwams on the upper East Side, traveled by canoe up what are now avenues, and built fires along the sandy beaches by Little West 12th St. and the Hudson River.

 

The city back then was a natural wonder, but it’s long gone unseen. That’s because uncovering New York’s past was near impossible: It took a scientist 10 years of his life to unravel the mystery.

 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/real_estate/2009/10/02/2009-10-02_when_manhattan_was_wild_how_did_your_hood_look_400_years_ago.html#ixzz0SmqCg1ZB

[Y2Julio 206]

A good portion of NYC is land fill from when the Subway was built.:tup:

[LRG 217]

A good portion of NYC is land fill from when the Subway was built.:tup:

 

How true. The World Trade Center sat atop of landfill. Doesn't the smell still protrude through the ground?

[Joe 781]

How true. The World Trade Center sat atop of landfill.

 

You sure about that?

[Y2Julio 206]

How true. The World Trade Center sat atop of landfill. Doesn't the smell still protrude through the ground?

 

Not land fill as in a garbage land fill but using land (dirt, rocks, sand) to fill areas like they did do connect Coney Island to Brooklyn and on the WTC.

[Myrtle Local 0]

There was a great show on the History channel called "How the Earth Was Made" and the episode was all about how NY was formed just like what this article is talking about. One of the most interesting things that I never knew was that Staten Island and Brooklyn were connected until all the ice from the ice age melted. They said the force of all the water coming down the Hudson just broke away all that land. They replay it alot (or they used to) if anyone has never seen

[metsfan 2]

My town was all dense mixed soft and hardwood forrest.

 

- A

[Grand Concourse 2,690]

There was a great show on the History channel called "How the Earth Was Made" and the episode was all about how NY was formed just like what this article is talking about. One of the most interesting things that I never knew was that Staten Island and Brooklyn were connected until all the ice from the ice age melted. They said the force of all the water coming down the Hudson just broke away all that land. They replay it alot (or they used to) if anyone has never seen

 

It was a great episode, same goes for that 2hr Super City: New York show.

[lilbluefoxie 820]

Be it trees or large buildings its still a jungle out there in many places

[EE Broadway Local 18]

New Amsterdam was very small four hundred years ago and the area that became Morrisania likely wasn't too populated then. It likely had a very different look.