History and the City

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A city is an open history book. Demolition and construction may largely erase a city's early history, but all great cities retain traces of their origins, even as they constantly draft new chapters atop the old.

This is as true of New York City as it is of any great urban agglomeration. The slender island of Manhattan, crowded with skyscrapers and bustling with commerce, retains vivid remnants of its history—not only in isolated historic buildings but in the very fabric of the city itself.

Historical maps of Manhattan offer a series of vivid glimpses of the evolution of America's densest and most famous urban center. We're fortunate that enthusiasts have manipulated images of historical maps, adjusted them to align with modern maps, and uploaded them to share with the world. These geo-referenced maps enable direct comparisons that spotlight the city's evolution.

We've made an informal exploration of New York's past using a handful of historical maps. A far more thorough examination of Manhattan's deeper history—reaching back to the time before Europeans arrived—has been a long-term project undertaken by Eric Sanderson of the Wildlife Conservation Society. His Mannahatta project digitally recreated Manhattan as a natural landscape, revealing that the island was richly varied in its habitats and species diversity.

Click the icons at upper right (below) to explore the historical maps of New York City.

Learn a little about the making of this story map in my blog post:

Here are three additional ArcGIS StoryMaps on historical themes.