What started out as Native American land first began to develop into the city we know today when the Dutch East India company constructed the fort of New Amsterdam at the tip of Manhattan. The original battery at Fort Amsterdam is now Battery Park. In the 1660’s, Peter Stuyvesant surrendered it to the English and it was promptly renamed New York. In the early 1800s the city’s population exploded, and it began to change drastically. Just a few landmarks have remained the same.
This video is displayed at the new One World Trade Center.
City Hall itself was originally built in 1811. Interestingly enough, it is almost indistinguishable today from its appearance 200 years ago. Some things never change…
Painting of New York City Hall, 1811.
New York City Hall as it appears today.
Much the same goes for Trinity Church – historic landmarks are slow to change. The only thing that changed were its surroundings – gravestones surrounded it and skyscrapers rose up around it.
Trinity Church in 1846.
Trinity Church in 2008.
Of course, not everything is recognizable today, to say the least. Compare 1800’s Flushing with Flushing now.
Same place, two hundred years apart.
Did I mention Canal Street used to actually be a canal?
Canal Street, 1811.
Wow.
