I'd go back even further and spend a day as the only human on earth. The biodiversity would be mind boggling. Not one piece of litter, every natural rescource untouched, truely the most beautiful planet in existence.
So many frogs. They keep you up at night. How is that swamp and pond across the street now City Hall? But that's Manhattan for you, if you wanted less wildlife you would've stayed in Amsterdam.
@@innovatecoin9990 look at the sky in the time stamp. It's still pixelated images, you jsut can't notice that very well because of the size and compression
Would be interesting to post some signs around NYC showing pictures of what the area looked like 500 years ago. A few select.locations and intersections around the city. People would find it very interesting. Could generate some buzz and help promote more environmental consciousness (ie. recycling) which is lacking in the city.
Texas Guy that sure beats the internet. Count me in if you wanna jump in a hot tub and see what happens. And don’t go getting any funny ideas, I do not believe in time travel.
And the Dutch say that about every natural harbour. For 150 years every Dutch captains log book was half filled with joyous exclamations upon each new and weirdly, each already known natural harbour. Most every Dutch sailor learned to write or paid a shipmate so he could bore to teens loved ones with excited news of the latest natural harbour they came upon. In Dutch homes it would take well into the 19th century before people stopped letting mail pile to overflowing in the mailbox until the day before their loved one was due back when they would spend a mad 24 hours reading them all. People always ask, in times of such slow communication and unreliable schedules to say the least, how could anyone know within 24 hours when their loved ones came back. Truth is after hundreds of letters with no money but multiple pages on natural harbour they didn’t much care.
Amerigo Vespucci said the same and he predated the arrival of the Dutch by several decades. Vespucci also admired the beauty and fertility of the land and wrote respectfully of the Lenape people living there. How different Vespucci was from the horrible and cruel Columbus. I am Italian -> ever since I read a well-researched and thorough biography of Columbus I have been horrified and deeply ashamed that he is so honored in America. 😞He does not deserve any honor! He was a buffoon; thought he reached India!!
Growing up in the 60s and 70s in southeastern Queens, my friends and I played often in the salt marshes near JFK airport. For miles , nothing but swamp and tidal creeks. We explored much of it on foot and by canoe. And the Manhattan skyline was just a few miles away.
@@wolfpak8228 As a real car guy.i take the bike to the center of a city. I wil see you turning rounds in the center,to find a parking place. While i am ready,and drinking a coffee on a terras.
Ford and GM ruined the American city by congesting them with smelly, dangerous cars, removed public transit, and created the abomination that is the modern suburb.
There already exists a map of the natural topography of all Manhattan called the Viele map of 1865. It also included all the changes to the land made since Europeans first set foot on Manhattan island. It is still used by builders today. Also, lower Manhattan was primarily used as a summer hunting ground for the Leni Lenape. There permanent settlement was up in Inwood, where there are many protective caves.
I've always been in awe of the idea of what the US looked like before European settlers. How otherworldly it must have felt. For example in the state of Indiana...the climate used to be similar to Canada. The entire state was covered by a glacier for thousands of years which then melted away into a huge forest expanding the entire midwest full of evergreens and deciduous trees. Moose, wolves, bears, elk, deer, mountain lions, etc etc used to roam freely and in abundance. Trees 400-500 years old were commonplace. It was almost completely wiped out of trees by the 1800's. The wildlife was driven out and had to be slowly introduced back. Its a sad reality
I always thought that cool 50/50 split of present Manhattan and natural manhattan was just a clever photoshop of a generic tree line composited onto present day. Awesome to learn how much effort and passion actually went into this whole project to truly discover the island as it was.
Whenever I walk around the city, it’s always a trip to think that centuries ago it looked nothing like this and that everything I see had to be built over the years. Especially walking around lower Manhattan because I know the street pattern is basically as old as the city itself so these streets have basically seen the entire growth of the city from when it was a village with dirt trails to how it is now
Its funny you say that because I do the same when I visit the city (in this case boston), but I feel like those who live in the city don't really think of it because for them everything there is just part of their day-to-day commutes or whatever else. You kind of have to take a step back to appreciate it.
For everyone saying, “NYC sucks, cities suck, humans suck,” just keep in mind that without the creation of permanent settlements we wouldn’t have the modern conveniences that we enjoy, such as indoor heating/cooling, plumbing and electricity. Just saying.🤷🏻♂️
Permanent settlements resulted from agriculture. Before then, a hunting-gathering society shared their resources in order to survive. Agriculture allowed division of labor which resulted in the first unequal division of resources. Now we have 500 billionaires and 500,000 homeless people, but the life of the average person is more "convenient". I'm hoping we figure out a way to evolve society to something that's a little more logical.
I don't know how any nature loving human being could live in NYC or any city like it for that matter. Central Park is not enough. I'll take living on the shores of Lake Michigan as I do now. Nature is healing, replenishing and calming.
This is fascinating. Reminds me of a school trip they took us to Inwood Park at the top of Manhattan, the last wild area never developed. They showed us caves where the Indians lived, listed all the animals that once lived here. Just amazing i never thought of my city like that
Important work, and wonderful presentation. This affords New Yorkers more of a 'sense of place' than that available to any other non-Indigenous inhabitants of North or South America.
I live 90 miles north of NYC... I despise this city... I have visited it about 10 times in my life... and never really enjoyed it... but this video makes me wish I could go back in time and explore this when it was natural. Great video and talk!
Brent Ten FIRST comment I’ve found with an opinion other than, “We should destroy NYC,” or, “Eh, nature’s dumb anyway.” Btw, I wholeheartedly agree with you.
Let me help you imagine: I work in Tokyo. I ride my bicycle (or jump on a bus if it's raining) to the train station. I park my bike in an efficient, city-sponsored underground garage right next to the station. It costs 100 yen (90 cents) a day and is free on Sundays and holidays. On my days off, it's not unusually for me to ride my bicycle 30 or 40 minutes to my desired destination. A favorite route is along a river bike path. I've never owned a car. It's possible - and fun.
I live in Sacramento, California. For the past year and a half, I've ridden to college which is about a 20 minute ride on a bicycle. For me the problem though is that often here in Sacramento it reaches 100 degrees fahrenheit and is even more often up in the 90s for a good half of the year which makes riding a bicycle not only uncomfortable but actually unhealthy. I would love to ride my bike year round but for 5 or 6 months it's just too hot.
KEKO Production makes a obvious joke, Free Dom calls him an idiot even though he IS the idiot. Then Alexbleks calls Americans stupid when he acting dumber than Americans. I love RU-vid. haha
I seen a documentary a long time ago..a native tribe story..and it said that today's Broadway street is the exact trail that the tribe would use to go get fresh water and fish..from the river and the coast.so yea it's crazy how it is..
Sabrina Dugan By "turned it into a crap hole" I think maybe you mean "built it into one of the affluent and important cities in human history." There's still plenty of nature upstate if that's what you're into
Sabrina Dugan you wanted to move to Chicago area, who are very grassy and weed of grass with concrete, who are filled with poverty with poor people and not renovate buildings? I’m Confused
Where I live, all new high risers have to be green buildings. The entire skins of these buildings are solar collectors, they treat their own waste & reuse water for cooling & heating. These buildings are giant solar collectors which put all unused energy collected back into the electric grid. Using a panoply of renewable energy sources, wind, solar, algae, hydrogen fuels could virtually eliminate the impact of the internal combustion engine & greatly lessen the need for polluting energy plants
GoonOnFire - So let me in on the joke. They both went to somewhere far away but not to somewhere close by their home. I don't see what's so funny about that.
New York was not called after the city of York, but after the Duke of York. I live in Old Amsterdam and I have been several times to New Amsterdam. Love them both!
It would be super-cool to restore some of these amazing natural habitats in NYC wherever possible. Some of these habitats are much easier than others to put back.
Him: I didnt grow up in New York, I grew up out west in the Sierra Nevada mountains like you see here: *shows pixelated mess Me: Wow, what a gorgeous place
actually most of the world has been intervened in one way or another by humans (roads/rail/plastic pollution/fertilized runoff/mining/deforestation/agriculture/settlements)
Manhattan comes from the Munsi language of the Lenni Lenape meaning island of many hills. a lot of the rolling hills were flattened but in some areas you will notice as you walk down the street you go up for a few blocks and then down hill for a few blocks.
Guess why the courthouse are on the site of the collect pond. Well, it became a wetland... Which became a low point when drained, prone to disease and mosquitoes... So it turned into a slum, the notorious Five Points. So of course the authorities tore the slum down and built public works. Today's courthouses.
Do you mean the Old New York County Courthouse that was built at 52 Chamber Street when notoriously corrupt William ("Boss") Tweed was mayor of New York City? The construction of that courthouse cost the taxpayers 300 million $, which is the equivalent of 7 billion $ in today's currency.
Eric Anderson talked about pictures New York's natural history. I was interested in New York , so I was impressed to listen to this lecture. He said “we need a future that has the same diversity and abundance and dynamism of Manhattan.” Someday, I eager to visit New York!
I didn't hear "build new cities". It sounded more like rebuild existing cities. Cities are constantly being rebuilt. They could be much more efficient and ecological with a little long-term vision.
Watching this, actually makes me sad, this place could have been a really incredable National Park if they didn't build New York City there and built it else where.
And then that ”elsewhere” would ”destroy” the nature in the same way. With that logic, mankind has to erase it self from the face of the earth...which make no sense at all.
Ahh... Did you know that particular areas were inhabited due to deep water ports and access to the seas . I know that sounds like some evil “ white Patriarchy “ agenda , and all . But that’s how civilization was created , that how your cellphone and you’re over priced fancy coffee shops made it into existence . Isn’t that fascinating .
All for it here, although some form of mass transit for both people and product needs to be a part of this. There are a lot of systems that need to work in concert with natural ones, but the sentiment is on target.
Not so. Suburban sprawl is the most wasteful of human configurations. Cities are far more energy efficient than suburbs or exurbs but suburbs are more the culprit because of their large populations. Large populations of people heating individual homes for a only a few people & traveling everywhere using individual transportation leave a much bigger carbon footprint. They don't have to live in mega-cities but small, more dense communities of people would save much more energy.
I can't believe it. In one city block, there could've been 100 trees, thousands of animals and insects, millions of succulents and flowers, and a large group of Native American Indians all in that one section.
CB3474 I think what you can’t believe is the monumental destruction of the eco-system by mankind within several hundred years. Do you also fail to conceive of climate change?
It's the suburbs where few ppl live and displace and destroy both flora and fauna that are destroying the environment. Cities concentrate people leaving much more open land to cultivate or grow wild.
@@inkyguy nah. its the cities. Lol funny how the rich urban fucks tturn up their noses at rural people and "suburbia" "its not us its THEM!" The area of New York was an ecological goldmine. now its just one giant mass of concrete, glass, plastic, rubber and money.
@@inkyguy and you forget the suburbs of today are just the "urban" areas of tomorrow, just lile the urban areas of today were the "suburbs" of the past.
Great insight but I wished for a link to your website Mr. Anderson, which you mentioned toward the end. I would like to see your overlay maps as discussed. I only see TED links.
Whenever I'm unfortunate enough to be in a city, any city, a line Clint Eastwood came out with in a film while looking over San Francisco or New York (not sure which), always now springs to mind, it went something like this...."Must have been truly beautiful before man came along and loused it all up!"
put the cap on the CBE ! use new land from cap project to build affordable housing. put a cap on RR tracks, park ave line - bronx, 132 st -190 st. use land for affordable housing. build on the long island sound " A florida keys style overseas highway " . this will relieve the CBE
You "forgot" the real reason New York even excists. The Dutch "founded" New Amsterdam. Even today Dutch names are shattered over New York. The list is to long to show here. WHY do you ignore this most important fact about "pre-city ecology"???
Not if the Dutch would come along and save their former colony trough engeneering. Holland used to be sea, now we practically live on the sea-bed and we still haven't drowned. Adapting to rising sea-levels is not at all too difficult for a 1st world country.
Holland is about a few metres below sea level and they still manage to have most of its land plus the country is not drowning under water. Human engineering saves lives lives and cities. Don't underestimate what New York can do.
For me, is very interesting but my question is: In what place is ubicated when existing the "Pangea"? It's a part of "Triangle of Bermudas" or It's a part from "Huerto Del Edén"?
In the book “Five Points,” it tells you that The Collect was a beautiful lake, that people would go there to relax. Then, they built tanneries and all kinds of production and slaughter houses. The Collect became so toxic, from all the dumping, it became “a putrid nuisance.” By 1802, The Common Council ordered The Collect filled with rock and soil from the then “Bunker Hill.” By 1813, The Collect was filled in and Bunker Hill was gone.
