In September, 1609, when Henry Hudson sailed up the river that would one day bear his name, the heavily wooded island he gazed upon was home to more than 70 kinds of trees, 200 different plants, 200 species of birds, 32 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 24 species of mammals, including black bears, mountain lions, and beavers. The New York harbor was once famous for its oysters, with the lower Hudson estuary boasting 350 square miles of oyster beds. The island’s topography included 66 miles of fresh water streams and 573 hills. There were so many hills, in fact, that the native inhabitants, the Lenapes, called the island “Mannahatta,” meaning, it is believed, “island of many hills.”
The Mannahatta Project, the brainchild of Dr. Erik W. Sanderson and Markley Boyer, brings Henry Hudson’s island to vivid life. Until September 12, New Yorkers may step back in time by visiting an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York that showcases the project’s work. “Mannahatta/Manhattan: A Natural History of New York,” includes computer generated images that show an island lush with vegetation. The displays are very hands on, allowing viewers to touch computer screens and generate images and information about the island’s flora and fauna.
On Wednesday evening, July 8, Sanderson and Boyer lectured at the museum, explaining to a packed auditorium the genesis of the project and how they managed to recreate Mannahatta. Sanderson said that growing up in Colorado he developed a deep appreciation for landscape geology. Eleven years ago, he moved from California to the city to work at the Bronx Zoo. While he was studying how to save animals who lived in faraway places, he began to think about the environment closer to home. “I would go up to the Empire State Building and look out at the landscape,” he said. Thus began his efforts to learn all he could about the city of New York, how the island might have appeared centuries ago.
“I went through recollections of people from the 19th century who mused nostalgically about fishing in streams,” Sanderson said. He read comments like, “Gee, there used to be a stream on Sixth Avenue and it’s not there anymore.” Sanderson struck gold when he found a British Headquarters Map from 1782. The details from the map were startling and gave Sanderson a wealth of information. Using the Geographic Information System (GSI), the team was able to place one map on top of another in a computer, “like a layer cake,” Sanderson explained.
During Boyer’s presentation, the audience was taken on a virtual reality tour of Mannahatta. “We turned the information into user-friendly pictures that can show you what it used to be like,” he said. The computer simulated images moved an unseen person through the tall grasses, around the trees, and up and down the hills that once defined the island. (The effect was similar to a computer game like The Sims or World of Warcraft).
Boyer was asked how many of the hills that once existed in Manhattan were flattened. “All of them,” he said, more in lower Manhattan. “They took the tops of the hills and pushed them down into valleys and streams,” he said. In northern areas, like in Ft. Washington near the Cloisters, hills still stand.
The Mannhatta Project was not meant to condemn the urban development that transformed the island from wilderness to a densely populated city. Sanderson pointed out that even the Lenapes changed the landscape when they set fires to clear areas for habitation. Rather, the project hopes to shed light on the past and the present, with an eye to planning for the future.
The August issue of National Geographic will have the Mannahatta Project on its cover, something both men pointed to with pride. When an audience member asked when they would turn their attention to the other boroughs, they both laughed, saying they have received calls from other cities, including San Francisco and London, to work their magic for those cities. Right now, however, the Mannahatta Project stands alone.
You can enjoy, “Mannahatta/Manhattan: A Natural History of New York City” through October 12 at the Museum of the City of New York, Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street; (212) 534-1672, mcny.org. Sanderson’s two walking tours on July 16 and 18, “The Streams of Midtown,” are sold out, but two more times will be scheduled in September. There’s still room for the two family programs at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on August 1, “Weaving a Mannahatta Muir Web,” to learn about native species.
