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MAP: See What Manhattan Looked Like in 1609

By Savannah Cox | September 29, 2015 1:27pm | Updated on September 30, 2015 9:50am
 This map overlays 1609 Manhattan with today's island, here zooming in on the East Village and Stuy Town.
This map overlays 1609 Manhattan with today's island, here zooming in on the East Village and Stuy Town.
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The Welikia Project

If a particularly terrible commute has got you longing for the days when New York City had more pine trees than people, the Welikia Project will help you envision that former reality.

Utilizing satellite and historical maps, GPS and mounds of data, the Welikia Project — which was formerly called the Mannahatta Project and is spearheaded by Wildlife Conservation Society ecologist Eric Sanderson — painstakingly recreates Manhattan's 17th century ecology, and offers its findings in one incredibly detailed and interactive map.

Upon visiting the project's new website, users can take advantage of an address and landmark search feature to see a specific Manhattan space circa 1609, such as the Empire State Building, which according to Welikia's research was likely inhabited by deer mice, sharp-shinned hawks and red maples early in the 17th century.

map

Alternatively, users can simply click through Manhattan's blocks and learn more about the wildlife and landscape that likely composed the area in 1609, as well as how the space has changed over time.

In addition to supplying users with information on 17th century Manhattan's natural features, when a site visitor selects a block, Welikia provides figures on the space's likely historical use by the Lenape, the people who lived in Manhattan before Europeans arrived.

It is actually from this indigenous population that Welikia gets its name, which in Lenape means "my good home."

At present, Welikia covers Manhattan alone, but will eventually cover all of the city's boroughs, according to Curbed.

If you don't have enough time to scour the site yourself, you can check out Welikia's rendering of Times Square compared to the present below:

Times Square