The Mannahatta Project

[Mikey]

OK, I might be in the minority here, but I thought this was cool. A landscape ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Fund began this project after matching up landmarks from modern Manhattan with the British Headquarters map of 1782. He then further modeled - with the use of Muir ecological impact webs - what the landscape, flora, and fauna of Manhattan (Mannahatta to the native Lenape) would have looked like.

On the site, you can enter a location to see an aerial view; the slide at teh bottom adjusts the transparency of the overlay of the modern topography over the 1609 view. Click on the location on the mapscreen, and it will bring up a window with the likely wildlife to be found there, the natural impact on the Lenape population, and the topography/geology/hydrology.

The Mannahatta Project

[Aaron]

No, that is very cool. I'd love to see this done with Vancouver.

[Sionnach Glic]

Very cool. Good find, Mikey.

[Lazar]

Damn, that is cool! In the case of Boston, a lot of the city was underwater.

[Mikey]

In this case, too, if you set the overlay to middle transparency you can see where the shorelines have been extended by piers, etc.

[sunnyside]

My Nork In laws will love this.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

No, Mikey. You're not in the minority. That is quite cool.