
The Indicator NPR hide caption
The Map That Made Manhattan

The Indicator NPR hide caption

Manhattan was once a bucolic island of rolling hills, swamps, beavers and bears. Today, the city is an almost-completely-flat grid.
This was no organic evolution: in the early 19th century, a radical new map was proposed to completely transform the island. The idea was to make Manhattan an efficient, global center of commerce. And it worked! But the price was high.
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