Comments
ClamatoDiver t1_j4q820c wrote
A few years back there was major signal work done on the Dyre Ave line north of E180th.
There was a constant flow of water in some sections that was only found after digging and they couldn't locate the source.
I had seen some old maps before because I liked looking up the history of the area, I happen to live in that section. I did more searches and found one that had old streams and sure enough there were several that used to cut across where the tracks are now.
Old streams don't go away when you build up the land, they just flow deeper.
This isn't the same map, but this shows the streams north of the R in Westchester
GoGaslightYerself t1_j4q8hdg wrote
I also always heard that the skyline of NYC echoed the bedrock below -- with tall buildings built where the bedrock was near the surface, and shorter buildings built where the bedrock was deeper and harder to access without caissons -- but more recently I've read that this is a myth that is largely untrue...
ClamatoDiver t1_j4qcc97 wrote
I'm unaware of that, but I've been fortunate enough to have touched the bare bedrock that was there before the section of the Second Ave line north of 63rd and Lex was finished.
That's listed as 155 ft deep.
GoGaslightYerself t1_j4qrqzh wrote
Lots of old history on the island. It's wild to imagine there once being farmland on Manhattan!
https://www.businessinsider.com/manhattan-nyc-farmland-photos-2017-6?op=1
So much has changed...my grandfather had his office in Manhattan, and my Dad said that when he was a kid, he used to take his 22 rifle with him on city buses to get from his home in north Jersey to a shooting range in Manhattan, and he said nobody really batted an eye ... can you imagine that happening today?
Ok-Adhesiveness1000 t1_j4prfwa wrote
"Conyni Eylant"
But no Jamaica Bay somehow
ghostcuczilla t1_j4px05w wrote
It's old spelling for, I think, Konijnen eiland. Bunny Island
Ok-Adhesiveness1000 t1_j4pxuxb wrote
Yep. Coney Island
Lakonislate t1_j4qq1w6 wrote
Just FYI, the Wikipedia article links to Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes' "The Iconography of Manhattan Island," an amazing resource with lots of old maps. Available to download as pdf as well, from Columbia University. There are 6 volumes, Wikipedia links to one of them.
Pherllerp t1_j4rlsgx wrote
Fun Fact: Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes and his wife were painted by John Singer Sargent and their portrait now hangs in the Met.
Lakonislate t1_j4srklr wrote
The Great Dane had a scheduling conflict, so Isaac "offered to assume the role of the Great Dane in the picture" :)
Edith also posed for statues.
That's the second version, now in Jackson Park Chicago. The first one was 65 feet high
Pherllerp t1_j4sxq9n wrote
That picture has a great story.
wil540_ OP t1_j4qqbcp wrote
Very interesting. Never heard of this book, it has a Wikipedia article itself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iconography_of_Manhattan_Island
AnthillOmbudsman t1_j4reong wrote
It's kind of mind boggling trying to picture what Manhattan Island must have been like in the 1700s. This rendering is food for thought.
snow_michael t1_j4q7ncd wrote
This was a plot device in Elementary
nixplix t1_j4stpk4 wrote
That would make some of us Manhattoe-nites. Nice.
GoGaslightYerself t1_j4q30ec wrote
Municipal engineers still use the old maps of NYC to locate water-main breaks, etc., since an underground water-main break in one location will often follow old stream beds and then come up above-ground somewhere else...this helps them locate the broken pipe by following the old stream bed back uphill/upstream...