NY City through the centuries...

[BigmanPigman]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/arts/design/manhattan-virtual-tour-virus.html

Millions of years of rock formations, ice ages thicker than the Empore State Bldg, and mountains of discarded oyster shells, NYC has changed in a million ways.

"Then there’s an extensive glacial history — at least seven glaciation events over the last 620,000 years. Then as the climate changed, the glacier retreated and a whole series of giant glacial lakes formed."

"We know from historical records that people caught hundreds and hundreds of fish in a few hours just casting their nets off Ellis Island during the 18th and 19th centuries — before the harbor became polluted and dams were built that closed off streams upriver where the fish had gone to breed."

"The Dutch and the English wanted to expand the island into the rivers, not move uptown, so they sold water lots to people who were then under contract to fill the lots in. They would knock down hills and use that soil or take garbage from the dump. What’s now the land between Water Street and the F.D.R. Drive is all landfill, like much of the west side, which in 1609 was a white sand beach all the way up to 42nd Street."