Viele’s Map of Manhattan
For a so-called “remaindered link,” this is an impressive post: Jason Kottke began by linking to a story in today’s New York Times about Egbert Viele’s 1874 map of Manhattan — still used today by civil engineers because it shows the original shoreline and underground waterways. He also linked to this listing (you can buy a print for a mere $1,600) and the entry on David Rumsey’s eponymous site. But he didn’t stop there, oh no: he stitched together a massive (9859×3115, 8.6 MB) image of the map, and then put out a zoomable flash version. A lot of effort for a link — but it’s quite the map, don’t you think?
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The Map Room is a blog about maps by 
Tim Bean:
Viele’s is one of many astounding maps made of early Manhattan, the crown jewel being the British Headquarters map from 1782 (as shown in Cohen+Augustyn’s “Manhattan in Maps”), and also John Randel Jr.’s Farm Maps (a block by block map of the city in the 1810’s). I’m working on a project at the Wildlife Conservation Society to create a digital reconstruction of Manhattan on the day Henry Hudson sailed up the Hudson River. You can see more about it here.
By using a combination of GIS techniques, we’re currently working to get an accurate DEM of the original Manhattan topography, which will one day drive a complete ecosystem model.
June 14, 2006 at 3:12 PM
Richard Sandhaus:
Jason Kottke’s zoomified Viele map is terrific, indeed. My firm, DiscoveryEditions.com, is the one selling the amazing print for a mere $1600. We’ve been amazed by the interest in this map, so we’re delighted to post for download by fellow Map Room fans an 11.7MB image file for those who want to explore offline without doing the stitch job. (FYI, the file we print from exceeds 2GB.)The image will remain available until 10 AM on June 16, 2006. Go to: www.DiscoveryEditions.com/media. Login = 061506Viele; Password=discoveryeditions. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
June 15, 2006 at 6:07 PM