The Natural Geography of the City: An Atlas and Gazetteer

A grand historical atlas of the region that would become New York City—its natural features, inhabitants, geography, flora, and fauna—from before Henry Hudson’s arrival in 1609 up to the present day

Open the pages of this book and witness the dawn and evolution of New York City. In Before New York, Eric W. Sanderson invites readers on a breathtaking journey through the woods and wetlands that once flourished where skyscrapers now stand. With the keen eye of a landscape ecologist and the storytelling power of a bestselling historian, Sanderson reconstructs the natural geography of the city as it was in September 1609, just before Henry Hudson’s arrival. Imagine what Hudson might have seen, what the Lenape sachems cherished, and what nature itself revealed—long before the arrival of concrete and steel.

This monumental work is the culmination of more than 25 years of research, featuring 75 original maps, 200 color illustrations, and nearly 4,000 detailed descriptions of streams, wetlands, rocks, plants, animals, and Indigenous settlements. An epic expansion of Sanderson’s bestselling and critically acclaimed book Mannahatta, this atlas and gazetteer brings to life the lost world of Welikia, the land we now describe as the five boroughs of New York City, revealing what has vanished, what survives, and what could be restored with vision and care.

Before New York is a book for dreamers and city builders, poets and artists, students and teachers, Indigenous people and allies, historians, geographers, engineers, urban planners, botanists, zoologists, and ecologists—and for anyone who has ever walked a New York City street and wondered: What was here before?