When a group of Dutch sailors docked near what became Manhattan over four hundred years ago, they could hardly have believed that within just a few hundred years the island would be transformed into the economic, cultural, and industrial capital of the world. How, exactly, did this happen? How did a sleepy port town teeming with natural resources become the vast concrete jungle we know today? Why did New York experience the largest urban population boom in recorded history during the immigrant waves of the 19th century? Why, for that matter, did so many immigrants choose to come to New York in the first place? Why are all the streets so windy downtown? What’s up with the crazy grid system uptown? What was New York like during the Revolutionary War? When it was called New Amsterdam? Before European explorers arrived? How, exactly, did the city we know today come to be?

Believe it or not, the answers to all these questions are visible on the streets of Historic Downtown, the area between Battery Park and City Hall which we’ll be exploring on this tour. Across two hours, I’ll tell the story of how the city came to exist in its current form through the many twists and turns of its history. Through a close examination of Downtown’s architecture, culture, and history, we’ll discover how New York came to be.

Stops include: Battery Park, Bowling Green, Wall Street, New York Stock Exchange, Trinity Church, Canyon of Heroes, Broadway, the Woolworth Building, St. Paul’s Chapel, and much more.

Meeting Point: Bowling Green Park