How Hurricane Sandy flooded New York back to its 17th century shape as it inundated 400 years of reclaimed land

When Hurricane Sandy raged through the Tri-state area last fall, overwhelming Lower Manhattan with floodwaters, the storm-surge areas corresponded to land reclaimed since the 17th century.

The landscape of Lower Manhattan was originally much narrower than it is today. The curve of Pearl Street, which is named for the pearly shells found on the shore at the time, marked the island's eastern waterfront, while Greenwich Street bordered the Hudson River to the west.

A series of land reclamations, the first of which took place in 1646 under Peter Stuyvesant, who took over as the governor of New Amsterdam colony at the time, expanded the island between one and four blocks on each side.



New Amsterdam revisited: When Hurricane Sandy overwhelmed Lower Manhattan with floodwaters last fall, the storm-surge areas corresponded to land reclaimed from the ocean since the 17th century

Growing city: Around the time of the American Revolution, the city began selling 'water lots,' allowing entrepreneurs to use landfill to create more usable land, so by 1847, Lower Manhattan was considerably wider than a century prior

It was not until the 20th century, however, that Lower Manhattan's geography underwent a dramatic transformation.

In 1934, construction began on the East River Drive (known now as the FDR Drive), expanding Manhattan to the east. Running 9.5 miles from Lower Manhattan's Battery to the Triborough Bridge, the highway is built on a combination of landfill and pile-supported relieving platforms, according to the site LowerManhattan.info.

By 1976, Lower Manhattan had expanded an additional 23.5 acres with the creation of Battery Park City along the Hudson River. With 1.2 million cubic yards of earth and rock excavated for the World Trade Center as its foundation.

The area became home to an upscale residential neighborhood with great schools and parks not far from New York's City bustling financial district, but the close proximity to the water has left that part of Manhattan prone to flooding.

However, it was Lower Manhattan's violent encounter with Sandy, which overwhelmed the streets with with water and plunged most of the area into darkness, that made local residents, business owners and city officials realize how truly vulnerable that reclaimed land was.



Bustling town: In 1934, construction began on the East River Drive (now known as the FDR Drive), expanding Manhattan to the east

Vulnerable: New York City has 400,000 people and 68,000 building inside the flood plain

The crashing waves whipped into frenzy by the October 2012 storm had briefly reversed 400 years of Manhattan’s coastline augmentation, narrowing it down to its historic shape - with Pearl Street and Greenwich Street once again marking the island's two waterfronts.

Around the time of the American Revolution in 1774, when Manhattan's population had grown to 30,000, the city began selling 'water lots,' allowing entrepreneurs to use landfill to crate additional usable land.

Now, New York City has 400,000 people and 68,000 building inside the flood plain, and the value of structures located directly in the path of storms and floods has increased between four and seven times over the past century alone, Jeroen Aerts and Wouter Botzen, of the Netherlands’ VU University, told The Economist.



With the stakes now higher than ever, Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed on Tuesday a $20million plan to protect New York from storms like Sandy and the effects of global warming with the help of removable floodwalls in Lower Manhattan, levees and gates.

Flood devastation: During hurricane Sandy last fall, the Hudson River spilled over the sea wall along the West Side Promenade in the Battery Park

New plan: Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlined a $20million proposal to protect New York from storms like Sandy with the help of removable floodwalls in Lower Manhattan, levees and gates

The plan — which would also include the building of marshes and the flood-proofing of homes and hospitals — is one of the biggest, most sweeping projects ever proposed for defending a major U.S. city from the rising seas and severe weather that climate change is expected to bring.

It was outlined seven months after Superstorm Sandy drove home the danger by swamping lower Manhattan and smashing homes and businesses in other shoreline neighborhoods.

By the 2050s, 800,000 people could be living in a flood zone that would cover a quarter of the city's land, according to experts.