Fascinating op-ed on Manhattan's "
remarkable capacity to recover and renew" from today's New York Times.
"In September 1609, the beach near the tip of the island was
surrounded by thickly wooded hills. Passenger pigeons flew overhead;
porpoises hunted in the harbor. Around 600 Native Americans lived on
the island. And they were the ones who, on Sept. 12, must have watched
as a European, Henry Hudson, guided his small wooden ship into the
Muhheakantuck (later Hudson’s) River, cleaving the waters with the
narrow prow of history that would one day create New York City in its
wake.
To the native Lenape people, whom Hudson met and traded with, Mannahatta
meant “island of many hills.” Modern ecological research has shown that
Mannahatta was an island of remarkable biological diversity. Its 55
ecosystems encompassed stately forests, rich wetlands, sandy beaches
and rocky shores, eel grass meadows and deep marine waters. This
25-square-mile island had 66 miles of streams and more ecosystems per
acre than Yellowstone; more plant species than Yosemite; and more birds
than the Great Smoky Mountains National Park does today.
Today, we honor the memory of all that was lost and sacrificed on 9/11.
But in thinking back 400 years, in imagining the Lower Manhattan of the
distant past, we can join that memory to another realization: that we,
and the world we live in, have a remarkable capacity to recover and
renew."
2 comments:
Also read similar article in National Geographic.
I like this very much. I've been watching the reading of the names this morning.
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