Friday Eye Candy: Explore Manhattan in 1609

"The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Welikia Project (named after the Lenape term for “my good home”) is an ambitious, interactive re-creation of what Manhattan was like in 1609, when the Dutch began settling the island," according to a post by John Metcalfe.

Welikia allows users to roam the island, encountering its original geology and remarkable biodiversity. And an amazing natural environment it was: Welikia claims that the island's "biodiversity per acre rivaled that of national parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Great Smoky Mountains!"

The website functions by allowing users to scroll from "present" to "past." In the past, you can compare, block by block, the characteristics of the island in 1609 to the present day. Included among the descriptions are  the presence of the Lenape, also known as Delaware Indians.

So, for instance:

"The shoreline next to the World Trade Center site had a medium likelihood of harboring meadow voles, white-footed mice, ospreys, redback salamanders, black-cherry trees, and a daisylike plant called prairie fleabane. It was dominated by hillsides and, for the Lenape, had less-than-optimal opportunities for hunting but great chances of foraging."

The project has gaps left to fill, however, and donations to the Wildlife Conservation Society will earn "a shout-out in these unexplored zones once they’re completed," reports Metcalfe.