Created by Bernard Ratzer in 1766, this map of Manhattan depicts its 30,000 residents living below Chambers Street. North of that were rolling pastures and farms, connected to the city by the Bowery Road running up the middle of the island, and the Greenwich Road along the Hudson. The word 'Bowery' came from the Dutch 'Baueries', or farms that lay along it.

To the right of the map are buttons which allow you to superimpose (and remove) the outlines of modern day landmarks.

Greenwich Village grew up as a collection of tobacco farms centered around the Christopher St. docks. Minetta Creek, which can be seen in this map flowing through Washington Square out into the Hudson just below the Village, irrigated the land, making it ideal for tobacco - the cash crop of the age. It also helped to defend the Village against the diseases that riddled the City just a mile south of it.