An Animated Map Showing Urban Growth in the Five Boroughs of New York City From 1609 to 2019

Columbia University student Myles Zhang has created “Here Grows New York City”, a really informative animated map showing the vast urban growth that took place within New York City and its surrounding boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island from 1609 through 2019. While initial growth took place in lower Manhattan, it didn’t take long for the other four boroughs to catch up.

This animation illustrates the development of NYC’s street grid and infrastructure systems from 1609 to the present-day, using geo-referenced road network data and historic maps. The resulting short film presents a series of “cartographic snapshots” of NYC’s built-up urban area at intervals of every 20-30 years history.