2015

NYC Time Machine

Creator & Developer

Built an interactive explorer that aligned 27 historical maps, from 1660 to 1924, with today’s streets, so the same Manhattan corner stayed put as you moved through time, and later rolled it into Vestiges of New York.

I published NYC Time Machine in February 2015: one map of Manhattan with a timeline along the bottom. You picked a year, and that year’s map swapped into place. The Overlay Present button laid the modern city over it.

NYC Time Machine showing an 1817 map of Manhattan, with a timeline of years along the bottom and an Overlay Present button
The original interface, set to 1817.

It was built with Leaflet and OpenStreetMap, on maps from the New York Public Library and the David Rumsey Map Collection.

NYC Time Machine showing the 1660 Castello Plan, a street map of New Amsterdam, on the tip of Manhattan
The first year on the timeline: the 1660 Castello Plan.

The maps live on in Vestiges of New York, where you can open the 1660 map today.

Press