The next layer of Lower Manhattan’s bedrock began being laid on September 11, 1609, when English explorer Henry Hudson sailed the Dutch ship Halve Maen (Half Moon) into New York Bay to claim the region for the Dutch Republic. The Hudson River bears the explorer’s name.

Before European colonization, a network of seasonal roads crisscrossed a biologically diverse ecosystem in what is now Lower Manhattan. The Munsee Lenape called it “Manahatta” (the island of many hills). Rather than build permanent structures, the Lenape favored seasonal encampments. One major site, Sapokanikan, sat near modern-day Greenwich Village, on the shores of Minetta Brook, a trout stream. Another site known as the Werpoes was a Lenape settlement on the southwestern s

The Lower East Side was home to Eastern European Jewish, Italian, and Greek immigrants, and served as a critical transition point for Black families during the First Wave of the Great Migration.