Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 - Edwin G. Burrows, Mike Wallace - Google Books

https://books.google.de/books?id=xF4NDALYWSAC

To European explorers, it was Eden, a paradise of waist-high grasses, towering stands of walnut, maple, chestnut, and oak, and forests that teemed with bears, wolves, raccoons, beavers, otters, and foxes. Today, it is the site of Broadway and Wall Street,…