City Things

A Dutch colony founded by the Dutch West India Company purchased Manhattan from the Indians living on the north tip of the island, where Harlem now stands. Although a small tribe, the Indians claimed Manhattan's entire 22 mile length.

The Dutch were forced to pay the exorbitant sum of 60 guilders - about $24 - before they could build the town of New Amsterdam on the southern end of the island. The fortified north wall of this little town was to be known later as Wall Street.

North of Wall Street, Manhattan island was lush green farmland laced with canals and lakes. Dutch peasant farms - called boweries - raised fine crops of beans, barley and buckwheat. Across the East River, farms and peach orchards covered the land, known as Breuckelen, "Broken Land" in Dutch, later to be known as Brooklyn.

Then Jonas Bronck purchased 500 acres of land between Harlem and the river, and it became known as The Bronck's Farm or The Bronx.