Item #1985 Map of the City and County of New York…. David H./ DE WITT BURR, S.
A Large, Finely Engraved Map
Reflecting the Rapid Growth of New York City & Brooklyn
New York City/ Brooklyn/ New Jersey..
[Ithaca, 1840]

Map of the City and County of New York….

19 ½ x 49 ½ inches. Original outline color; overall a very fresh, excellent example; in a fine archival frame.

Large, richly detailed, extensively updated edition of one of the finest plans of New York City of the first half of the 19th century. This fourth* and final edition of the map added a wealth of detail both within the bounds of New York City and beyond its borders. The Harlem Rail Road can now be seen running the length of Fourth Avenue and down to the Bowery; a "Lunatic Asylum" and its grounds are marked in the upper West Side; and the site of a prospective asylum is shown on Blackwell’s (Roosevelt) Island.  In northern Manhattan can be seen a horse racing venue called "The Harlem Trotting Course," which opened in 1835.  Political boundaries have been updated with the addition of three wards; the ninth, eleventh and twelfth wards were formed to keep pace with a sharp increase in development from Houston Street up to 42nd Street. Planned growth is also addressed: extensive bulk-lines have been added to indicate future landfill along the shorelines, and city grids replace countryside in many areas.  In Brooklyn, the Williamsburg grid now extends into Bushwick, while the developed part of the city fills the corner of the map, where before it had ended at Fort Greene.  Across the Hudson, Jersey City’s grid has expanded to include Hoboken.

            This map first appeared in 1829 in Burr’s Atlas of The State of New York, which was the second American state atlas.  An 1832 second edition followed.

 

*Curiously, this fourth edition is called on the map the third edition; however, there was an 1839 imprint of map that was also called the third edition.  Calling this 1840 imprint the third edition as well was due either to the publisher's oversight or to the fact that the two editions appear to be identical save for the date.  Thus, the observations above refer to both of these editions.



* cf Augustyn & Cohen, Manhattan in Maps, pp 120-121.

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