We have decided to revisit New Amsterdam (New York) after having gained more experience playing with Cities: Skylines modded. The key mods are Image Overlay, Traffic Manager, Move It, Fine Road, Anarchy, Network Extensions 2, and Real Population (full list at end of post).
The layout is based on the 1865 Viele Map and the 1609 Mannahatta Project, but we’ll have some differences from the current timeline. We’re planning on a more “Dutch” riff on the city—with canals, a streetcar network, and bikes—to see what a slightly different development pattern would look like.
Initial Development from The Battery to Canal (Time Lapse)
The Castello Plan from 1660 shows the Dutch settlement with a wall at the northern end. Also notable is the Heere Gracht canal, which was wide enough for small boats. It eventually became a sewage dump, though in our version, we’re going to try a greener approach that will let us retain the Heere Gracht.
Collect Pond, the city’s source of fresh water, also eventually became an open sewer. A canal was built to drain the pond and the area eventually became Five Points, the infamous neighborhood that would be known to modern viewers through its depiction in Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York.” In this build, the canal is built not to drain Collect Pond, but to drain the streams in present-day SoHo in order to open up that fertile land to farming.
Development of The Bowery and Canal (Time Lapse)
The oldest school in New York is Collegiate, which traces its roots back to 1628. We are going to place an elementary school on the corner of Broad & Bridge, which is as close as we can get to the original structure and still fit a Cities: Skylines school. This location is based on information from History of the School of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church in the City of New York, from 1633 to 1883 (p. 16).
We also build King’s College, which started at Trinity Church’s schoolhouse. We placed the vanilla university next to Trinity, but may eventually move it to the area encircled by Broadway, Church, Barclay, and Murray.
This 1767 map (pre-canal) shows the extent of farming around The Bowery as well as the water and fertile land west of the Bayard farm. We didn’t see a Great Square on the Viele Map, so we left that out. But that might be a great place for a park.
We also develop the streetcar network in order to alleviate traffic.
Screenshots
Shots of key points of interest are below.
Bowling Green was the first park and also served as a cattle market in front of Fort Amsterdam. In our version of the city, it is also the turnaround point for the Broadway Line streetcar!
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Wall Street as viewed from Trinity Church. There used to be a wall at this location, which was the northern boundary of the early Dutch settlement.
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A view of Collect Pond, the original fresh water source for New York.
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A view of the fledgling village from the northern canal.
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A view of the fledgling village from the harbour.
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