Before there was New York…

What do the Dutch have to do with Manhattan and Brooklyn?  The former FOX series “New Amsterdam” offered an interesting bit of history of New York’s Dutch ancestry, shrouded in a metaphysical story of immortality.  In this week’s featured episode is New Amsterdam – the origin and a current neighborhood in Manhattan.  With a bit of information about the history and architecture of 1600’s Amsterdam, you can notice places in Manhattan that still bear homage to that style of architecture that is no longer practical by today’s standards. These old buildings that we probably walk right past without acknowledging them, have stood witness to history unfolding, much like the character John Amsterdam in the FOX series.

In the second part of the episode we visit Brooklyn. Brooklyn is also a name that dates back to 1600’s  colonial Dutch.  The area we’re visiting in Brooklyn is the new “SoHo” that settled in Brooklyn after the famous SoHo in Manhattan became far too expensive for the artist community.  Aferwards, we’ll visit an interesting neighborhood in Brooklyn named (are you ready for this?)… DUMBO!!

EP. # 61 New Amsterdam & Brooklyn

Simone diSanti is the Road Retraveled Editor for Wandering Educators.