Eric Sanderson on Brooklyn's Lost and Future Waterfront
Landscape ecologist Eric Sanderson maps pre-1609 Brooklyn's wetlands and waterways, connecting ecological history to ongoing waterfront restoration.
Why we picked this
Sanderson did something remarkable with Manhattan in his book Mannahatta — now he turns the same ecological lens on Brooklyn, showing what the borough looked like before the concrete and what it might become again.
Landscape ecologist Eric Sanderson presents a vision of Brooklyn before and after European contact, mapping the wetlands, waterways, and ecological systems that defined the borough’s landscape before 1609. The talk connects this deep environmental history to contemporary waterfront reclamation efforts across four key Brooklyn sites: Wallabout Bay, Coney Island, Sunset Park, and Red Hook.
Sanderson, author of Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City, brings his expertise in historical ecology to an Earth Day program co-presented with Brooklyn Greenway Initiative and NYC Greenway Coalition. The presentation draws on collections held by the Center for Brooklyn History. Free admission.