Figure: Fertile Manhattan.

Figure: Fertile Manhattan.

Caption: This map shows the location of the relatively fertile soils on the island (and which are correlated with the bedrock depths). The Dutch and English settlers were attracted to these regions of the island and their location choices later encouraged real estate development and transportation investments, which would greatly influence the location of skyscrapers in the 20^th century. Source: Soils data is courtesy of Eric Sanderson, the Mannahatta Project, Wildlife Conservation Society.