Several centuries later, mercantile interests in the several communities that ringed the harbor wanted to develop the region's full potential by pooling their strength. Spearheaded by Andrew H. Green, the Robert Moses of his day, and finally put over the top by the Republican boss, Senator Thomas C. Platt, the pieces came together 100 years ago this month. Following Hudson's voyage up the river that bears his name, Dutch traders came and went. In 1621, the States-General in The Hague had chartered the Dutch West India Company to colonize the territory, and in 1623 the first settlers landed on Nooten Eylandt, or Nut Island, now Governors Island. The next year, needing more room for their crops, they moved to lower Manhattan and established New Amsterdam.
Some bridges shown are fanciful.
While the sponsors and leaders were Dutch, the migrants were mainly French-speaking Belgian Walloons who had fled to the Netherlands to escape persecution. The West India Company, concerned about strengthening its new American foothold by filling it with people, invited other Europeans to settle throughout the region. Queens was first, in 1635, followed by Brooklyn in 1636 and the Bronx in 1641, when Jonas Bronck established a large farm. There was no permanent settlement on Staten Island until the 1660's, shortly before King Charles II of England summarily granted most of the northeast coast to his brother James, Duke of York, in 1664. James then captured the New Amsterdam colony with an overwhelming show of force.