As rising oceans threaten NYC, study documents another risk: The city is sinking

Channel 3000 News/AP ^ | May 31, 2023 | AP Staff

[woodbutcher1963]

Manhattan is a very interesting study in geology. Lower Manhattan is all rock. Therefore, the large buildings especially down by Wall Street.

Then going north there is very little of any height until you get up to the Empire State building on 23rd street. Then a whole bunch up through Mid Town and on each side of Central Park.

Greenwich Village is all land filled swamp.

[Gay State Conservative]

I'll believe the oceans are rising when Osama Obama,algore and Zuckerberg sell their beachfront mansions and move to Colorado.

[Gay State Conservative]

I've read that midtown and the southern tip are the only parts with bedrock that's sturdy enough to handle skyscrapers.

[woodbutcher1963]

That is my understanding too. If you look at the old maps of Manhattan, from the 1700s there was a wet area where Greenwich Village is now. That is why all the buildings are only 4 stories tall.

Unlike the Back Bay section of Boston where there was rock underneath that water in the Charles River. Which is why the John Hancock tower and the Prudential building are there.

I remember walking from the USS Intrepid on the West Hudson River back up to the Hotel Penn on the south side of Macy’s between 6th & 7th avenue. It is surprisingly UP hill in elevation to the middle of the island.

[SamAdams76]

I believe you are referring to the old Collect Pond. The below is a rendering of what it might have looked like during the Colonial era. Hard to believe Manhattan used to be so pastoral.

[woodbutcher1963]

Yes, and the reason it is called Wall Street is because in the mid 1600s the Dutch Settlers built a 12’ high WALL. It ran east to west (where Wall street runs today) to keep the Indians out.

[JimRed]

That natural process happens everywhere as ground is compressed, but the study published recently in the journal Earth's Future sought to estimate how the massive weight of the city itself is hurrying things along.

It is probably still rebounding from the hundreds of feet of ice that covered it until 12-15,000 years ago.