New Amsterdam Plein : Six
New Amsterdam
Under Peter Minuit, the settlers of the little city of New Amsterdam worked quickly. By about 1627 they had 30 wooden houses constructed along "The Strand", facing the bluffed shore 500 yards across the water of what would soon be named "Breuckelen." The one stone building was a West India Company headquarters, where pelts were stored. There were two windmills: one for grinding grain, the other for sawing lumber.
Minuit also oversaw the construction of a fort. It was built mostly of heaped earth; it began to crumble even before it was finished. Indeed, the ramshackle state of Fort Amsterdam would be an issue right up until the moment in 1664, when Peter Stuyvesant, standing on its unsteady ramparts, surrendered it to the English. The fort's outlines are apparent in the "footprint" of the old customs House just opposite Battery Park.
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