Estate / Collection: Collection of a New York Surveyor

BRIDGES, WILLIAM
Map of an estate late the Property of Samuel Franklin, Decd. Situate in Greenwich. Manuscript map in ink on paper, with "New York Surveyed June 1809/Wm Bridges City Surveyor" in ink at the foot. 23 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches (59 x 47 cm). The map backed and with a green cloth border. Losses to extremities and a few places within the map, tears, stains, later pencil markings in the image, loss to some of the border.

This original William Bridges survey shows a length of Fitzroy Road running across the top of the map, this to the west of large avenues soon to be known as 7th and 8th. The cross streets are about 25th to 28th Streets. This map originates from the period just before John Randal Jr.'s survey of the island at the behest of the commissioners, resulting in the controversy between Randel and Bridges, who published the Commissioner's Plan in 1811 and received much credit for it, to the chagrin of Randel. William Bridges died in 1814.