Topographical Atlas of the City of New York, Including the Annexed Territory, Showing original water courses and made land.

This map, first published in 1865 under the title “Sanitary and Topographical Map,” details the canals, hills, swamps, rivers, ponds, meadows, drainage basins, and original shoreline of Manhattan before the island’s landmass was expanded by landfill. The original purpose of the map was to support the argument that filling in the city’s watercourses and reducing natural drainage had led to a “humid miasmatic state of atmosphere” that promoted diseases, including yellow fever. The map took more than 20 years to produce and drew from Viele’s own survey work, as well as from a compilation of the earliest available cartography of the island. Today contractors and architects still use this map to make sure new developments are not built on preexisting underground waterways.