Manhattan's Evolution from 1600 to 2026 Captured in New Timelapse

A new animated timelapse video by the YouTube channel CITY 3D TIMELAPSE visualizes the evolution of Manhattan from 1600 to 2026. The eight-minute video, which runs three times—zooming out to all of Manhattan, then focusing on Lower Manhattan and Midtown Manhattan—depicts the city's transformation from a Dutch colonial outpost (New Amsterdam) through English rule, the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, nineteenth-century industrialization, the rise of skyscrapers, and into the current globalization era. The video was featured on Open Culture, which previously showcased the channel's similar timelapse of Paris's evolution from 300 BCE to 2025. The timelapse begins with the native era, spending about twenty seconds on the millennium and a half before European arrival, then shows the approach of early seventeenth-century ships. The video highlights how New York, though not the birthplace of the skyscraper (that title goes to the Home Insurance Building in Chicago), aggressively adopted tall steel-framed towers, becoming synonymous with them. The piece underscores the city's role as a model for metropolises worldwide. The video is available on YouTube.