A map of the city that made Alexander Hamilton

Hamilton arrived in New York as a teenager with no family and no money. Over the next thirty years the city gave him an education, a war, a law practice, a political career and, in the end, a grave. This site follows that story through thirteen places, each shown on a map drawn during his lifetime.

The tour runs in order from 1772 to 1804. Each stop describes what happened there and what you can see today, with nearby sites from the same years. You can take it on the interactive map, read it stop by stop, or use it on foot: most downtown stops are a few minutes' walk apart.

How the map was made

The interactive map combines three period maps, each pinned to modern coordinates so the stops land where the events happened. The maps were drawn by hand by 18th-century surveyors, so their streets and shorelines drift from true positions. The figures below say by how much.

Island map: William Faden, A Plan of New York Island, with Part of Long Island, Staten Island & East New Jersey (London, 1776). Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library; no known restrictions. Pinned at 25 landmarks and shoreline points; expect 100 to 300 m of drift.

Manhattan roads and farms: the British Headquarters Map of New York & Environs, a manuscript survey drawn for the British army about 1782, from the 1900 facsimile by B.F. Stevens. The New York Public Library; public domain. Pinned at 11 landmarks and 12 points on the Hudson shore; expect 100 to 250 m of drift.

Downtown streets: Benjamin Taylor and John Roberts, A New & Accurate Plan of the City of New York (1797). The New York Public Library; public domain. Pinned at 12 street corners; expect 10 to 40 m of drift.

The shoreline was much closer in Hamilton's day. Landfill has since added several blocks along both rivers, so pins near the water sit on what was then the shore.

Sources and accuracy

Quotations are Hamilton's own words from his letters and published writings, with the source given each time. Several popular lines attributed to him, such as "Those who stand for nothing fall for anything," do not appear in his writings and are not used here. Period landmarks draw on CultureNOW's map of historic sites in Lower Manhattan, the National Park Service and the New York Public Library; their positions are approximate.

Spotted a mistake or know a site we should add? Get in touch.