Farsighted by Steven Johnson EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Steven Johnson
- Publish Date: September 4, 2018
- Language: English
- Genre: Business Decision Making, Cognitive Psychology, Problem-Solving
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2.4 Pages: 256
- Price: Free
- ISBN: 1594488215
MAPPING
If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be
like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should
die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest
of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.
• GEORGE ELIOT, MIDDLEMARCH
Long before Brooklyn became one of the most densely populated
urban regions in the country, back when it was a modest
hamlet on a bluff overlooking the prosperous harbor town of
New York, a long ridge of thick woods ran through the center of the
borough’s current borders, stretching from present-day Greenwood
Cemetery through Prospect Park all the way to Cypress Hill. Locals
had given it a name straight out of Tolkien: the Heights of Gowan.
As geological formations go, the Heights of Gowan were hardly
unusual. At their peak, they rose only two hundred feet over the
glacier-flattened plains and tidal ponds of Long Island. Yet in the
summer of 1776, the Heights found themselves at the center of world
history. Just months before, the British had endured a humiliating
retreat from Boston. Capturing New York, the trading center of the
colonies and the gateway to the mighty Hudson (then called the
North River), was the obvious countermove, given the British
dominance in sea power.
Perched at the tip of an island facing a vast bay, New York
presented an easy target for the king’s armada. The problem lay in
holding on to the city. From the fortified bluffs of modern-day
Brooklyn Heights on Long Island, downtown New York could be
continuously bombarded. “For should the enemy take hold New York
while we hold on to Long Island, they will find it almost impossible
to subsist,” American general Charles Lee wrote. To hold on to the
city without heavy casualties, British commander William Howe
would ultimately need to capture Brooklyn.
And Brooklyn was
protected by the Heights of Gowan. It was not the topography that
created the natural barricade but rather the dense canopy of eastern
deciduous forest that covered the ridge, with its towering oaks and
hickory trees and heavy thicket on the ground. An army could not
hope to move a large mass of men and equipment through such an
environment, and besides, if the battle turned into the forest, the
Revolutionary forces would have the upper hand.
The Heights were not a perfect barricade, however. Four roads
cut through the woods from south to north: Gowanus, Flatbush,
Bedford, and a small gorge that went by the name Jamaica Pass. If
the British chose not to make a direct assault on Brooklyn or
Manhattan from the water, they would likely have to move their
troops through these narrow conduits.
From the moment word spread in early June that the British
ships had left Halifax, headed south, it was clear to everyone that the
British would attempt to take New York. The question was how they
would go about doing it. That was the crux of the decision that
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