In November 1811, seven months after Randel filed his three official drawings, William Bridges published a print copy. It is unclear how he gained access to the information; in Randel’s eyes, Bridges stole his work. Randel was understandably vexed: Bridge’s printed map provided the first public glimpse of the future city. Today the map is rare; Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, New York’s great iconographer in the early 20th century, counted only 10 surviving copies.
Whereas Randel’s map is a measured survey, Bridges’s map is a colorful picture that evokes the physical reality of the city—its buildings, landscape, and docks as well as the populated area of the city, which is shaded.