ABSTRACT
It was on 11 September 1609, that the first European set foot on the island we now call Manhattan. Henry Hudson came ashore near about the site where the World Trade Center was later to soar and crash. The explorer and his crew of 20, aboard the ship Half Moon, were working for the newly formed Dutch East India Company. Their mission was to find the fabled Northwest Passage which would allow European trade vessels to navigate past the frozen northern coastline of America to reach China.
