We love flipping through this kind of visual histories at NY.com. This new book "transports the reader into the extraordinary past and present embedded in New York City's more than 600 miles of coastline through a stunning selection of rare photographs, history, new fiction, and contemporary art. Each often chapters centers on one of New York City's lesser-known waterfront spaces: Dead Horse Bay, where the pre-automobile city's legions of horses once met their maker; Hart Island, New York City's still-active potter's field, where over 800,000 of New York City's unclaimed dead have been laid to rest; Sandy Ground, one of the earliest free black communities in the nation, made prosperous through oystering and strawberry farming." (amazon)