In 2013, lifelong New Yorker Knudsen visited Boston and its Freedom Trail with his wife. Where’s our freedom trail? he recalls her asking. Unlike Boston or Philadelphia, New York City has no historic district, he says. “It’s the city of the future. It tears itself down.”
Then working on Wall Street in private equity, the history major began to hatch the idea of a tech-driven way to bring the Revolutionary War-era city to life. Joined by Peter-Christian Aigner, director of the Gotham Center for New York City History, Knudsen cofounded the NYC Revolutionary Trail and helped create “Echoes of Revolution: NYC,” a free, augmented-reality experience that launched in late June. “Ted’s idea was the conceptual seedbed for one of the biggest projects we’ve done here in my tenure,” Aigner says. “He’s been an outstanding collaborator.”
Ubisoft, maker of the Assassin’s Creed time-travel video games, already had developed what Knudsen calls “very historically accurate” landscapes of Colonial and 1780 New York. He negotiated for half a year to gain rights to the game engine for free and raised about $1.2 million to bring the project to life.
Using the free app on their phones enables visitors to stand at 10 sites in present-day Lower Manhattan and witness pivotal moments from the Revolution. Each site incorporates historical tidbits with a game. At one stop on the 3-mile walking tour users can aim a virtual cannon at a British warship making a run past Colonial defenses on the Hudson River. At another, they can pull down a virtual statue of King George.
“It took all of my skills and experience as well as historical knowledge to bring this into the world,” says Knudsen, now a visiting history professor at Queens College pursuing a doctorate at CUNY Graduate Center. “These side projects come to consume you. This, however, was worth it. I’m so thrilled at how it turned out.”
