Picture the Minquas Kill sliding past this warehouse road, right where New Sweden's story first began. This stretch marks the very spot where the New Sweden colony began and where the first Swedish expedition under Peter Minuit came ashore. Those colonists left the port of Gothenburg in late 1637 aboard the Fogel Grip and the Kalmar Nyckel, sailed into Delaware Bay, and anchored at a rocky point on Swedes' Landing on March 29, 1638.
They built a fort here and named it Fort Christina after Queen Christina of Sweden. Imagine the creak of timbers, the landing parties at the water’s edge, and the decision to plant a new foothold on this shore. Today Swedes Landing Road is a short stretch from 4th Street to 7th Street, a humble modern ribbon tied to that powerful beginning.
The road now ends at a long, two-story mural that takes you back to the landscape before the Swedes arrived and leads to the entrance of Fort Christina National Historical Site, part of the First State National Historical Park System. Take it in: the mural, the river, and the historic site at the far end of the road lie right before you.