Randel's survey of the entire islandhad begun in 1808 and was completed in 1810, and he now prepared the drafts of the new grid without regard to the topography of the land. The three maps were large, almost nine feet in length when connected together. Commissioner Simeon De Witt said of Randel's work that it was made "with an accuracy not exceeded by any work of the kind in America." Randel himself would later write that "The "time" within which the Commissioners were limited by the Statute to make their "Plan" of the streets, avenues, and public places on Manhattan barely "sufficient" to enable them to comply with the "letter", although not fully with the "spirit", of the Statute." (italics in original)