Title: West Side 1969
Subtitle: August 12, 1969
Text: Battery Park City was created in part by the earth excavated for the World Trade Center foundations, which were dug down seventy feet to bedrock. In 1969, as the North Tower began to rise, the first twenty-three acre section of landfill was defined. The area would ultimately grow to ninety-two acres and extend to just north of Chambers Street.
As seen here, West Street was covered by the Miller Elevated Highway, which was built from 1931-1948 and ran from Rector Street north to Seventy-second Street. A barrier that cut the city off from the river as much as did the pier sheds, the structure was taken down after the 1970s when a truck fell through the roadbed. West Street today is a multi-lane surface road that divides downtown's historic core from the new neighborhoods of Battery Park City.
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