Title: West Street
(Picture 1)
Subtitle: Battery Park, 1904
Text: In the early twentieth century, many New Yorkers commuted via elevated rail lines, then vertically in elevators, to their offices. Here an elevated train skirts along the edge of Battery Park on its way north, between new highrises on Church Street and Greenwich Street.
(Picture 2)
Subtitle: Battery Park c. 1915
Text: At its base, West Street spills into Battery Park where the early nineteenth century fort, Castle Clinton, was converted into an aquarium in 1896. Dominating the park is the Whitehall Building, which was home to many shipping offices. Of all the early Hudson River piers, only Pier A with its small tower still stands.
(Picture 3)
Subtitle: West Side Waterfront
Text: The waterfront north of Liberty Street was transformed in the late nineteenth century into a region of piers separated by West Street from produce warehouses and factories. The construction of the World Trade Center destroyed some of these blocks, but, remarkably, much of this commercial district survives just north of Ground Zero in Tribeca.
(Picture 4)
Subtitle: West Street at Battery Place, c. 1966
Text: The automobile created havoc on West Street as passenger cars and delivery trucks competed for space. As a result, the Miller Highway was begun in 1931 with the radical idea of elevating cars above the trucks servicing the piers. At its southern end, the highway's entrance ramp connected to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.
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