Title: A Century Later
Subtitle: July 26, 1976
Text: This aerial view of Manhattan in 1976 shows the extraordinary physical transformation that took place downtown in the 1960s and 1970s when an entirely new scale of construction overlaid on the district. In addition to the Twin Towers, which were both the tallest buildings and largest office buildings in the world, there was a second concentration of skyscraper giants at South Ferry. Altogether thirty million square feet of new space was added to downtown's inventory.
The scale and volume of the new buildings was matched in boldness by the big blank slate of landfill in the Hudson River destined to become Battery Park City and the World Financial Center. The old finger piers were soon demolished, and the technology and identity of the turn-of-the-century port was reinvented as a waterfront for residence, recreation, and commercial expansion.
and West Street, so-named because no streets were envisioned farther west in the river. A few years after this map was drawn, Church Street was extended south to connect with Trinity Place in order to facilitate the construction of an elevated railroad. This created the twelve-block site that would later be cleared for the World Trade Center. |
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