Title: Skyline 1932
Subtitle: Downtown Skyline 1932
Text: Seen from New York harbor as if approaching on the Staten Island Ferry, the downtown skyline of the early 1930s appears as a mountain of masonry, punctuated by tall towers. A burst of construction from 1928 to 1932 produced more than a dozen new skyscrapers, including the five tallest in this photograph, from right to left: 70 Pine Street, 20 Exchange Place, 40 Wall Street, 30 Broad Street, and 1 Wall Street.
Shaped by the zoning law, these Art Deco spires displayed a new characteristic form, a stepped-back base with a slender tower that soared fifty to seventy stories, far higher than the average thirty to forty floors of the pre-World War I buildings. This iconic image of New York's skyline defined the financial district for more than two decades as first the Depression, then World War II, halted any significant construction downtown until the late 1950s.
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