Title: Site History
(Picture 1)
Subtitle: Lower Manhattan, circa 1926
Text: The pyramid of stone that characterized the Lower Manhattan skyline of the early twentieth century piled up the greatest height and density along the spine of Broadway and around the banks and ex- changes at Wall and Broad streets.
The skyline often changes in real estate cycles. In 1926, 140 West Street, the Barclay-Vesey Telephone Building, was the only major skyscraper of the twenties' boom completed.
(Picture 2)
Subtitle: Lower Manhattan, 1930
Text: The skyline just before it erupted in a half dozen more pinnacle towers. The tallest spire is 40 Wall Street, which topped out in the fall of 1929, finishing second in a famous race with the Chrysler Building to become the world's tallest.
The future site of the World Trade Center is the low-rise area between the Hudson Terminals buildings and the waterfront, where ferry slips mix with piersheds.
(Picture 3)
Subtitle: Lower Manhattan, circa 1920
Text: The broad expanse of West Street around 1920 shows the piers of the working waterfront as a solid barrier between the city and the river. Ocean liners steam into port and the relatively few automobiles park mid-street where an elevated highway would within a decade be constructed to accommodate the explosion of traffic.
(Picture 4)
Subtitle: Stock Certificate, 1926
Text: The first plans for a World Trade Center that involved the Port Authority focused on the East River waterfront. In 1961, though, the site shifted to the west side when the project was linked to the takeover of the bankrupt Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, which the Port Authority agreed to operate as the PATH system. As the stock certificate illustrates, tunnels carried commuters under the Hudson River to the Hudson Terminal buildings.
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