Title: Site History
(Picture 1)
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 started to rise, the initial twenty-three acre section of landfill was defined. The area would ultimately grow to ninety-two acres.
(Picture 2)
Subtitle: August 25, 1951
Text: The Lower Manhattan waterfront in 1951 was already in decline. The dozens of closely spaced finger piers built early in the century were rendered obsolete, first by larger ships with deeper draft, then, from the late 1950s, by the technology of containerization, which required vast acreage to unload and store trailer-sized units. Still, the remnants of the working waterfront cut off access to the Hudson, and even views to the water.
(Picture 4)
Subtitle: January 4, 1966
Text: The great Art Deco setback skyscraper of 1926, the Barclay-Vesey Telephone Building, marks the edge of the site that would soon be cleared for the World Trade Center. Much of the area, especially the frontage of the piers on the west side of the elevated highway, was used for parking, The blocks of low-rise buildings of the electronics district known as "Radio Row" was the most active commercial use that was displaced.
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