Map of the Day: Lower Manhattan, 1660 Vs. Present

I also remember when the West Side Highway was right next to the river. Look at pictures of the World Trade Center under construction. The towers reflected on the river right down to the ground level. It was all of the digging for the tower's foundation that was used as landfill to create Battery Park City.

I remember downtown by Battery Park the West Side Highway was literally as far west as you could go. Driving it, you had a view of the Hudson and the Colgate Clock in Jersey City.

The clock used to be really cool, it was much bigger. The clock face was just the tip and it looked like a giant bottle of Colgate toothpaste.

They used landfill. Manhattan used to be a hilly island, with small valleys, lakes, and streams; surrounded by bogs and swamps.

They flattened down the hills, filled in the streams and lakes, and used the earth and garbage as landfill on the outer edges.

If you ever wondered why NYC floods so much, and why the subways shut down for small downpours, that's why. This whole area was swamp filled in with landfill.

guest [8]

That map is correct. You are seeing the result of years of landfill and you're trying to claim the scale is wrong. Try again.

That map is crap. You are showing two different scales and trying to claim they are the same. Try again.

At the risk of sounding ignorant of NY history, when/how/why did they expand around the edges? I never realized such a thing occurred.

So very interesting. I love stuff like that. Has anyone every checked out Forgotten NY? I love that site.

^ yeah

Wall St used to be a freakin Wall.

IT IS an entire city

That is positively fascinating. It's the sort of thing no one things about today. I'd love to see a similar comparison for the entire city.

Not if we had the legal system of today. You'd sue until you got your way.

I'm sure glad I didn't buy river front property back then. I would have lost my view.