View of Lower Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge
(or
downtown Manhattan) is the southernmost part of the island of
Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the
City of New York. Lower Manhattan or "downtown" is defined most commonly as the area delineated on the north by
14th Street, on the west by the
Hudson River, on the east by the
East River, and on the south by
New York Harbor (also known as
Upper New York Bay). When referring specifically to the lower Manhattan business district and its immediate environs, the northern border is commonly designated by thoroughfares approximately a mile-and-a-half south of 14th Street and a mile north of the island's southern tip:
Chambers Street from near the Hudson east to the
Brooklyn Bridge entrances and overpass. Two other major arteries are also sometimes identified as the northern border of "lower" or "downtown Manhattan":
Canal Street, roughly half a mile north of Chambers Street, and
23rd Street, roughly half a mile north of 14th Street.
The lower Manhattan business district forms the core of the area below Chambers Street. It includes the
Financial District—often referred to as
Wall Street, after its primary artery—and the site of the
World Trade Center. At the island's southern tip is
Battery Park;
City Hall is just to the north of the Financial District. Also south of Chambers Street are the
planned community of
Battery Park City and the
South Street Seaport historic area. The neighborhood of
TriBeCa straddles Chambers on the west side; at the street's east end is the giant
Manhattan Municipal Building. North of Chambers and the Brooklyn Bridge and south of Canal Street lies most of New York's oldest
Chinatown neighborhood. Many
court buildings and
other government offices are also located in this area. The
Lower East Side neighborhood straddles Canal. North of Canal and south of 14th Street are the neighborhoods of
SoHo, the
Meatpacking District, the
West Village,
Greenwich Village,
Little Italy,
Nolita, and the
East Village. Between 14th and 23rd streets are lower
Chelsea,
Union Square, the
Flatiron District,
Gramercy, and the large residential development
Peter Cooper Village—Stuyvesant Town.
History
Lower Manhattan skyline, 1931
Lower Manhattan skyline, 2008
The
Dutch established the first European settlements in Manhattan, which were located at the lower end of the island. The first fort was built at the
Battery to protect
New Netherland. In 1771, Bear Market was established along the Hudson shore on land donated by Trinity Church, and replaced by Washington Market in 1813. Washington Market was located between Barclay and Hubert Streets, and from Greenwich to West Street. The area remains one of the few parts of Manhattan where the street
grid system is largely irregular. Throughout the early decades of the 1900s, the area experienced a construction boom, with major towers such as
40 Wall Street, the
American International Building,
Woolworth Building, and
20 Exchange Place being erected.
In the 1950s, a few new buildings were constructed in lower Manhattan, including an 11-story building at 156 William Street in 1955.
A 27-story office building at 20 Broad Street, a 12-story building at 80 Pine Street, a 26-story building at 123 William Street, and a few others were built in 1957.
By the end of the decade, lower Manhattan had become economically depressed, in comparison with
midtown Manhattan, which was booming.
David Rockefeller spearheaded widespread
urban renewal efforts in lower Manhattan, beginning with construction
One Chase Manhattan Plaza, the new headquarters for his bank. He established the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association (DLMA) which drew up plans for broader revitalization of lower Manhattan, with the development of a
world trade center at the heart of these plans. The original DLMA plans called for the "world trade center" to be built along the
East River, between Old Slip and
Fulton Street. After negotiations with
New Jersey Governor
Richard J. Hughes, the
Port Authority decided to build the
World Trade Center on a site along the
Hudson River and the
West Side Highway, rather than the East River site.
Through much of its history, the area south of Chambers Street was mainly a commercial district, with a small population of residents—in 1960, it was home to about 4,000.
Construction of
Battery Park City, on landfill from construction of the World Trade Center, brought many new residents to the area. Gateway Plaza, the first Battery Park City development, was finished in 1983. The project's centerpiece, the
World Financial Center, consists of four luxury highrise towers. By the turn of the century, Battery Park City was mostly completed, with the exception of some ongoing construction on West Street. Around this time, lower Manhattan reached its highest population of business tenants and full-time residents.
Since the early twentieth century, lower Manhattan has been an important center for the arts and leisure activities. Greenwich Village was a locus of
bohemian culture from the first decade of the century through the 1980s. Several of the city's leading jazz clubs are still located in Greenwich Village, which was also one of the primary bases of the
American folk music revival of the 1960s. Many art galleries were located in SoHo between the 1970s and early 1990s; today, the downtown Manhattan gallery scene is centered in Chelsea. From the 1960s onward, lower Manhattan has been home to many alternative theater companies, constituting the heart of the
Off-Off-Broadway community.
Punk rock and its derivatives emerged in the mid-1970s largely at two venues:
CBGB on the
Bowery, the western edge of the East Village, and
Max's Kansas City on
Park Avenue South. At the same time, the area's surfeit of reappropriated industrial lofts played an integral role in the development and sustenance of the minimalist composition,
free jazz, and
disco/
electronic dance music subcultures. The area's many nightclubs and bars—though mostly shorn of the freewheeling iconoclasm, pioneering spirit, and
do-it-yourself mentality that characterized the pregentrification era—still draw patrons from throughout the city and the surrounding region. In the early twenty-first century, the Meatpacking District, once the sparsely populated province of after-hours
BDSM clubs and transgendered prostitutes, gained a reputation as New York's trendiest neighborhood.
Historic sites
The most famous landmark in lower Manhattan is now the former
World Trade Center site. Before the
terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Twin Towers were major New York icons.
The area contains many old and historic building and sites, including
Castle Garden, originally the fort
Castle Clinton,
Bowling Green, the old
United States Customs House, now the
National Museum of the American Indian,
Federal Hall, where
George Washington was
inaugurated as the first
U.S. President,
Fraunces Tavern,
New York City Hall, the
New York Stock Exchange, renovated original mercantile buildings of the
South Street Seaport (and a modern tourist building), the
Brooklyn Bridge,
South Ferry, embarkation point for the
Staten Island Ferry and ferries to
Liberty Island and
Ellis Island, and
Trinity Church. Lower Manhattan is home to some of New York City's most spectacular skyscrapers, including the
Woolworth Building,
40 Wall Street (also known as the Trump Building), the
Standard Oil Building at
26 Broadway, and the
American International Building.
In fiction
In terms of atmosphere,
Batman writer and editor
Dennis O'Neil has said that, figuratively, "Batman's
Gotham City is Manhattan below
Fourteenth Street at eleven minutes past
midnight on the coldest night in November."
Recovery and future
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, lower Manhattan lost much of its economy and office space. While the area's economy has rebounded significantly, as of February 2008, the enormous site once occupied by the World Trade Center site remains undeveloped. The
Lower Manhattan Development Corporation plans to rebuild downtown Manhattan, by adding new streets, buildings, and office space.
Defining downtown
Downtown in the context of Manhattan, and of New York City generally, has different meanings to different people, especially depending on where in the city they reside. Residents of the island or of
The Bronx generally speak of
going "downtown" to refer to any southbound excursion to any Manhattan destination.
[, NYCvisit.com. Retrieved on December 2, 2007.] A declaration that one is going to
be "downtown" may indicate a plan to be anywhere south of
14th Street—the definition of downtown according to the city's official tourism marketing organization
—or even
23rd Street. The full phrase
downtown Manhattan may also refer more specifically to the area of Manhattan south of
Canal Street.
Within business-related contexts, many people use the term
downtown Manhattan to refer only to the Financial District and the corporate offices in the immediate vicinity. For instance, the
Business Improvement District managed by the Alliance for Downtown New York defines Downtown as South of Murray Street (essentially South of
New York City Hall), which includes the
World Trade Center area and the
Financial District. The phrase
lower Manhattan may apply to any of these definitions: the broader ones often if the speaker is discussing the area in relation to the rest of the city; more restrictive ones, again, if the focus is on business matters or on the early colonial and post-colonial history of the island.
As reflected in popular culture, "downtown" in Manhattan has historically represented a place where one could "forget all your troubles, forget all your cares, and go Downtown," as the lyrics of
Petula Clark's
1964 hit "
Downtown" celebrate. The protagonist of
Billy Joel's
1983 hit "
Uptown Girl" contrasts himself (a "downtown man") with the purportedly staid uptown world. Likewise, the chorus of
Neil Young's 1995 single "Downtown" urges "Let's have a party, downtown all right."
Economy
Lower Manhattan is the fourth largest business district in the United States, after
Midtown Manhattan, the
Chicago Loop, and
Washington, D.C., and will regain the title of 3rd after the completion of
1 World Trade Center, also known as Freedom Tower.
The headquarters of
AOL are located at 770 Broadway. The headquarters of
Verizon Communications are located at 140 West Street. The headquarters of
US Helicopter are in Lower Manhattan.
Prior to the
September 11 attacks,
One World Trade Center served as the headquarters of
Cantor Fitzgerald.
Education
Higher education
Institutions of higher education in Manhattan south of 14th Street include:
Primary and secondary education
Public schools
The
New York City Department of Education operates New York City's public schools. The northeastern corner of lower Manhattan is covered by New York City School District 1, whose northern border is 14th Street. The rest of the area lies within School District 2, which covers midtown and part of upper Manhattan as well. District 1 is served by over twenty elementary and middle schools. The district's high schools include:
Public high schools in District 2 south of 14th Street include:
Private schools
Private schools in the area include:
Parochial schools
Parochial schools in the area include:
See also
