Historical and Environmental Analysis of Wall St./East River Waterfront:
The East River Waterfront has, since its establishment, acted as a central point of expansion and trade throughout New York’s history. The Dutch, upon founding the colony of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, formed trading posts on the island. Wall Street, as the name suggests, was the name for a literal wall that acted as the new settlement’s boundary. By 1660 the city’s had grown past Wall Street, as a result of trade and settlement boom. Wall Street was now a a single, fortified road, with development reaching Canal Street, and everything north of Canal being wild/farmland. The wall represented the extent of Manhattan’s shorelines; from Pearl Street to Broadway, at the time. It was only decades later, in the 1690’s, that the city removed its wall and began its first artificial infill project to create piers along the river banks. These piers allowed maritime trade to flourish in Lower Manhattan, while simultaneously increasing space constraints. Wall Street soon became the city’s first official slave market, and a scene of securities trading.
Towards the end of the 1600’s, the City began infill projects to extend Manhattan further into the East River. Infill in the next century led to the creation of Water Street, Front Street, and South Street. By the early 19th century, activity on the East River Waterfront was booming. The area was mostly business-oriented, but also included some residential land use. Much of this increased business in Lower Manhattan was a result of the Erie Canal’s opening in 1825. The canal made New York City more connected than ever; opening up trade towards the Great Lakes, and moving business away form ports in Philadelphia and Baltimore, to New York. Soon after its opening, while land near the new shorelines had grown “hard,” the city began to sell “water lots” around its shores. The city encouraged infill in order to expand the island, and people began to increase the shorelines further – often sinking ships as a foundation. History shows that apart from sinking ships at shores, “ballast was dumped … hills [were] leveled, building sites and roadways [were] excavated, wastes, ashes and sweepings [were] collected” all in attempts to create new land at the water’s edge.1
Manhattan’s last artificial inlet, the Coenties Slip, was filled in 1870, and by the 1900’s, expansion into the Atlantic had reached over 1000ft from the tip of Lower Manhattan. At the waterfront’s peak, over 40 piers were crowded in the stretch – less than 10 remain today. The increasing prominence of the East River Waterfront as a major port and trade location meant that most residents moved further up the island. The area soon began to serve increasing financial in the early 20th century, when Charles H. Dow began to trade stocks in the area. Quickly, Wall Street became the financial center of America – further increasing the demand for more land.
Later in the 20th century, reclamation activities only grew in number. It is said that “when space was needed for services, work places, homer, or recreation, it was always possible to create more land.”2 FDR Drive, acting as a major transport link between Lower Manhattan and the rest of the island, was built in 1946. This construction required thousands of tons of landfill. Around this time, the construction of skyscrapers became a more popular method to solve the land shortage near the East River Waterfront. These large towers were being built alongside weaker buildings that would end up being damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
Today, the area serves mostly business purposes, but also has a growing residential population as well. In 2010, the East River Waterfront/Wall Street area had a population of 24,400. This was an increase of over 12,000 since 2000, and 23000 since 1970. Skyscrapers dominate the area and provide more mixed-use facilities than ever before, now being able to sustain a residential population, rather than having it’s entire population leave after offices close.