Over the centuries, the coast of Lower Manhattan has been reshaped by tides, fires, demolition, development, and various colors of gentrification. Walk with us as we unveil details of Lower Manhattan's unique architecture, piers, and urban transformations.

Over the centuries, the coast of Lower Manhattan has been reshaped by tides, fires, demolition, development, and various colors of gentrification, from Castle Clinton to the Seaport. This glass plate negative shows a Manhattan side of a small trapezoidal square once a berth for sailing vessels, named old Coenties Slip. The slip was filled with land in 1835 to become a street. Coenties Slip was named for Conraet Ten Eyck and his wife, Antje, a moneyed Dutch couple who lived in the area in the 1600s.

Coenties Slip, Shack of the caretaker for Pier 5, May 3, 1938. Coenties Slip, in the18th century was an artificial inlet in the East River. The inlet was filled in in 1835 and became a short street (only two blocks). Pier 5 was one of the city piers at the end of the Slip on the waterfront. In 2006 the section of Coenties Slip closed to the waterfront, previously a traffic island, was converted into a small park with a bluestone sitting area with benches, plantings, and a formal central plaza.

Look at any view of New York’s waterfront before the mid-20th century and you’re likely to see a barge. Barges linked Manhattan and Long Island with the rest of the country’s rail network, which had no direct freight link across the lower Hudson or the harbor. Even today, freight trains must take a 300-mile detour across a bridge at Selkirk, near Albany, to get from Brooklyn to New Jersey. Instead, 2-3 times every weekday, freight cars roll-aboard barges called car floats (built for the Pennsylvania Railroad) to cross the harbor between Owls Head, Brooklyn, and Greenville, Jersey City, just as they have for more than 150 years. In addition to barges carrying entire train cars, this lighterage system had a whole set of barge cognates for rail cars. Every railroad that served New York had its own fleet. Written by Stefan D-W, Associate Archivist, the Seamen’s Church Institute & Museum Assistant, the Waterfront Museum.

Harry Houdini on the edge of the pier, 1912. The New York Times headline on July 8, 1912, read: "Thrown Overboard Manacled in a Box." The day before the "Handcuff King" (who unsurprisingly had a theatre performance that week uptown) staged a stunt off of Pier 6 at Coenties Slip. Well announced, newspapermen, photographers, newsies, and film operators crowded the pier to the point of near suffocation. Houdini, his box, locking equipment, and assistants (and a group of reporters and photographers) were ferried out to the middle of the bay on a tug boat. There he was put into leg irons and handcuffs and stuffed into the pine box the size of an office desk. He was submerged and in no more than a minute reappeared at the surface. The crowds on the pier and from the Staten Island Ferry cheered and nearby tugs tooted in appreciation. The box, which had been nailed and bound by ropes and steel bands also resurfaced looking just as it had when it entered the water, still sealed tight.