South Street (Manhattan)
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South Street, located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, is noted for its seaport, also called the South Street Seaport. The street follows along the south-eastern shore of Manhattan and the East River, just below the Brooklyn Bridge.
Most of South Street sits below an elevated portion of the FDR Drive, known as the South Street Viaduct.
[edit] History
The East River waterfront of lower Manhattan, which includes South Street, played an important part in the early history of New York City and became, over a period of two hundred years, one of the most prosperous commercial districts in the city. This development of the South Street Seaport area from a small cluster of wharves in the 18th century to an important part of the leading port of the nation in the mld-19th century reflects the rise of New York City as an international center of commerce. As early as 1625 when the Dutch West India Company established a trading post at the foot of Manhattan Island, the area south of today's seaport served as a landing site for incoming boats. The Dutch constructed a small floating dock which extended into the East River from what is now Broad Street. As lower Manhattan, then New Amsterdam, became more populous, a few streets were cut through the surrounding countryside. One of the first was Queen Street (now Pearl Street), laid out in 1633, which rapidly became the core of the mercantile community of 17th century Manhattan. Queen Street ran along the waterfront until the latter half of the 18th century when landfill extended the eastern boundary of Manhattan out to Water and later to Front Street. Eventually in the early 19th century, South Street was created on additional landfill.
Sometime in the early 1980s, South Street was refurbished from its abandoned status into a tourist attraction to create an atmosphere similar to places like Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
[edit] Sources
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