Lower Manhattan
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Woolworth Building, looking south along Broadway |
Lower 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. It is generally defined as the area delineated on the north by Chambers Street, on the west by the
North River (
Hudson River), on the east by the
East River, and on the south by
Battery Park and
New York Harbor (also known as
Upper New York Bay). Lower Manhattan includes City Hall, the Municipal Building, the
Financial District and the site of the
World Trade Center. It is the fourth largest central business district in the United States, after
Midtown Manhattan,
Chicago's
Loop, and
Washington D.C. The neighborhood was previously the third largest
CBD.[
1] Lower Manhattan's fall to fourth place can be attributed by the district's loss of the World Trade Center, which contributed over 16 million square feet of office space to the area. The square footage lost in the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks was equivalent to the office space in the entire city of
Cincinnati in 2001. It is expected that Downtown will regain its third place ranking after the reconstruction of the World Trade Center, which is expected to yield close to the original center's square footage of rentable commercial space, and the construction of financial firm
Goldman Sachs' new headquarters.
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,
Fraunces Tavern, renovated original mercantile buildings of the
South Street Seaport (and a modern tourist building), the
Fulton Fish Market,
Brooklyn Bridge,
South Ferry, embarkation point for the
Staten Island Ferry and ferries to
Liberty Island and
Ellis Island, and the
Woolworth Building, once the tallest in the world.
The terms "Lower Manhattan" and "Downtown" are often roughly synonymous when used as a place name, referring to the same geographic area.
"Downtown Manhattan" may have different meanings to different people, especially depending on what part of
New York City they live in. Generally speaking, it refers, like "Lower Manhattan," to the area of
Manhattan south of
Canal Street. With this understanding, it would refer to the neighborhoods of the
Financial District,
Battery Park City,
TriBeCa, and most of
Chinatown. However, many people (especially when talking about business matters) would use the term "Downtown Manhattan" to refer only to the Financial District and the businesses located there. This area is also the earliest settled (by Europeans) area of
New York City, and is one of the few areas of
Manhattan that does not have its streets arranged in a strict grid pattern. The area of the
World Trade Center is also within Downtown Manhattan.
The terms
downtown and
uptown can also refer to cardinal directions. If somebody says, "We're going to take the subway downtown," the term refers to traveling in the geographic direction of south. If one is standing on 121st Street and walks ten blocks south, they have walked ten blocks downtown. Conversely, the term
uptown is used to refer to the cardinal direction north.
This concept applies in Manhattan, which is an elongated island facing north/south, and never more than 2 miles wide. As such, most of the train service and major thoroughfares on the island travel in the uptown/downtown directions. The other
boroughs are all much larger geographically.
Higher education
*
CUNY-Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC)
*
Pace UniversityElementary/secondary education
The
New York City Department of Education operates New York City's public schools. Manhattan residents living south of Chambers Street are zoned to either P.S. 234 Independence School or P.S. 89. All of the residents are zoned to M.S. 104 Simon Baruch [
2].
There is no high school zoning. Nearby high schools include:(South of Chambers)
*
Stuyvesant High School*
Murry Bergtraum High School*
High School of Economics and Finance*
High School for Leadership and Public Service*
Millennium High School(North or East of Chambers)
*
Pace University High School*
Seward Park High School*
Unity High School*
University Neighborhood High SchoolAll of Lower Manhattan is contained in the larger area New Yorkers refer to as
Downtown Manhattan. What constitutes Lower Manhattan is partly a matter of perspective, though nobody would describe Lower Manhattan as extending beyond
23rd Street, where
Midtown Manhattan is often said to begin.
Lower Manhattan would be considered by some to continue somewhat further north than Chambers Street, to
Canal Street, in which case it would include the
TriBeCa area, and parts of
Chinatown and
Little Italy or to
Houston Street, which would encompass the gallery-laden
SoHo, the former
Five Points district, the
Lower East Side, and the rest of Chinatown and Little Italy.
*
Gallery of photographs*
Air visit of 'Lower Manhattan' in Photographs*
Downtown Manhattan views from NYC Addict*
A neighborhood map of Lower Manahattan (
PDF file)
