Land reclamation in Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan today is nearly 50% larger than it was when the Dutch first established New Amsterdam in the early 1600s.
As the city grew, both the Dutch and later the English reshaped Manhattan's shoreline by constructing wharves, filling in canals, and extending the land into the Hudson and East Rivers to accommodate expanding commerce and port activity.
Beginning in 1855, Battery Park itself was created through landfill, and in the 1970s Battery Park City was built on 92 acres of new land, much of it created from excavated material removed during construction of the original World Trade Center. Together, these ambitious land reclamation projects dramatically transformed the island's coastline and laid the foundation for Lower Manhattan's modern waterfront.
When the Dutch established New Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan in 1626, they found a landscape of marshes, tidal creeks, and low-lying wetlands that reminded them of the Netherlands. Drawing on engineering techniques from their homeland, they drained wetlands, dug canals—including one along present-day Broad Street—and reinforced the shoreline to improve commerce, transportation, and defense. These early land reclamation efforts created valuable new land, laid the foundation for the city's expanding waterfront, and marked the beginning of the dramatic transformation of Lower Manhattan's coastline.
In the early 1600s, The Battery area was recognized and colonized by the Dutch. The Dutch built forts including Fort Amsterdam in 1626. In 1664, the British took over New Amsterdam and renamed it New York.
When the Dutch created New Amsterdam on the southern tip of Manhattan in 1626, one of their first acts was draining the wetlands along the shoreline. They dug a canal from a creek that ran down what is Broad Street today and shored up the coastline. Elminating wetlands was also seen as good for public health to prevent insect-borne diseases. By draining these wetlands, they created new land, and the canal allowed boats to enter the city itself.
When the Dutch arrived in New York City in 1624 they found Manhattan’s lowlands similar to that of their fatherland. They created canals that drained the wetlands and shored up the coastline to facilitate commerce, trade, and defense.
Under British rule after 1664, New York dramatically expanded its shoreline through land reclamation. The city sold "water lots" along the East and Hudson Rivers to private landowners, who built retaining walls and filled in the river to create new land for warehouses, docks, and commercial buildings. Between 1680 and 1731, streets were extended hundreds of feet into the water, while batteries (artillery emplacements) constructed along the southern shore gave the area its enduring name—The Battery. By the eve of the American Revolution in 1775, nearly 500 acres had been added to Lower Manhattan, transforming it into one of the busiest ports in North America.
1680–1731: The British built platforms of dirt off the island's southern tip for military defense. The English expanded the East and West river shorelines outward to build docks and port facilities.
When the English arrived on the scene august 1664, local officials sold off so-called water lots—those parts of the shoreline that were exposed during low tide—to private landowners, who would create a retaining wall and fill in the land. Over time, water lots were sold further and further out.
The English continued this tradition of landmaking by expanding the streets outward into both the East and Hudson Rivers.
Land creation had multiple purposes. First, it provided new real estate to help the city grow. Additionally, since the new land was now in deeper water, ships laden with merchandise could dock at the wharves and piers rather than anchoring further away and transferring their wares on barges, thus reducing transportation costs and creating a bustling port.
On the eve of the American Revolution, 1775 British New York had added nearly five hundred acres of land along the Lower Manhattan shoreline
Bounded by a wall on the north—a boundary line that we now call Wall Street—the Dutch looked to the shoreline for expansion. Colonists began “reclaiming” land by dumping city debris such as dirt and garbage into the rivers, extending the streets 200 to 400 feet out between 1680 and 1731
The Dutch fort (though rebuilt) remained a defensive location for the English as well. Colonial Governor Thomas Dongan began building batteries along the shore in 1683, giving the area its name.
The East River waterfront shifted to Water Street. The Montgomerie Charter of 1731 accelerated the expansion of Lower Manhattan's East River waterfront by granting New York City ownership of the underwater land extending to what is now Water Street. Intended to support the city's growing maritime economy, the charter encouraged private developers to create new streets, wharves, and port facilities by building retaining walls and filling the river with construction debris, ship ballast, ashes, and excavated soil. As trade flourished, slips and inlets were gradually filled, shifting the shoreline eastward and transforming Lower Manhattan into one of the busiest ports in colonial America.
The East River waterfront shifted to Water Street. Land reclamation was catalyzed by the Montgomerie Charter of 1731, designed to provide New York City with the streets, wharves, and port facilities of a growing seaport, and granted the city ownership of underwater land along the Lower Manhattan shoreline. Issued by colonial Governor John Montgomerie, it granted the city title to land extending into the East River to what is now Water Street. The goal was to spur private investment to build streets and port facilities. Developers and citizens expanded the landmass by incrementally dumping construction debris, street refuse, ashes, ship ballast, and excavated dirt directly into the river. Slips, wharves, or inlets were gradually filled in as the city’s population and maritime trade rapidly expanded.
The British strengthened the city's southern defenses by constructing the Copsey Battery, an artillery platform built on reclaimed land extending into New York Harbor. Created by filling water lots with earth and rubble, the battery was part of a growing network of fortifications protecting the port. This military expansion also continued the long process of enlarging Manhattan's shoreline through land reclamation, foreshadowing the extensive waterfront growth that would reshape Lower Manhattan over the next two centuries.
The British built platforms of dirt off the island's southern tip for military defense again in 1735 as the Copsey Battery.
The term "1735" in the context of land reclamation in New York City refers to the year the British constructed the Copsey Battery—an early defensive platform built over dirt and waterlots off the southern tip of Manhattan to protect the harbor
The East River waterfront shifted to Front Street
: The historic winter of 1780 featured such extreme cold that New York Harbor and the rivers completely froze over, allowing Revolutionary War armies to cross the ice.
: The city extended its boundaries by selling "water lots" to private developers. Buyers were legally required to fill in these underwater shallows to build permanent wharves and warehouses.
Fort George/Amsterdam was fully razed in 1788, and the remains of it were used for the expansion of the Battery.
: Following the British evacuation, Fort George at the Battery was completely razed in 1788, and its rubble was used to expand the shoreline into the harbor
In 1788, the fort was demolished, and the rubble was used as landfill to create a public promenade.
The East River waterfront shifted to South Street
Between 1808 and 1811 the Army Corps of Engineers, led by Jonathan Williams, constructed a new circular fort named the West Battery 200 feet from the shoreline. It was renamed Castle Clinton in honor of Governor De Witt Clinton in 1815. The United States Congress ceded it to the city in 1823. In 1824, it was renamed Castle Garden and functions as a place for entertainment.
Between 1808 and 1811, a new, circular fort was built 200 feet offshore on an artificial island to prepare for the War of 1812. Originally called the West Battery, it was re-named Castle Clinton in 1815. In 1824, it was repurposed as Castle Garden, and became a popular entertainment venue and beer hall.
Shortly thereafter, more land was added to the park to extend it to an area of around 10 acres (4.0 ha) via landfill.
1855–1889: The Battery was mostly created by landfill starting from 1855, using earth from street-widening projects in Lower Manhattan, which united Castle Garden's island with the "mainland" of Manhattan. The city built out the southern tip to create the present-day The Battery park.
During the 1840s, as people began clamoring for more park space on Manhattan, the idea of infilling the area between the Battery and Castle Clinton took hold. Battery Park was thus created with landfill, uniting Castle Garden island with Manhattan. From 1855 to 1896, Castle Clinton operated as the city’s official immigrant processing depot before Ellis Island opened.
In the mid-19th century, these streets were connected at the lower tip with the creation of the 25-acre Battery Park, made with landfill.
many older cities already destroyed their natural habitats in the 18th and 19th centuries.
New York and Boston removed many of their natural wetlands through reclamation. This was done at a time when eradicating mosquito-borne diseases, for example, by draining wetlands was seen as good for social health.
Land reclamation offers the opportunity to recreate these wetlands and return native species. It enables the promise of increasing biodiversity by planting native plants and trees. Retaining walls in the sea can be build with crevices and overhangs to provide shelter for marine animals and areas for nesting. Those who promote the concept of urban forests can see some of this land used to plant more trees and for urban forest parks.
Secondly, because of sea level rise and climate change-caused storm surges, many coastal areas are at high risk.
Big cities are economic engines, and managed retreat will harm the local and national economies. While some cities can build underwater seawalls that rise just before a storm surge, they are expensive and rarely used. Land reclamation offers the benefit of protecting the current housing around the shorelines by creating a new buffer zone. And the new land can be built at a higher elevation and with wetlands, berms, and dunes to absorb surges.
Lastly, new land offers the opportunity to build more desperately needed housing.
NIMBYism and restrictive building regulations have led to skyrocketing housing costs because many neighborhoods are off-limits for new construction. Adding new land through reclamation can provide new housing without any displacement. If built and managed wisely, this new land can create new vibrant neighborhoods with a range of housing types, including affordable units, great park space, and new natural habitats. And, given today’s high real estate prices, this new land can be paid for by the revenue generated by new construction.
FDR Drive was built along the East River shore in the 1930s using embankments and pilings. East River Park was also built on landfill.
The 92-acre Battery Park City was built into the Hudson River using dirt and rock excavated from the World Trade Center.
1973 - When planning commenced for the construction of the World Trade Center, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had to find a way to build the two largest skyscrapers in the world on landfill. This unstable ground meant that engineers would need to dig down to a layer of Manhattan schist, the strong and durable bedrock that formed 450 million years ago, to anchor the foundation of the Twin Towers. But even before digging could begin, engineers had to figure out how to create a waterproof barrier between the Hudson River and the site to prevent water from seeping through the soil and flooding the hole during construction. The solution would come all the way from Italy with a new underground and deep foundation construction technology used a few times in America but never before at the scale of the World Trade Center. ------
The World Trade Center
After World War II, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) moved the city’s port to the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, which could accommodate the large container ships. Between the declining fortunes of Manhattan’s port and the aging Art Deco offices, Lower Manhattan was falling on hard times.
In 1957, David Rockefeller, Chairman of Chase Bank and grandson of oil baron John D. Rockefeller, spearheaded the creation of the Downtown Lower Manhattan Association (DLMA) to help revitalize Lower Manhattan. The DLMA commissioned Skidmore, Owings & Merril (SOM) to create a master plan, which included a World Trade Center and office and exhibition space near the East River south of the Brooklyn Bridge. The DLMA turned to the Port Authority as a natural agency that could spearhead construction.
After protracted negotiations and “slum clearance,” the PA took control of a 15-acre (6-hectare) site on Manhattan’s lower west side and built the World Trade Center, including the Twin Towers, on landfill created in the 19th century.
Battery Park City
Excavation for the World Trade Center produced a lot of material that had to go somewhere. Thus, the idea of creating a new neighborhood, Battery Park City, emerged by reusing the fill for new land next to the World Trade Center site. However, the plan was expanded to 92 acres (0.37 km2) and only a quarter of the fill came from World Trade Center site.
The Battery Park City Authority developed the complex, which was formed in 1968 by the New York State Legislature. While the neighborhood took a while to be fully built out, today, it is hailed as a success story of how to create a mixed-use neighborhood from scratch. The site contains 9,300 residents in 30 residential towers, 10 million square feet of office space, parks, museums, a marina, and a riverside promenade.
Waterside Plaza
Another example of a successful housing development is Waterside Plaza. In 1973, twelve years after it was first proposed, the “ambitious and dramatic Waterside housing development over the East River was formally opened…by Mayor Lindsay and former Mayor Robert F. Wagner.” The project contains 1470 residential units within three towers and rows of townhouses on a six-acre platform built over the East River. Two thousand steel piles were sunk 80 feet in the riverbed to support the platform. Many units are reserved for middle- and low-income households, made possible by various housing subsidy programs.
The Big U construction started, with expected completion by 2030. Five separate projects are being implemented as part of the LMCR, each constructed to provide comprehensive flood defense for Lower Manhattan, tailored to respond to individual neighborhood typology and community-desired amenities: the Brooklyn Bridge-Montgomery Coastal Resilience; South Battery Park City Resiliency; the Battery Coast Resilience; North/West Battery Park City Resiliency; Seaport Coastal Resilience; and FiDi-Seaport Master Plan. The "Big U" is a 10-mile resilient infrastructure proposal designed to shield Lower Manhattan from storm surges, flooding, and sea-level rise following Hurricane Sandy. The mega-project integrates protective physical barriers with upgraded, public-friendly waterfront spaces (sometimes dubbed "social infrastructure").
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