Lower Manhattan Through Time

Lower Manhattan has its roots as a tiny Dutch settlement at the very southern tip of Manhattan Island. The city slowly expanded, and as the city limits pushed northward, so too did the concept of downtown. Today’s lower Manhattan includes such landmarks as the Freedom Tower, Trinity Church, South Street Seaport, and Fraunces Tavern, as well as neighborhoods such as Chinatown, Little Italy, SoHo, and TriBeCa. The Wall Street area, the heart of lower Manhattan, has changed the most over the last 200 years, while in Greenwich Village you can still find many original early nineteenth century residences.

Lower Manhattan is a truly vibrant place, bustling with commerce and crowded with tourists, yet it is also home to many thousands of New Yorkers. It is both modern and old fashioned, stately and quirky at the same time. From the country’s tallest skyscraper to streets with the feel of a small European village, lower Manhattan is New York City at its best and most fascinatingly diverse, offering a wide array of shopping, restaurants, and historic sites.