![South Street Seaport2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/South_Street_Seaport2.jpg)
South Street is a street in
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, located immediately adjacent to the
East River
The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens ...
. It runs from
Whitehall Street
Whitehall Street is a street in the South Ferry/Financial District neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City, near the southern tip of Manhattan Island. The street begins at Bowling Green to the north, where it is a continuation of the ...
near the southern tip of Manhattan to Jackson Street near the
Williamsburg Bridge
The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway ...
. The
Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive
The Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, commonly called the FDR Drive for short, is a limited-access parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It starts near South and Broad Streets, just north of the Battery Park ...
, in an elevated portion known as the South Street
Viaduct
A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...
, runs along the entire length of the street.
The street is noted for the
South Street Seaport
The South Street Seaport is a historic area in the New York City borough of Manhattan, centered where Fulton Street meets the East River, and adjacent to the Financial District, in Lower Manhattan. The Seaport is a designated historic district ...
, south of the
Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...
, and is the former site of the
Fulton Fish Market
The Fulton Fish Market is a fish market in Hunts Point, a section of the New York City borough of the Bronx, in New York, United States. It was originally a wing of the Fulton Market, established in 1822 to sell a variety of foodstuffs and p ...
, which was located just to the north of the seaport.
Knickerbocker Village
Knickerbocker Village Limited is a housing development situated between the Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge, in the Two Bridges section of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. Although the location was generally considered to f ...
, a municipal housing project, fronts on South Street between the Brooklyn Bridge and
Manhattan Bridge
The Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River in New York City, connecting Lower Manhattan at Canal Street with Downtown Brooklyn at the Flatbush Avenue Extension. The main span is long, with the suspension cables be ...
in the "Two Bridges" neighborhood. West of the seaport, South Street is the location of a number of office buildings, including
55 Water Street
55 Water Street is a skyscraper on the East River in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The 53-story, structure was completed in 1972. Designed by Emery Roth and Sons, the building was de ...
, and the
New York City Police Museum
The New York City Police Museum (NYCPM) is a museum that has featured the history and contributions of the New York City Police Department since its establishment in 1845. The museum was located in Lower Manhattan in New York City, near Wall Stre ...
.
History
The
East River
The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens ...
waterfront of lower Manhattan, which includes South Street (so named because it is on the south side of the island), 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
The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ( ...
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
New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam, or ) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''factory'' gave rise ...
, 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.
South Street was built on landfill in the latter part of the 17th century;
[, p.96] the city began to grade and pave it in 1798, creating a 75-foot border between houses and merchants' shops, and the wharves, slips and piers that had sprung up along the street; the width was necessary because the ships docked right against the shoreline, with their
bowsprit
The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a spar extending forward from the vessel's prow. The bowsprit is typically held down by a bobstay that counteracts the forces from the forestays. The word ''bowsprit'' is thought to originate from the Middle L ...
s sticking out into the street, giving it its nickname, the "streety o' ships".
[, p.80-81] In the early 19th century, South Street was created on additional landfill. South Street became the center of the city's shipping industry and water-based commerce for two hundred years; although by 1810 it was getting competition from
West Street
The Joe DiMaggio Highway, commonly called the West Side Highway and formerly the Miller Highway, is a mostly surface section of New York State Route 9A (NY 9A), running from West 72nd Street along the Hudson River to the southern t ...
on the other side of the island. In 1835, the
Great Fire of New York
The 1835 Great Fire of New York was one of three fires that rendered extensive damage to New York City in the 18th and 19th centuries. The fire occurred in the middle of an economic boom, covering 17 city blocks, killing two people, and destroyin ...
destroyed 76 of the buildings on the street,
but that hardly kept back the expansion of commerce along the shoreline. On one day in 1836, there were 921 vessels on the East River waiting to load or unload onto South Street, while an additional 320 waited on the Hudson. At that time, New York City had 62% of the import business in the entire country.
The amount of trade kept increasing, and by 1857 ''Gleason's Pictorial Magazine'' described both South and West Streets as blocks and blocks of "sail-lofts, shipping offices, warehouses of every description, cheap eating-houses, markets, and those indescribable stores, where old cables, junk, anchors, and all sorts of cast-off worldly things, that none but a seaman has a name for, find a refuge."
[Burrows et al., p.653]
By the 1930s, the South Street area was depressed and the hurly-burly of its heyday was gone:
On mild sunny days the drifters sit along the docks with their "junk bags", share cigarette butts, and stare endlessly into the water. In winter they cluster in little groups about small bonfires; many sleep at night in doorways with newspapers for covering. Other join the homeless men who sleep in the Municipal Lodging House, Annex No. 2, in the old ferry shed at the foot of Whitehall Street, which can accommodate about 1,200 nightly.
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 and Boston's Quincy Market.
In popular culture
The street has often been used as a location for Hollywood movies, including ''
A Hatful of Rain
''A Hatful of Rain'' is a 1957 American drama film about a young married man with a secret morphine addiction, based on a 1955 Broadway play of the same name.[Sam Fuller
Samuel Michael Fuller (August 12, 1912 – October 30, 1997) was an American film director, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, and World War II veteran known for directing low-budget genre movies with controversial themes, often made ou ...]
film ''
Pickup on South Street
''Pickup on South Street'' is a 1953 Cold War spy film noir written and directed by Samuel Fuller, and released by the 20th Century Fox studio. The film stars Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, and Thelma Ritter. It was screened at the Venice Film Fe ...
''.
Nearby points of interest
*
Alfred E. Smith Houses
Governor Alfred E. Smith Houses, or the Alfred E. Smith Houses. is a public housing development built by the New York City Housing Authority in the Two Bridges neighborhood of the Lower East Side of Manhattan. There are 12 buildings in the com ...
*
Battery Maritime Building
The Battery Maritime Building is a building at South Ferry on the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City. Located at 10 South Street, near the intersection with Whitehall Street, it contains an operational ferry terminal at ground ...
*
Imagination Playground at Burling Slip
*
Knickerbocker Village
Knickerbocker Village Limited is a housing development situated between the Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge, in the Two Bridges section of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. Although the location was generally considered to f ...
*
New York City Police Museum
The New York City Police Museum (NYCPM) is a museum that has featured the history and contributions of the New York City Police Department since its establishment in 1845. The museum was located in Lower Manhattan in New York City, near Wall Stre ...
*
Pier 11/Wall Street
Pier 11/Wall Street is a pier providing slips to ferries and excursion boats on the East River in the Port of New York and New Jersey. It is located east of South Street and FDR Drive just south of Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City ...
*
South Street Seaport
The South Street Seaport is a historic area in the New York City borough of Manhattan, centered where Fulton Street meets the East River, and adjacent to the Financial District, in Lower Manhattan. The Seaport is a designated historic district ...
*
Whitehall Street Ferry Terminal
*
55 Water Street
55 Water Street is a skyscraper on the East River in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The 53-story, structure was completed in 1972. Designed by Emery Roth and Sons, the building was de ...
* ''Never built:''
80 South Street
80 South Street is a proposed residential skyscraper in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City, that has been planned since the early 2000s. The original proposal for the skyscraper, released in 2003, was designed by renowned Spanish ...
* ''Former:''
Fulton Fish Market
The Fulton Fish Market is a fish market in Hunts Point, a section of the New York City borough of the Bronx, in New York, United States. It was originally a wing of the Fulton Market, established in 1822 to sell a variety of foodstuffs and p ...
References
Notes
Further reading
*
External links
South Street Seaport Historic Designation Report - 1977South Street Seaport Map*
{{Lower East Side
Streets in Manhattan