Lower Manhattan
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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. 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 on 9/11 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.
Historic sites
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.
Cardinal Directions in Manhattan
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.
Education
Higher Education
Elementary/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 [link].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
- Pace University High School
- Seward Park High School
- Unity High School
- University Neighborhood High School
Extended area
All 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.
External links
- [Gallery of photographs]
- [Air visit of 'Lower Manhattan' in Photographs]
- [A neighborhood map of Lower Manahattan] (PDF file)
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