Lower Manhattan

From Freepedia

Lower Manhattan describes the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the City of New York. 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 third largest central business district in the United States, after Midtown Manhattan and Chicago's Loop.

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.

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 mainly 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.

Extended area

All of Lower Manhattan is contained in the larger area New Yorkers know 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. If you live in upper Manhattan, above 59th Street, or outside of Manhattan, you might regard Downtown and Lower Manhattan as a single, contiguous unit.

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.