PIER 13, FOOT OF CORTLAND STREET
APRIL 9, 1936. ABBOTT FILE 108

PIER 14, FOOT OF FULTON STREET
MARCH 23, 1938. ABBOTT FILE 292

PIER 18, FOOT OF MURRAY STREET
MARCH 23, 1938. ABBOTT FILE 293

From 1900 to mid-century, New York's Hudson River waterfront from the Battery to 59th Street was the busiest port in the world, with freighters, oceanliners, steamboats, ferries, and tugs filling its piers. The piers first serviced steamship lines, which were gradually acquired by the railroad companies. Goods were transported by rail to New Jersey, moved by scow across the Hudson, and stored in sheds on the piers. Although the port was thriving in the 1930s, the Holland Tunnel (1927) and the Lincoln Tunnel (1937) initiated its demise, as trucking became New York's primary means of transport.

Piers 13 and 14 were entirely devoted to freight storage, but Pier 18 docked oceanliners run by the Eastern Steamship Line. The research file for this image includes a brochure advertising a cruise to Bermuda for visitors to the 1939 New York World's Fair.

South of 23rd Street was an almost unbroken line of bulkhead sheds that walled off maritime activity from West Street. These simple, utilitarian structures with billboard-sized letters attracted Abbott's eye, and she photographed three of them from across West Street. She avoided the early morning and late afternoon when the street, according to the WPA Guide, was "a surging mass of back-firing, horn-blowing, gear-grinding trucks and taxis." Instead, she worked at midday, when the area was relatively empty and the sun was strong. With the construction of the elevated West Side Highway, Abbott knew that unobstructed views of these pier facades were fast disappearing.The city's 1965 market terminal at Hunts Point in the South Bronx put an end to Manhattan's waterfront commerce. The piers from the Battery to Chambers Street were demolished to make way for Battery Park City, a 92-acre landfill development still in the making.

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