BATTERY,
FOOT OF WEST STREET, May 12, 1936
Abbott File 114
One week after photographing the Department of Docks on Pier A, Abbott returned to the Battery to show the building in context. Perched on a narrow granite wall which extended into the harbor, She contrasted the Victorian pier shed with the Whitehall Building, one of the grand skyscrapers of the pre-World War I era. A project researcher observed that Whitehall's "situation at the Battery makes it impossible to build other office buildings to dwarf [its] majesty or impair its position." The observation proved quite wrong: although the glorious harbor views from Whitehall remain unobstructed, the building no longer commanded the skyline. By 1972, a few blocks north on West Street, the 110-story twin towers of the World Trade Center soared above the 32-story Whitehall.