13. Battery Place

This is another part of New Yorks' original shoreline. Now it forms the northern boundary of Battery Park, one of the city's most popular tourist destinations. The Battery was originally an island named for the row of guns positioned here by the British. Slowly but surely landfill surrounded it, making it part of a greater island.

The small yellow building on the edge of the park is a remnant of the city's first subway line, the Interborough Rapid Transit, known more often today as the Green Line. Heins and La Farge, the architects, also designed a much larger building uptown, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Battery Place ends at Pier A on the Hudson River. This building is the only remaining pier shed in Manhattan from Victorian times. The clock tower is a memorial to the soldiers and sailors killed in World War I. Pier A is undergoing restoration and will open as a restaurant complex in 1999. Go through the black iron gates to Wagner Park (closed from dusk to dawn).