For more than a century, the Hudson River piers in Greenwich Village bustled with the maritime commerce that made New York the greatest port in the country. By the 1960s, after years of economic decline, the great waterfront was disappearing. After the West Side Highway was closed in 1973, many of the piers, now abandoned, burned, while others collapsed into the river. By the 1990s, only ghosts were left.Yet there came a moment in time-fifteen years, perhaps-when the decaying piers supported a thriving other life. These ravaged iron structures became the Jones Beach of Manhattan; rotting...
For more than a century, the Hudson River piers in Greenwich Village bustled with the maritime commerce that made New York the greatest port in the co...