This aerial image captures lower Manhattan when the tip of the island was scored with piers and dotted with old buildings. The area, however, was on the eve of evolution. "Much of lower Manhattan where New York was born and began the expansion that has made it the nation's largest and wealthiest city, will be dramatically transformed with projects now under construction or planned are completed," The Times wrote April 17, 1963.

This photo was published with the headline, "Lower Manhattan Comes of Age: Antique Buildings Yield to New." The Times wrote, "Inevitably the downtown changes will destroy much of the historic character of an area where reminders of Dutch and English rule and the early days of independence still abound."

The new projects in development were many. "Among them Û_ a huge World Trade Center, in which will be concentrated many of the port's traditional export and import activities."