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In 1966, a swath of Lower Manhattan faced a demolition job of staggering magnitude. Over the next year, whole streets were slated to disappear, and did, along with the cast-iron "Bartleby the Scrivener"-era buildings that lined them, housing printing lofts and importers, tanneries and produce stalls. More than 24 city blocks would be razed to allow for a wave of development that included an access ramp for the Brooklyn Bridge, the expansion of Pace University, and office buildings, shops and housing.
Opening the way for the expansion of West Street, the construction of the World Trade Center and, eventually, Battery Park City, the area was pulled apart, literally, brick by brick. In all, some 60 acres of buildings below Canal Street vanished.
As astonishing as the scope of the demolition project was, it attracted few witnesses. One was the photographer Danny Lyon.