Before the Great Clean-Up Began, Here Is Another Side of New York in the 1970s

Boxes of Adam and Eve products on Reade Street looking east from West Broadway, New York, July 1974:

New York In The 1970s

The Battery Park City landfill muck, New York, June 1974:

New York In The 1970s

The hulking West Side Highway closed and abandoned, New York, June 1974:

New York In The 1970s

Theatre Alley downtown off Ann Street, the narrowest street in Manhattan, filled with the litter and trash, March 1974:

New York In The 1970s

World Trade Center (the dark building at Vesey and West St) from Battery Park City landfill, the West Side Highway crosses the whole view, April 1974:

New York In The 1970s

23rd St and abandoned West Side Highway, a battered Ford Galaxy 500 drives by on cobblestones, April 1975:

New York In The 1970s

Abandoned piers at Exchange Place in Jersey City and the World Trade Center across the Hudson in Lower Manhattan, April 1975:

New York In The 1970s

Battery Park City was just a lot of mud with a great view to the industrial skyline of Jersey City and the Colgate Clock, right across West Street from the World Trade Center, April 1975:

New York In The 1970s

View from Pier A’s fire escape, Battery Park City landfill, West Side Highway, World Trade Center and lots of colorful 1970s cars on a rainy, foggy day, 1975:

New York In The 1970s

View from the 58th floor of the World Trade Center to the Battery Park City landfill, Pier A, end of the West Side Highway and New York Harbor on a foggy afternoon, March 1975:

New York In The 1970s

Where the beautiful Battery Park City esplanade along the Hudson is now, June 1975:

New York In The 1970s

Nassau Street looking toward Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, 1976:

New York In The 1970s

The swampy fields of future Battery Park City, The World Trade Center hovers, New York, August 1976:

New York In The 1970s

The abandoned West Side Highway looking out at the completed Battery Park City landfill, New York, April 1978:

New York In The 1970s

‘Welcome to Marlboro Country’ sign under the West Side Highway by 150th Street, New York, September 1979:

New York In The 1970s