Yesterday, Jane Ludlam emailed us to let us know that the old rusted metal pier in the Hudson River at West 63rd Street was being demolished, meaning a little part of history is gone.The pier, known as Pier D, and the others (like "Spaghetti Pier," Pier C, to its south) were once part of the New York Central Railroad; according to the Parks Department, "It was the primary departure, receiving, and classification area for the sole all-freight line on the island of Manhattan. Gantry ramps permitted boxcars to be rolled on and off barges that traversed the Hudson River.
Back in 2003, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said that the piers would eventually be demolished, because of a decision rendered after a City Planning Department uniform land-use review procedure; Benepe told the NY Times saving the piers "would require a new Ulurp, which is not a minor thing." Cut to 2007, when City Room reported:
After years of inaction, Pier D — also called the “Frank Gehry Pier,” after its almost organically random angles — and the nearby “Spaghetti Pier,” a tangled mess of steel from the 1971 fire, were finally to be removed in 2003 as part of the Riverside Park South project. (Pier I, at the foot of West 70th Street, reopened in 2001 as a pedestrian promenade and fishing spot.)
Adrian Benepe, the parks commissioner, who had favored the preservation of Pier D, said he was alerted one day that a crane had begun dismantling the pier, severing its connection to the landside bulkhead. He raced to the site. “I basically gave them a field order to stop,” he recalled.
“The combination of the accidental artwork and preserving a piece of our industrial heritage was compelling,” Mr. Benepe said.
Because approved plans for the site had called for the removal of Pier D, however, he said its preservation had to be negotiated. The parks department agreed to undertake a new study of the effect of structural coverings along the river on fish habitats below. In the 1980s, a project to build a highway called Westway through 200 acres of landfill in the Hudson was upended when it was determined that it could pose a threat to striped bass.
We've contacted the Parks Department for an update about Pier D. But landscape architect Thomas Balsley, who designed Riverside Park South, had told the Times in 2003 that the piers would "be impossible to stabilize," and saving them would just mean letting them collapse on their own.
At least we have the 69th Street Transfer Station, which is landmarked.
