New York Songlines: 9th Avenue

West:

St. Paul the Apostle

Corner: This is the largest Catholic church that is not a cathedral in the United States. Begun in 1876, it features an altar by Stanford White, stained glass by John La Farge and statuary by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The overall design is by Jeremiah O'Rourke, carried out by George Deshon after his death.

2 (corner): Two Columbus Avenue

W <===         W 59TH ST

Roosevelt East

925 (block): The entrance to this 49-floor condo, built 1997, used to be Roosevelt Hospital's operating theater, built 1890-92.

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Coliseum Park Apartments

Built in 1957 along with the now-demolished New York Coliseum, this 15-story, two-winged complex has more than 500 apartments.

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Corner: Studio 55 theater

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Corner: Pembroke Apartments

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828: Bocca di Bacco, Italian wine bar/restaurant

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Corner: New York City Transit

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Block (415 W 51st St): St. Clare Hospital opened c. 1934, closed in 2007 (after becoming part of St. Vincent's).

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768: McCoy's Bar, fancy sports bar

Corner (365 W 51st): Xai Xai (pronounced "Shy Shy"), hip South African wine bar

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754: Vnyl, part of a mini-chain of Thai-inflected faux diners; the Skittle-colored decor is the big draw, including bathrooms that are shrines to Cher and Elvis.

746: Was Fran's Card Shop, Carewell Pharmacy

West:

737: La Locanda dei Vini, Italian

721 (corner): Metropolis Drug

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2 World Wide Plaza

720 (block): This block-filling project went up in 1989, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill-- it resembles the RCA Building on steroids. It was built on the site of the third Madison Square Garden, here from 1925 to 1966, designed by Thomas Lamb. The New York Rangers were established here in 1926, and the Knicks in 1946. The first Golden Gloves amateur boxing championship was held here March 28, 1927. A celebration for Adolf Hitler here on February 20, 1939, turned out 28,000 Nazi sympathizers. John F. Kennedy held his 45th birthday party here on May 19, 1962, with Marilyn Monroe singing him a very special ''Happy Birthday.''

728: Was the American Legion J.E. Fitzpatrick Post

West:

717: West Side Sushi

715: Was the Fountain House Thrift Shop

701: El Deportivo

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Corner (350 W 49th): The Coffee Pot got a major spiffing up in 2005.

714: La Cocina, affordable Mexican

712: New Garden Chinese

West:

Corner (401 W 47th): Barrage, popular Hell's Kitchen's gay bar boasts "wall-to-wall models"--most of which are laminated.

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700 (corner): Delta Grill, New Orleans restaurant with live music on weekends

690: Pozzo Pastry Shop, 1952-2007.

686: Amarone, pre-theater Italian

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679: Hell's Kitchen, upscale Mexican

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676A: Black Mirror Productions, which bills itself as "Manhattan's Porn Company"--responsible for such works as "Ultravixens NYC" and "Crackwhores of the Tenderloin."

672: Amy's Bread, popular specialty bakery

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653: Bruno Ravioli

651: Bali Nusa Indah, affordable Indonesian

645: Zanzibar, lounge with an open-pit fireplace

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656: 9th Avenue Saloon, gay neighborhood bar opened c. 1980

654: Cara Mia, tiny Italian

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635: The Film Center Cafe has an Art Moderne look from the 1940s. TVs here show classic films.

629: Poseidon Greek Bakery

627: Rudy's Bar & Grill gives away 1,400 free hot dogs a week.

625 (corner): Burritoville, local mini-chain--not bad.

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Film Center Building

630 (block): A 1929 Art Deco landmark by Ely Jacques Kahn, particularly noted for its beautiful lobby. Houses several film and video companies, like Cypress Films, the Digital Film Academy and CitiCam Moondance. On the northern corner is Jezebel, a pricey, elaborately decorated Southern restaurant; the southern corner is Marseille, stylish French with 3,000 bottles of wine in a former bank vault.

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611: Revolution, good-looking bar

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608: Sea Palace fish store was the Leprechaun Bar, where Westies gang leader Mickey Featherstone once shot a man for asking to buy him a drink.

606: Chimichurri Grill, Argentine steakhouse

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Manhattan Plaza

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569: Stile's Farmers Market, produce bargains

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568: Empire Coffee and Tea Company, founded 1908, sells both beans and brewed. In 1972, this address was the Loading Zone, a gay hustler bar.

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551: Project Find Coffeehouse, a resource center for the elderly and homeless, is located under the Port Authority bus station's overpass. Formerly Open Door.

547: John & Tony's West Pizzeria

545: Casa, cappucino and cupcakes

543: 9th Avenue International Foods

541 (corner): Sea Breeze Fish Market

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Port Authority Bus Terminal

The world's largest bus terminal was built in 1950 (expansions in 1963 and 1980) by the same folks who brought us the World Trade towers. There are plans to add a high-rise office tower addition.

West:

539 (corner): Troy Turkish Grill

537: Tagine, chill Moroccan restaurant/club

535: West African Grocery

533: Cafe Andalucia, a tapas bar that boasts an Internet jukebox with access to 130,000 songs

531: Ankur Grocery; South Asian and Latin products

529: All City Appliances; was International Groceries & Meat Market

527: Central Fish Market, founded 1936

523 (corner): H.K., modernist American; stands for Hell's Kitchen.

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542: (corner): Bus Stop diner

538: Bellevue Bar, self-aware dive, features a coffin "reserved for Bin Laden." Opened 1912.

534: Sandwich Planet, anything between two pieces of bread; La Duca shoes

532: Holland Bar, narrow dive opened 1927

530: Aceluk Thai Cuisine

528: Atomic Wings, local chain

526: Al Medina Halal Meat Market

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511: Was Supreme Macaroni Co. & Guido's Restaurant, old-school Italian shop with a restaurant of unfaked atmosphere tucked away inside. Appeared as "Tony's" in Luc Besson's The Professional. Building razed c. 2004.

509: La Gigante Grocery, bodega

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522 (corner): Cupcake Cafe, celebrated bakery

520: GE Cuzins, meat market

518: Pomodoro, Italian mini-chain

516: Michael's Meat Market

510: Fat Sal's Pizza

508: The Door, Mideastern-themed lounge

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500 (corner): Esposito Pork Shop dates back to 1940s.

498: Amazonia, ''a taste of the tropics''

496: Market Cafe, affordable 1950s food.

Manganaro's Hero-Boy Restaurant

492-494: Founded 1893, famous for its six-foot subs. The owner had a 25-year fued with his brother over who had the right to use their grandfather's name.

488: Manganaro Grosseria Italiana was owned by the other brother, until a judge told him to pay his brother half a million in damages, whereupon he threw in the towel, closed up shop--and talked to his younger brother for the first time in a quarter century.

West:

Corner: Hudson Crossing apartments

Lincoln Tunnel Onramp

These on-ramps and off-ramps connect to the busiest vehicular tunnel in the world, handling 120,000 vehicles a day. Opened in 1937, it was the first major tunnel project to be completed without a single worker fatality.

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Corner: Formerly Moe's Deli

480: T.S. Ma Gourmet Express, Chinese takeout

478: Cuisine of Pakistan was Club 478, bar featured in Scorcese's King of Comedy.

472: Brothers Farmers Market

468-470 (corner): Sugar Deli Food Center

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462: Aura Thai Restaurant

460: Acme Exterminating Corp.--never seems to come through for the coyote.

458: Mitchel London Foods, which Zagat calls ''the prince of takeout.''

456: Chan's Garden, Chinese takeout

450 (corner): Celia's Restaurant, Cuban diner

West:

441 (corner): HQ of GHI (Group Health Incorporated), nonprofit health insurer.

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440: Uncle Jack's, the Manhattan incarnation of a Bayside steakhouse. The 3-D sign features a formally attired mannequin--representing Jack?--offering an unappetizing plastic steak.

Corner (369-371 W 34th): Levas Politopulos building; comprises Best of the West Gourmet Deli & Pizza, Soul Fixins and West Side Candy Store. Upstairs used to be Endorphin Gym, and before that a pool hall.

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423: Golden City, Chinese takeout

421: Twins, bar with a Celtic/psychedelic sign

413: Ming's Restaurant, more Chinese takeout

411 (corner): Cheyenne Diner, classic chrome style.

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B&H Photo Video Pro-Audio

420 (block): Block-spanning superstore of "the professionals source," founded 1973.

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General Post Office

This 1913 building, New York's main post office, was designed by Charles McKim of McKim, Mead and White to complement the classical design of the old Pennsylvania Station, now destroyed. Noted for its collonade of 20 53-foot-high Corinthian columns which support the famous inscription, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” (This is not the Post Office's official motto, but its placement here-- based on Herodotus' description of Persian couriers--has made it an unofficial standard.) The building--officially renamed the James A. Farley Building, after FDR's postmaster, a New York native-- also bears the names of noted figures in the history of mail; note the inclusion of Franz Von Taxis, who might be considered the villain of The Crying of Lot 49.

The building is scheduled to be transformed into a new rail terminal to replace the warren-like Penn Station under Madison Square Garden. The retrofitted post office building is to be renamed Moynihan Station, commemorating Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who led the push for the change.

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Corner: Claytor-Scannell Control Center. Controls all train traffic in and out of Penn Station; Claytor was an Amtrak executive and Scannell was with the MTA.

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Corner (360 W 31st): This building is 21 Penn Plaza in the area's singularly unhelpful numbering system. At the corner is T.S. Ma, large Chinese place; also houses Penn Plaza Gourmet Deli, Penn Plaza Candy Stationery.

360: Alameda Diner (formerly West Side Diner)

West:

Morgan Processing and Distribution Center

Twenty million pieces of mail for Manhattan and the Bronx are processed at this Postal Service facility every day. Built 1933; James A. Wetmore, architect. During the anthrax attacks of 2001, spores were discovered in barcoding machines here; despite a lawsuit from the postal union, the building was never shut down for cleaning.

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350 (corner): Ninth Avenue Gourmet Deli

344: Roma Bona Pizza

340: Blarney Stone, mini-chain of Irish dives

338: Qasim Restaurant, Pakistani

332: Billymark's West, bar opened 1956

West:

Block (314 10th Ave): Abandoned-looking building is Morgan South, an annex to the main post office that is used for mail transport and sorting operations. An employee explains that it looks abandoned in part because of "the grafitti-proof paint they used: Spray-paint doesn't stick to it ... and it doesn't stick very well to anything else, i.e. the structure itself."

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Penn South Houses

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303: District Health Center includes a free city-run STD clinic. In front is a monument: To the Soldiers and Sailors of Chelsea; World War, 1914-1918.

The smaller monuments in front were erected by the Seymour Tammany Club to honor fellow pols: The names of Frank L. Dowling, William L. Kavanagh and Frank J. Goodwin can be read. Dowling was a Manhattan borough president.

281 (corner): Chelsea School (PS 33), K-6. Also houses PS 138 for autistic children.

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Church of the Holy Apostles

Corner: A landmarked Episcopal church designed by Minard Lafever in 1848; the AIA Guide calls it a "remarkably independent" work mixing Romanesque Revival and Italianate styles--ahead of its time either way. The Episcopalians now share the building with Congregation Beth Simchat Torah.

Penn South Houses

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Chelsea Houses

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Penn South Houses

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229: Grand Sichuan International, authentic Chinese with an enormous menu

Corner (401 W 24th): El Quinto Pino, tiny tapas bar that's really a bar--no tables. The name means "The Fifth Pine" in Spanish--an expression that means roughly "where Christ lost his shoes."

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Penn South Houses

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London Terrace

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Penn South Houses

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202: Parish & Co., American owned by former NYPD detective

200: Sandro's, Northern Italian touted by Zagat.

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General Theological Seminary

175: The oldest seminary of the Episcopal church, GTS was founded in 1817 and built here on land donated in 1822 by local landowner Clement Clarke Moore, who also taught Greek and Bible studies at the seminary.

This main building, from 1960, is the entrance to the block-long campus, as well as housing St Marks Library, the nation's leading evangelical library, with the world's largest collection of Latin Bibles. On this site was the East Building, in 1827 one of the earliest Gothic Revival buildings.

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172: Don Alonzo Cushman, a Connecticut dry-goods salesman, built a house here in 1831 and proceeded to develop much of Chelsea.

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169 (corner): La Bergamote, French cafe/bakery

163: Address of the first bakery of Samuel Bath Thomas, inventer of English muffins.

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158: O Mai, Southeast Asian from the owners of Cyclo.

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Fulton Houses

New York City Housing Authority public housing.

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Maritime Hotel

Block (363 W 16th): Built in 1966 for the National Maritime Union, featuring porthole-like windows and a sloping setback. Later home to the scandal-ridden Covenant House runaway shelter. Now a nautical-themed hotel, which includes the acclaimed Japanese restaurant Matsuri and the popular La Bottega.

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Former Nabisco bakeries (where Oreos were invented in 1912) is now a gourmet mall; features independent establishments like Fat Witch brownies, the Green Table organic wine bar, Hugh McMahon the Pumpkin Man, Amy's Bread, Manhattan Fruit Exchange, Buonitalia and much more. Major League Baseball Productions is also based here; the studios of NY1, New York's local cable news channel, relocated here in 2002. The tricky conversion from aging factory to stylish mall was handled by Jeff Vandeberg.

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Port Authority Building

300 (block): This block-filling building, originally known as the Union Inland Terminal No. 1, was built by the Port Authority in 1932 to relieve congestion by consolidating and redistributing truck shipments. When built, it may have had more cubic space than any building in the world--later surpassed by the Pentagon. To make the project self-supporting, the upper floors were designed to be rented out to private businesses, which set a legal precedent for public entities engaging in commercial transactions. It also served as the headquarters for the Port Authority until they were moved to the World Trade Center.

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Corner (401 W 14th): Markt, bar specializing in Belgian beers

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The Porter House

66 (corner): A 1905 yellow-brick Renaissance Revival warehouse--originally built for wine importer Julius Wile--with a similarly sized expansion that resembles the Borg cube grafted onto it, slightly displaced to the south. The zinc face of the new section has vertical lights built in to complete the futuristic look--it's very Minority Report. The 2003 conversion is by Gregg Pasquarelli of SHoP. It's named for the steak--because it's near a famous steakhouse, and because it's (sort of) in the meatpacking district.

62-64: Was Harold E. Hamblen Wholesale Fish

58-60: Pop Burger, stylish hamburger joint

Old Homestead Steak House

56: Opened here in 1869, on the site of a trading post that dated back to 1760.

50: Brothel-themed Red Light Bistro

West:

Kelly Building

Corner (400 W 14th):

1886 building housed The Toilet, 1970s gay sex club. Later home to Lee's Mardi Gras (3rd floor), crossdressing emporium that served as consultant to Tootsie, The Birdcage and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything. Ground floor is now Gaslight, 1890s-themed bar.

29-35: Soho House, a private club whose selection committee includes actors Griffin Dunne and Alan Cummings, who picked members like Graydon Carter and Harvey Weinstein.

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Block (675 Hudson): This triangular building, built as a factory c. 1849, houses Vento Trattoria, hip Italian. Downstairs is the restaurant's lounge, Level V, which used to be J's Hangout, an underground gay club, which was formerly gay leather club The Manhole, and before that the straight Hellfire Club. The building also contained Glenn Close's apartment in Fatal Attraction. (For real sexiness, try the Triangulo tango studios on the third floor.) Ed Harris jumps out of the north corner in The Hours.

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9 (corner): Pastis, fashionable Provencal bistro, noted for its big communal table. Carrie has lunch here on Sex and the City.

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22: Hog Pit, Southern joint noted for stuffed pig heads on walls.

18: Ono, big Japanese restaurant

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7 (corner): Formerly Rio Mar

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818 (corner): Furniture Company, the store where Carrie meets furniture designer Aidan on Sex and the City.

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823: El Faro, Spanish restaurant founded in 1927.

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813: Poet Delmore Schwartz wrote his story "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" in a boardinghouse at this address in 1935.

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Corner (99 Bank): This former General Electric warehouse was one of the Village's first conversions. The restaurant Nadine's used to be K.O.'s, a steak place.

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767: Helmut Jacoby House, modernist townhouse built in 1965.

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733 (corner): Caribe, "hot and spicy music, hot and spicy people." Used to be the International Stud, a gay bar opened in 1969 that attracted a butch crowd; immortalized in the title of the first act of Torch Song Trilogy.

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711: The AIA Guide calls this studio a "radical and heavy-handed conversion."

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The Archives

666: Built in 1892-99 as the U.S. Appraiser's Store, a warehouse for goods awaiting customs inspection; later the U.S. Federal Archives Building. Converted to mixed use, 1988.

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660: Said to be Monica Lewinsky's post-Ken Starr address.

636: Greenwich Hotel; converted in 1997 to an NYU dorm.

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620: GBE (Modern); this former auto repair shop is now home to the hip gallery once known as Gavin Brown's Enterprise. Represents Chris Ofili, Giuliani's least-favorite artist.

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627: The Village Bindery

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Saatchi & Saatchi

575 (block): HQ of the advertising giant, which has represented Margaret Thatcher and Boris Yeltsin. Some of the company's ''sensational'' art collection is displayed here.

KING ST         ===> E

CHARLTON ST         ===> E

VANDAM ST         ===> E

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The Villager

487 (corner): The weekly newspaper, published since 1933, is based here. Covering the area from Tribeca to Chelsea on the West Side and from Chinatown to the East Village on the east, its local reporting is far superior to that of the New York Times--because you get a sense that the people who live in these neighborhoods are citizens and not just consumers.

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460: Sosa Borella, Italian-Argentine

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Corner (62 Laight): Dylan Prime, spendy steakhouse noted for its Saturday Night Live cast parties and its ''pie-tinis.''

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400: This former address was the birthplace of publisher Herman Ridder, who founed Ridder publications when he acquired the German-language Staats-Zeitung in 1892. Ridder merged with Knight Newspapers in 1974 to form Knight Ridder.

390 (corner): Faulkner Information Services Center, a 1986 building by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

Smith Barney

388 (corner): This 1989 building by Kohn Pedersen Fox was once the headquarters of the Travelers Group insurance company, of which Smith Barney was the brokerage arm; when Travelers was bought by Citigroup, the largest financial services company in the world, the building was given to the former subsidiary--but it retains the enormous and garish light-up Travelers umbrella that outraged neighbors.

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BEACH ST         ===> E

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Independence Plaza North

378 (corner): This address is just the beginning of a series of 40-story apartment buildings that went up in 1975.

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Tribeca Film Center

375 (corner): This building, a 1905 warehouse that was formerly the Martinson Coffee factory, houses Miramax films, Robert De Niro's production company and the Tribeca Film Festival-- as well as the flagship of De Niro's restaurant mini-empire, the Tribeca Grill. The mahogany bar at the restaurant comes from Maxwell's Plum, the original single's bar.

FRANKLIN ST         E ===>

361: Flor del Sol, candle-filled Spanish

355 (corner): The Harrison, stylish restaurant from the owners of Red Cat and Mermaid Inn. Opened October 2001.

West:

Harrison Street Houses

A group of townhouses dating back to the early 19th or (in one case) late 18th centuries, several of which were relocated from Washington Street when a long stretch of that roadway was demapped for the Independence Plaza project.

Corner (25 Harrison): The house on the corner, originally at 315 Washington Street, was built in 1819 and was designed by John McComb Jr., New York's first home-grown architect and the co-designer of both City Hall and Battery Park's Castle Clinton.

354: The Wagging Tail, dog spa

344: On this site from c. 1900 until 1918 was Breakstone Brothers, a creamery. Founded in 1882 by Isaac and Joseph Breakstone, two immigrants from Lithuanian, the company became a major distributor of dairy products before being acquired by Kraft Foods.

364: Part of the Independence Plaza project, this building has been home to Joe Torres.

Washington Market Park

This green space, commemorating what was once New York's main produce market (now relocated to Hunts Point), is ''one of the city's best small parks''--AIA Guide.

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349: Dominic, moderately priced (for the neighborhood) Italian. Formerly Pico, pricier Portuguese.

JAY ST         ===> E

DUANE ST         ===> E

Corner (190A Duane): Roc, upscale Italian

323: Gigino Trattoria, rustic Tuscan that was the setting of the film Dinner Rush.

READE ST         ===> E

303 (corner): Dalton on Greenwich, an 11-story apartment building from 1987 designed by Beyer Blinder Belle.

West:

Independence Elementary School

Block (170 Chambers): PS 234, a creative school design by Richard Dattner, completed 1988. The kids here had to flee the September 11 attacks up the West Side Highway; there was much concern among parents that the school was reopened before it was fully decontaminated.

The sculpture on the northeast corner of the block is called "Dreaming of Faraway Places."

300: The Breakstone creamery was located here briefly, before moving to No. 344 up the street.

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295 (block): Greenwich Court II, a rounded red-brick apartment building completed in 1988--Gruzen Samton Steinglass, designers. Actress Sonia Braga has lived here.

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275 (block): Greenwich Court I, built at the same time as its twin to the north.

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Block (101 Barclay): This 1983 Skidmore, Owings & Merrill office building straddles what used to be Washington Street with a 60-foot wide atrium, likened by the AIA Guide to the Vertical Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral.

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PARK PL         ===> E

Site of 6 WTC

Contained the eight-story U.S. Customs House, destroyed in the September 11 attacks. This will be the future site of Freedom Tower, with a performing arts center fronting on Greenwich.

Site of 1 WTC

It was hit by American Airlines Flight 11 at 8:45 a.m. on September 11, 2001; it collapsed at 10:30. There were 1,432 killed in the tower, not counting rescue workers and those on the plane. Of those killed, only 72 were below the 93rd floor, the lowest hit by the plane. Employees of Cantor Fitzgerald, whose offices were on the 101st-105th floors, accounted for 658 deaths.

Site of 2 WTC

The South Tower had the world's highest outdoor observation--1,362 feet.

It was hit by United Airlines Flight 175 at 9:05 a.m. and collapsed at 9:50. Five hundred and ninety-nine occupants of this tower were killed in the attack, only four of them below the 78th floor, the lowest hit by the plane.

148: Madame Restell, New York's most prominent abortion provider, opened her offices here in 1839.

200: Future site of WTC Tower 2, scheduled to be completed in 2012. It's not clear why they didn't put follow the convention of the rest of Greenwich Street (and the city in general) and put even numbers on the west side of the street.

Site of 5 WTC

Was the nine-story Dean Witter Building, destroyed in the September 11 attacks

175: Future site of WTC Tower 3 (2012)

150: Future site of WTC Tower 4 (2012)

Site of 6 WTC

The nine-story Commodities Exchange Building, destroyed in the September 11 attacks

West:

Corner: St. Nicholas Church is supposed to be rebuilt on this spot, surrounded by a new Liberty Park.

Deutsche Bank Building

Block (130 Liberty Street): This building, built in 1974 as Bankers Trust Plaza, was acquired by Deutsche Bank in a 1999 merger. It was hit by falling debris from the South Tower during the September 11 attacks, leaving the building unusable while the bank and its insurance company argued about whether the building was a total loss. Demolition finally began in 2007--and was halted in May when debris struck the fire station next door and injured two firefighters.

Corner: This is the projected site for Tower 5 of the rebuilt World Trade Center.

W <===         ALBANY ST

120 (block): Greenwich Place is a 13-story building from 1908.

118: Greenwich Jewelers

114 (corner): Tijuana Tom's

W <===         CARLISLE ST

110 (corner): This apartment building is home to the Trinity Boxing Club.

108: Caracello Ristorante. This was in 1835 the boyhood address of diarist George Templeton Strong, who by 1865 complained that Greenwich Street was "now a hissing and a desolation, a place of lager beer saloons, emigrant boarding houses, and the vilest dens."

106: Sophie's Cuban Restaurant

104: Cafe Remy

100: Thunder Lingerie and More

Pussycat Lounge

96: A long-running topless bar, more recently a hipster hangout. The Federal-style rowhouse dates to the late 1700s, making it one of the oldest in Manhattan; its owner is threatening to tear it down, naturally.

94 1/2: Cordato's Deli is in another late-1700s building.

94 (corner): Cacique Jamaica Restaurant completes the 18th Century grouping.

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141 (block): Magnet Sandwich Shop. John Jacob Astor had a storehouse here in 1800.

CEDAR ST         ===> E

139 (corner): PGS Deli

137: O'Hara's Restaurant and Pub

135: Corbet & Conley Caterers; Napoli Pizza & Pasta

133 (corner): A 30-story condo is planned for this spot.

THAMES ST     ===> E

129 (corner): Was Papoo's Restaurant, Italian displaced by September 11

123: The back entrance to the American Stock Exchange

103: Greenwich Bagel Nosh

99: Rainbow Gourmet

Corner (2 Rector): The United States Express Company Building was put up as a 23-story building in 1907 (Clinton & Russell, architects); three stories were added in 1927. In 1916, the side facing the harbor was heavily damaged by the Black Tom Island explosion, when German saboteurs reportedly blew up a thousand tons of explosives on the Jersey shore that were headed for France and England.

West:

88 (corner): Greenwich Club Residences were built as a 35-story office building in 1929-30 and converted to condos in 2006.

82-84: This lot was the site of one of America's first circuses, organized by John Bill Ricketts. President John Adams saw the show here on October 24, 1797.

80: 3-Legged Dog Art & Technology Center (aka 3LD), a high-tech theater group; they're the only U.S. troupe licensed to use Musion Eyeliner, a system for projecting 3D video images seemingly in midair. The theater built a new home for itself (designed by Thomas Lesser) inside an active parking garage after its old space was destroyed on September 11.

56 (corner): What is this building?

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87 (corner): One John Cruger lived at this address in the late 18th/early 19th centuries, leaving behind a notebook with detailed accounts of its furnishing and decoration.

(46 Trinity Place): Built as a warehouse for the American Express Company c. 1880.

81: Built in 1900. In 1902, this was the address of Al-Hora ("The Guidance"), an Arabic-language daily.

(42 Trinity Place): The original site of Syms clothing store.

67 (corner): Built in 1811, making it one of the oldest surviving buildings in Manhattan (let alone the Financial District), the last rowhouse on the block was unusually large for its day--four stories tall and four bays wide.

EDGAR ST     ===> E

West:

Brooklyn Battery Tunnel Blower Building

This ventilation shaft for the tunnel to Brooklyn serves as the headquarters of the Men in Black in the movie of the same name. The tunnel it ventilates, built from 1940-50, is the longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnel in North America.

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Cunard Building

Corner (25 Broadway): A 1917 work by Benjamin Wistar Morris (with help from Carrere & Hastings) built for the owners of the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth, when these ships were the height of elegance in travel. Since 1977, it's housed the Bowling Green Post Office.

Bowling Green Building

(9-11 Broadway): A ''Hellenic Renaissance'' building raised in 1895 by Spencer Trask, the investor who bankrolled Edison, started General Electric, chaired the New York Times and founded the writers' colony Yaddo. The Greenwich Street side was added in 1898, and a four-story tower was added by 1920. This building housed the White Star Line offices, where anxious crowds gathered in 1912 for news of the company's Titanic.

Corner (1 Broadway): Built in 1884 as the Washington Building, it was remodeled in 1921 for J.P. Morgan's shipping company, later U.S. Lines; note nautical motifs. Remodeled again in the 1980s, it now houses a Citibank branch.