--- title: September 11 2001: Manhattan Skyline Before the World Trade Center description: Photos from the LIFE collection depict Lower Manhattan in the decades before the Twin Towers became part of the New York City skyline canonical: https://time.com/3326954/9-11-manhattan-world-trade-center/ author: TIME Video article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-11T15:45:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:07:52.445Z article:section: History og:title: See what Manhattan looked like before the World Trade Center og:description: Photos from the LIFE collection depict Lower Manhattan in the decades before the Twin Towers became part of the New York City skyline og:url: https://time.com/3326954/9-11-manhattan-world-trade-center/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a35756a68a1bdc7/6986a2cd361760194490dcc6/lower_manhattan_1280.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1280 og:image:height: 720 og:image:alt: WEST SIDE OF MANHATTAN og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See what Manhattan looked like before the World Trade Center twitter:description: Photos from the LIFE collection depict Lower Manhattan in the decades before the Twin Towers became part of the New York City skyline twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a35756a68a1bdc7/6986a2cd361760194490dcc6/lower_manhattan_1280.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See What Manhattan Looked Like Before the World Trade Center > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Sep 11, 2014 3:45 PM UTC  Aerial view of lower West Side of Manhattan incl. Battery Park (R) w. ships docked at piers as barges travel up the Hudson River. Aerial view of lower West Side of Manhattan incl. Battery Park (R) w. ships docked at piers as barges travel up the Hudson River. Margaret Bourke-White—LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Sep 11, 2014 3:45 PM UTC Just because it’s become a cliché doesn’t make it any less true: the world changed on 9/11\. And nowhere was that change more profound or enduring than in New York City. For some, the scale of the carnage in Lower Manhattan transformed all of New York, overnight, from a place they called home to a ruin they had to leave behind forever. For countless others, the love we always had for New York only grew stronger after seeing the city so savagely attacked. Our connection to the town, and to other New Yorkers, suddenly had about it a sense of defiance, tempered by a kind of rough, unexpected tenderness: the metropolis that had always felt so huge and indomitable seemed, all of a sudden, painfully vulnerable. In need of protection. _Our_ protection. Here, we pay tribute to New York — specifically, to the storied landscape of Lower Manhattan, where 400 years ago New York was born — in photographs made in the decades before the Twin Towers anchored the foot of the island. Wall Street, Battery Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, Trinity Church, the vast, shimmering harbor — they’re all here: landmarks that, despite everything, retain their place in the collective imagination, captured by some of the finest photographers of the 20th century. **_See more of LIFE’s collection of New York City photography here, at LIFE.com:_** [Where New York Was Born](http://life.time.com/history/lower-manhattan-before-9-11-classic-photos-of-downtown-new-york/#1) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3326954/9-11-manhattan-world-trade-center/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3326954/9-11-manhattan-world-trade-center/"},"headline":"See What Manhattan Looked Like Before the World Trade Center","datePublished":"2014-09-11T15:45:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:07:52.445Z","description":"Photos from the LIFE collection depict Lower Manhattan in the decades before the Twin Towers became part of the New York City skyline","url":"https://time.com/3326954/9-11-manhattan-world-trade-center/","keywords":["remembrance","Life","New York","Photos","9/11","World trade center"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a35756a68a1bdc7/6986a2cd361760194490dcc6/lower_manhattan_1280.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Video","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-video/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a35756a68a1bdc7/6986a2cd361760194490dcc6/lower_manhattan_1280.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"WEST SIDE OF MANHATTAN","caption":"WEST SIDE OF MANHATTAN","creditText":"Margaret Bourke-White—LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3326954/9-11-manhattan-world-trade-center/","name":"See What Manhattan Looked Like Before the World Trade Center"}}]}] ```