Lower Manhattan NYC

Aerial photo of the Lower Manhattan. Source: MacKenzie Bell and Thomas Guffey, Records of U.S. Air Force Commands, Activities, and Organization.

Photograph is dated after 1940, when the Ninth Avenue Elevated railway ceased operation, and before 1947, when the buildings between Washington and Greenwich streets, were demolished to make way for the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel entrance (not in the picture), which officially opened on May 25, 1950. In the same year, the elevated lines to South Ferry were closed.

Total population of New York City in 1940 was 7,5 million people and reached 7,9 million in 1950.