Filmmakers Ric Burns and James Sanders point to Lower Manhattan, Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island and the High Line as places where New York’s history and evolution are visible. Episodes 9 and 10 of New York: A Documentary Film are airing on PBS.
Burns described Lower Manhattan’s southern tip as a dense record of roughly 400 years of history, citing the African Burial Ground and the place where George Washington took the presidential oath. He said landfill extended the area into surrounding waters, including land later used for the original World Trade Center.
Sanders called Four Freedoms Park a Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial designed by architect Louis Kahn, with views across the East River toward Manhattan and Queens. He said Roosevelt Island changed from asylums and infectious-disease hospitals into a residential community and Cornell Tech. Burns also cited the 1.5-mile High Line, a former elevated freight line turned public park, as an example of the city reusing its past; he said New Yorkers ultimately make the city special.
