Tribeca
Neighborhood Intelligence

Tribeca, short for "Triangle Below Canal Street," was named in the early 1970s for the district of warehouses and produce markets that gave the area its character. Before then it was a mercantile area centered on produce, dry goods, and textiles, and its cast-iron and brick loft buildings were converted to residences as artists and then other residents moved in. The Tribeca Festival was founded after the September 11 attacks to bring people back to the neighborhood. The official area covered here, NYC Planning's Tribeca-Civic Center, runs from Canal Street south to Vesey Street and Park Place and from the Hudson River east to Baxter Street and the Brooklyn Bridge approach.

The eastern half is Lower Manhattan's government center. City Hall, completed in 1812, stands in City Hall Park near the Tweed Courthouse, and the federal and state courthouses surround Foley Square. The African Burial Ground National Monument commemorates the cemetery rediscovered during construction work in 1991. The Woolworth Building, designed by Cass Gilbert, was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1929. In the western blocks, Washington Market Park and Duane Park provide small green spaces among the converted warehouses.