3. Original Shoreline Marker

326 Spring Street, the historic Ear Inn, comfortably sits a block and a half back from the Hudson River. However, before 1825, the building sat only 5 feet from the rocky shoreline at the water’s edge. Once the Erie Canal opened, making the Hudson River a integral trade route, the land in this area of Manhattan was extended with landfill to create docks and landings for ships that would unload goods onto Manhattan’s shore and the shoreline was extended westward.

A plaque on the sidewalk commemorates the original shoreline of the river from 1766. This line wasn’t crossed until 2012 when Hurricane Sandy brought the Hudson’s waters almost a quarter mile inland, reaching almost to Hudson street.