10. The Cable Building, 611 Broadway

The Cable Building gets its name from the industry of its first tenant, the Metropolitan Traction Company, a company that leased and operated cable car lines in Manhattan. The lower floors of this nine-story building held machinery while the upper levels contained office space. Inside the building, completed in 1894, there were once four 32-foot steam powered wheels that moved a network of cables for as many as sixty cable cars traveling up and down Broadway from the Battery to Midtown.

The frame of the building is made of steel and iron with a terra cotta and stone facade. By 1901, the last steam powered cable car made its journey down Broadway and the line became electrified. By 1904 the advent of the subway made cable cars completely obsolete. The building was used for garment industry manufacturing until being turned into retail and office space in the 1980s. Today the bottom levels are occupied by a Crate & Barrel store on the Broadway side and the Angelika Film Center on Houston.