Editing East River (section)

===Narrowing the river===
Historically, the lower portion of the strait, which separates Manhattan from Brooklyn, was one of the busiest and most important channels in the world, particularly during the first three centuries of New York City's history. Because the water along the lower Manhattan shoreline was too shallow for large boats to tie up and unload their goods, from 1686 on{{dash}}after the signing of the [[Dongan Charter]], which allowed intertidal land to be owned and sold{{dash}}the shoreline was "wharfed out" to the high-water mark by constructing retaining walls that were filled in with every conceivable kind of landfill: excrement, dead animals, ships deliberately sunk in place, ship ballast, and muck dredged from the bottom of the river. On the new land were built warehouses and other structures necessary for the burgeoning sea trade. Many of the "water-lot" grants went to the rich and powerful families of the merchant class, although some went to tradesmen. By 1700, the Manhattan bank of the river had been "wharfed-out" up to around [[Whitehall Street]], narrowing the strait of the river.<ref>Steinberg, pp.23–26</ref>
[[File:Birds eye view New York City crop.jpeg|thumb|right|350px|A "bird's-eye" view of New York City from 1859; [[Wallabout Bay]] and the East River are in the foreground, the [[Hudson River]] and [[New York Bay]] in the background.]]

After the signing of the Montgomerie Charter in the late 1720s, another 127 acres of land along the Manhattan shore of the East River was authorized to be filled-in, this time to a point 400 feet beyond the low-water mark; the parts that had already been expanded to the low water mark{{dash}}much of which had been devastated by a coastal storm in the early 1720s and a [[nor'easter]] in 1723{{dash}}were also expanded, narrowing the channel even further. What had been quiet beach land was to become new streets and buildings, and the core of the city's sea-borne trade. This infilling went as far north as [[Lower East Side#Corlears Hook|Corlear's Hook]]. In addition, the city was given control of the western shore of the river from [[Wallabout Bay]] south.<ref>Steinberg, pp.26–28; 34</ref>