At the north side of this park is Edgar Street, reputedly the shortest street in Manhattan. Its gentle downward slope, also visible in the surrounding east/west streets, is the vestige of a ridge or bluff that ran parallel with the shoreline and crested at about Broadway, where Trinity Church is sited. It was a narrow street in its early days, no more than eighteen feet wide, called 'Tuyn Paat' or 'Garden Alley' in the Dutch period (1624–1664). When the British took control of the colony in 1664, the street name was changed with characteristic indifference to Tin Pot Alley. The city government acquired the street in 1795, at which time its current name was affixed. Edgar likely refers to the family of William Edgar (1736–1820), a merchant from Detroit who came to New York circa 1780 and established a successful shipping business, with links to India and China. For a time, the street served as a thoroughfare or driveway leading to the Edgar family household located nearby. Until the western shoreline was filled in, this street ran to or very near the water's edge. The
Robert and Anne Dickey House, located across Edgar Street from Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza, is the only structure remaining on Edgar Street. The line of Greenwich Street was the approximate original coastline of Manhattan Island. In 1787, the
Common Council acted on a pre-war proposal to expand the shoreline sixty feet into the
Hudson River. Then began the construction of Greenwich Street, which soon hosted a row of Federal-style townhouses. Washington Street followed in approximately 1808 and West Street by 1830. The drop in grade from Broadway to Greenwich Street abruptly evens out where the landfill begins. == Renaming and renovation ==