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| - The photograph does show sunbathers resting on a pile of sand used as construction landfill and transformed into a makeshift beach. However ...
The photograph in question was shot in 1983. The beach was not naturally formed and was in reality on top of a fill intended for upcoming construction.
A viral photograph claims to show a pair of New Yorkers sunbathing on what appears to be a beach in front of the former Twin Towers, also known as the World Trade Center, in 1977.
The caption on Facebook states: "On the Beach, Manhattan, 1977." The image had tens of thousands of reactions and was shared hundreds of times.
While the above photograph is real, and does indeed show Manhattan, it is missing important details. The so-called "beach" was in reality construction landfill transformed into a beach by the locals, and the photograph was shot in 1983. As such, we rate this claim as "Mostly True."
The photograph was originally shot for The New York Times by photographer Marilynn K. Yee. A black-and-white copy of the image can be seen on a 2019 story titled, "It's a Beach if We Say So: Lost Scenes From Downtown's Hipster Landfill."
The caption for the photograph identified the individuals in the image and stated: "No word on whether swimming in the Hudson River was a common occurrence, but David Vanden-Eynden and Chris Calori take in the sun, regardless. July 17, 1983."
The sand on which the pair are seated is not a naturally formed beach, though it was turned into an improvised beach by Manhattan locals. More photographs from the "beach" show New Yorkers creating art installations, setting up volleyball nets, and relaxing. Vanden-Eynden and Calori spoke to The New York Times about their experience there:
The first wave of settlers wouldn't arrive in Battery Park City until the early '80s. Until then, the sandy no man's land west of the World Trade Center was an empty stage, for which New Yorkers had no shortage of ideas. The environmental graphic designers David Vanden-Eynden and Chris Calori, seen above in a Times photo by Marilynn K. Yee, liked to take the afternoon to sit in the sun. "There was nothing there yet and there were spectacular views of the towers and across the river," says Vanden-Eynden. He and Calori would bring along a parasol, which they'd attach to a broomstick or a tripod so they could raise it over their heads. "We used to be quite inventive in our poverty."
According to The New York Times, in the 1960s, then-Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller wanted to develop the southern part of Manhattan. He planned a controversial series of apartments that resulted in years of wrangling. A 1974 New York Times story about the patch of land described the situation:
Although work on the foundation piles for the first apartment towers at Battery Park City began this fall, the design for the 16,000-apartment community on landfill in the Hudson River at lower Manhattan still has not been completed, eight years after the project was first made public.
[...]
"The early drawings were appalling — it looked like they were floating Co-Op City down the Hudson," said one architect who asked not to be identified.
The result of all the construction delays was a bit of land that turned into an "ersatz beach" for locals, as The New York Times described it. Today, that patch of land is Battery Park City, covered in high-rise buildings and views of the water.
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