Lower Manhattan Live Cam Live Cam

This New York live cam streams Lower Manhattan from the roof of the St. George Tower in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, looking west across the East River at the Financial District. Right now you can watch One World Trade Center, the towers around Wall Street and the ferries crossing between Brooklyn and Manhattan, 24/7 and free, as part of our New York live cams.

What the Lower Manhattan live cam shows

The camera sits on top of the St. George Tower, the 1929 tower of the former Hotel St. George at 111 Hicks Street. From that height the lens clears the brownstones of Brooklyn Heights and the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, the 1,826 foot walkway cantilevered over the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, and frames the southern tip of Manhattan on the opposite bank.

The tallest tower in the frame is One World Trade Center. The Port Authority lists it at 1,776 feet, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, a height picked to match the year of American independence. Around it you can follow the Financial District from the older stone high rises near Wall Street to the glass towers along the East River waterfront, with the river opening into Upper New York Bay on the left side of the view.

For a closer look at the tower itself, switch to our One World Trade Center cam, which points straight at the building from inside the Financial District.

Ferries and boat traffic on the East River webcam

The water in the foreground is the busiest part of this webcam. NYC Ferry’s East River route begins at Pier 11/Wall Street on the Manhattan side and makes its first stop at DUMBO/Fulton Ferry in Brooklyn, a short distance north of the camera, so ferries cross the river throughout the day. On weekdays the line adds extra peak service from 7 to 10 a.m. and from 4 to 7 p.m., the best windows to see the river at its busiest.

Toward the harbor end of the view you may also catch the orange Staten Island Ferry boats heading out of Whitehall Terminal at 4 South Street. The 25 minute crossing to St. George on Staten Island is free and, according to NYC DOT, carries about 22 million passengers a year. Tugboats pushing barges, sightseeing boats and, in the warmer months, sailboats share the same stretch of water.

Brooklyn Heights and the St. George Tower

The building behind this NYC live cam has its own story. The Hotel St. George was built in sections starting in 1885 and filled the whole block between Clark, Hicks, Pineapple and Henry Streets. At its peak it had 2,632 guest rooms, the largest hotel in New York City at the time, with a 120 foot saltwater pool and a roof terrace facing Manhattan. The tower was converted into co-op apartments in 1984.

Brooklyn Heights itself became New York City’s first historic district on November 23, 1965, which is why the low brownstone rooftops in front of the camera have barely changed while the Manhattan side kept growing. To see the same view in person, take the 2 or 3 train to Clark Street, whose entrance is inside the old hotel, and walk west on Clark Street to the Promenade, which opened in two stages in 1950 and 1951.

When is the best time to watch the Lower Manhattan skyline?

Because the camera faces west, the sun sets behind Lower Manhattan. Late afternoon turns the towers into silhouettes against the sky over New Jersey, and in the blue hour right after sunset the office floors and the spire of One World Trade Center light up one by one. Early morning is the opposite: the low sun rises behind Brooklyn and lights the east facing facades of the Financial District, the clearest time to read individual buildings on the live stream.

Night is when the Lower Manhattan live cam is at its most detailed. The lit windows show which towers are still busy, and the ferry lights make it easy to track boats crossing the dark river. In winter, when the sun sets before 5 p.m., the skyline lights come on while commuters are still crossing the river.

More views of the New York skyline

This camera covers Lower Manhattan from the south end of Brooklyn’s waterfront. For Midtown, our Manhattan skyline cam looks across the East River from Williamsburg toward the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building.

Harbor watchers can also follow the Statue of Liberty live cam on Liberty Island in Upper New York Bay, a few miles southwest of this view.

Keep this New York live cam open during sunset or the evening commute to see the East River at its busiest, and find more live webcams from around the world in our full catalog.