Part of a ship thought to date back to the 18th century was unearthed on the site for the new World Trade Center, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
On Tuesday morning, workers excavating the site of the underground vehicle security center for the future WTC discovered timbers sticking out of the mud.
“They were so perfectly contoured that they were clearly part of a ship,” said A. Michael Pappalardo, an archaeologist with the firm AKRF, which is working for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to document historical material uncovered during construction.
A 30-foot (9.1m) length of a wood-hulled vessel was found about 20 to 30 feet (6-9m) below street level on the site.
It was the first such large-scale archaeological find along the Manhattan waterfront since 1982, when an 18th century cargo ship was discovered at Water Street.
News of the discovery quickly spread with archaeologists and officials hurrying to the site.
The size of the find was one reason for the haste, also the fact that construction work could not be interrupted and also because the timber, now exposed to the air, began deteriorating.
One theory for the location is that part of the ship had been used as landfill material to extend lower Manhattan.