The South Street Seaport and Pier 17 are now filled with bustling tourists and shoppers, but underneath the shops and restaurants is real New York history. Until 1860, the South Street Seaport area was the very center of New York’s ports. The expansion of the shipping industry led to the development of other ports on the west side of Manhattan, but South Street Seaport remained a thriving neighborhood for the maritime industry until the 1920s. The South Street Seaport Museum preserves some of the area’s history, with one of the world’s largest collections of historic ships and ship models.