In the 1600s, a waterfront road in downtown Manhattan was paved with oyster shells due to the abundance of oyster reefs in New York Harbor. It’s estimated that New Yorkers were consuming approximately 1 million oysters per day, making the city the oyster capital of the world. The shells were even ground into mortar paste and used for construction on buildings like Trinity Church. However, by 1927, the last oyster bed in New York was closed due to overfishing and pollution. It wasn’t until 2000 that the water in the harbor was clean enough to sustain life again. Now, projects are restoring the oyster reefs, which act as natural filters and homes for various marine life, though they’ll likely never be fully restored to what they once were. Nevertheless, oysters remain a quintessential part of New York.