The last visitors shuffled out into the brilliant sunshine of Manhattan's Battery Park. Inside the Aquarium, the big pool where the sea lions once arched their sleek backs was empty; in the green gloom of the cavernous, dank galleries, water gurgled away, the lights went dark. The world's biggest marine exhibit, its denizens shipped away, was being dismantled.
Soon a wrecking crew will start tearing down the big grey, circular building that has stood on the Battery for 134 years. Its solid, eight-foot walls will be leveled to make way for the wide approaches to Manhattan's new vehicular tunnel under the...