Round Manhattan's Rim

Step off the beaten path and discover the wild, hidden edge of New York City.

In 1934, fearless journalist Helen Worden (The Real New York) and her companion set out on an extraordinary, months-long expedition: to walk literally all the way around the 33-mile shoreline of Manhattan Island.

Wandering the rim along the East, Harlem, and Hudson Rivers, they uncovered a vibrant, forgotten world tucked just out of sight from the rest of the bustling metropolis. From the ghosts of rum-runners and pre-Revolutionary houses to the lively chaos of the Fulton Fish Market, Worden captured a city where past and present strangely mingle.

Brought back into print by editor/publisher Barbara La Rocco's Be the Rock Press, Round Manhattan's Rim is a charming, gossipy, and deeply atmospheric guide to New York's maritime underbelly. Part social history, part adventure travelogue, this rediscovered classic invites you to trade the skyscrapers for the shoreline, meet the eccentric characters of the waterfront-from rivermen and watchmen to the city's early pioneers-and see Manhattan through entirely fresh eyes.

Uncover the romance, the grit, and the hidden stories of the island's edge.

Historical Cover Text:

Helen Worden wrote The Real New York and established herself as an authority plenipotentiary and chronicler extraordinary of the quaint and unusual. She does not bother with the show places that everybody knows. She strikes out for the unfamiliar, the unique, in Bagdad-on-the-Hudson. She wasn't born in New York, but she might as well have been, so young when she first came to Manhattan. She always wandered about and looked in. Word on the World allowed her to expand her extensive amateur knowledge. Since she joined the staff of the World-Telegram she has been writing and illustrating a daily column about New York life. Recently she realized that her acquaintance with the waterfront was decidedly imperfect. At once she set out with her friend Mrs. Theodore Steinway, to walk literally "all around the town." It took them months to complete their jaunt. But when they had finished, they had uncovered a vast store of information, seen joy and tragedy, the haunts of crime, poverty and wealth, astrolabes, shot towers, and wooden Indians, clams, and rags and pottery, cabbages, and kings. They had made friends with river men, watchmen, and innkeepers, been welcomed royally here and amusingly thrown out there. All these first-hand impressions of today, Helen Worden has supplemented by delving into the written lore and long-forgotten records of Manhattan's rim. There's always a boat sailing or arriving. There's always activity in the famous markets on the waterfront. Life is vigorous and colorful-and what variety there is! Into these pages, Helen Worden has crammed the romance of the people and the tang of the places that rim the edge of Manhattan Island, along the East, Harlem, and Hudson Rivers. She has explored quaint spots, revived past glories, traced amazing changes, and put them all into this charming, gossipy guide.

(1896-1984) Journalist and author. New York World society columnist (later New York World-Telegram), 1926-1944. On Aug. 11, 1938, as a writer of the World-Telegram, 1931-44, she first broke the story of the "mystery men of Harlem", Homer and Langley Collyer. This was the first of a series of sensationalistic articles about the Collyer Brothers, who were two wealthy New York recluse hoarders.

Barbara La Rocco is a researcher, historian, and the founder of Going Coastal, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to coastal stewardship and urban waterfront exploration. Based in the Hudson Valley region of New York, her work focuses extensively on maritime geography, coastal history, and uncovering the rich stories embedded along regional shorelines.As an author, editor, and publisher through Going Coastal Productions, she has developed comprehensive guidebooks, digital mapping applications, and historical narratives exploring waterfront journeys across New York City and Boston Harbor. By bringing lost or overlooked regional classics-such as Helen Worden's Round Manhattan's Rim-back into print, La Rocco continues to champion the preservation of local maritime heritage and invite modern explorers to rediscover the historical edges of America's waterways.