Ferry Building

This guide to the Ferry Building in Auckland opens on a wrecking crew nearly called in during 1982, when engineers judged the clock-towered terminal too costly to save. It reaches back to architect Alexander Wiseman's original five-storey design, cut to four after public outcry over blocking the harbour view, and the building's 1909-1912 construction and daily time-ball ritual. It follows the ferry crowds that filled it for decades and the 1959 harbour bridge that emptied them out. Listen for how Aucklanders responded to that 1982 crisis.