The city New Yorkers and tourists walk through every day was very close to looking completely different on many occasions.

Projects like a giant suspension bridge cutting through the tip of Manhattan, stretching past Governors Island all the way to Red Hook, Brooklyn, or a Midtown airport right along the Hudson River, were close to changing the city's iconic skyline.

Rendering of the planned National American Indian Memorial, which would have rivaled the Statue of Liberty in size.

(Courtesy Metropolis Books)

"Nothing was as stable or as set in stone as you might think," said Sam Lubell, co-author of Never Built New York, a book that illustrates hundreds of buildings, monuments and other structures that never came to fruition.  

"All of the things that you think of as being iconic New York places known around the world were very, very close to being [absolutely] different."

Plans for an extension to the island called the City of New Manhattan.

(Courtesy Metropolis Books)

Lubell, who co-authored the book with Greg Goldin, spoke to WNYC's Richard Hake. Click "Listen" to hear the interview.