NEW YORK - The Fulton Fish market shut down in Lower Manhattan, leaving its waterfront site after more than 180 years for a new facility in the Bronx.


The market, the center of the city's seafood industry, closed Friday. On Sunday night, workers move to the $85 million New Fulton Fish Market.

"Big guys ain't supposed to cry, but a part of old New York is dying here today," said Joey Centrone, one of the workers at the market. "I recognize this place is antiquated, but it's a part of us."

It opened on Feb. 5, 1822, as a meat and vegetable market, and eventually grew to a wholesale emporium handling about $1 billion worth of seafood a year.

However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration now requires that all fish must be refrigerated indoors. At the Fulton market, workers loaded and unloaded the fish outdoors, no matter what the weather.