"It was either move or die," said Townley, whose organization's lease on the soon-to-be-demolished pier had expired a week before.

Other, smaller trees on the pier had been adopted. But this one, "the biggest and most awkward," as Townley called it, had not found a home and appeared doomed. So as darkness fell that Saturday, he and Xavier Rivera, the artist who had overseen the pier's sculpture garden and children's art program, prepared the tree for extraction by pounding, prying and otherwise muscling apart the wooden frame that contained its roots and soil.

By 6 a.m. the next morning, Townley was back in the dirt, preparing the tree pit on Warren Street for its new occupant. It was around then that Gail Swithenbank, an architect and longtime Tribeca resident, happened to pass by. They barely knew each other but Townley invited her to go with him to Home Depot to buy shovels and help him figure out how to dig up the tree.

"I don't think anybody thought we could really do it," Swithenbank said. "It's a humongous tree."

Back at the pier, Townley recruited other assistants, including a couple of strangers playing volleyball nearby.

After digging a trench around the tree and freeing the roots, the crew tied a rope to the chassis of Townley's van and tried to drag it out of the ground. But the wheels just spun.

"The tree didn't want to leave its spot and I don't blame it," said Townley. "It had that w

The crew loosened the roots some more and this time the pine toppled to the ground. Until he saw the heavy hulk lying there, Townley had thought he would tie the tree to the top of his van and chauffeur it to Warren Street. With that looking unrealistic, the volunteers put their heads together and came up with another plan. They placed a sheet of plywood on three furniture dollies and cautiously began rolling the tree out the gate. Despite fears that the park police might stop them, the group towed the pine, ever so slowly, down the bike path. An obstruction on the path south of Chambers Street forced the crew onto West Street, and into traffic. At this point a Port Authority police car pulled up behind them. The cop, it turned out, merely wanted to protect the group. He put on his flashing light and followed them to Warren Street.<

Finally arriving at the freshly dug pit, the next trick was getting the tree into the hole. In a scene that recalled the flag-raising at Iwo Jima, they hoisted the tree upright, but not quite right. Some roots were splayed on the sidewalk. The group hooked the tree with a strap to volunteer Joe Bilger's SUV, placed a crowbar under the roots and edged the pine into position.

Outside what will become a new Manhattan Youth community center, the tree now stands.

Bruce Cronin, one of the volunteers, compared the rescue of the pine to the many other ragtag efforts that made the pier special. "It was the community helping out," he said. "People chipped in and made it work."