When the last dancer walked off the floor of the Copacabana early today, it marked the end of a landmark that's been around since 1940. The Copa closed its doors because of the proposed extension of the No. 7 subway line.

The place became a huge part of the city's sports lore in 1957, when an entourage of New York Yankees and their wives and dates - including Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Hank Bauer and Billy Martin - brawled with another group of men inside the club.

As the story goes, the men had been yelling racial slurs at headliner Sammy Davis Jr., and the Yankees came to his defense.

Barry Manilow's hit 1978 pop song about a showgirl caught up in a tragic triangle further ingrained the club in pop culture history.

The original venue, which opened in 1940 and was reputedly mob-controlled, lost a little of its luster as a glitterati go-to spot over the years, especially after the Copa moved to a larger space at 60th St. and 11th Ave. in the 1990s.

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