Having PDF links

I have a folder called “downloads” on the root of my server (same directory as wp-admin, wp-content, etc). There are PDF’s in the downloads folder that I want to use as links or downloads. But when I go to the directory that the PDF is in, instead of displaying the PDF or downloading it, I get a wordpress 404 page saying “The page you requested could not be found.”

So if I go to “www.mydomain.com/downloads/filename.pdf” I want the PDF to display in the browser or at very least download it. I do not want the wordpress 404 page to be displayed.

I am not uploading the PDF files via the media uploader. I am simply FTPing them to my server root/downloads directory.

How can I correct this?