We took the subway to the tip of Manhattan, where New Amsterdam began and crossed Battery Park to Castle Clinton which was built to defend New York City and named after a mayor in 1815 … not the later President!
The view across the water was grey … again!
Nearby is the Charging Bull, not originally meant as a symbol of a bull market in the stock exchange when it was installed in 1989, but that is how it is seen today. Apparently it is lucky to stoke his balls …
In front is Fearless Girl who appeared in 2017 and quickly became a feminist icon, and although neither sculpture has a permit, they seem to have remained due to public support.
Wall Street follows the line of the defensive northern boundary of the original New Amsterdam.
There was a market here where securities traders met and it has been the home of the New York Stock Exchange since 1865. The Neoclassical facade has huge Corinthian columns …
… as does Federal Hall where George Washington was sworn in as America’s first president and his statue stands outside.
We looked back and saw Trinity church, built in 1846 and the tallest building for 50 years.
A short walk down Wall Street brought us to Pier 11 where we got the ferry to Brooklyn.
We landed at Brooklyn Bridge Park, a redeveloped waterfront of parks and playgrounds, then walked up to Brooklyn Promenade with great views. We took a little detour to check out the smart brownstone townhouses of Brooklyn Heights built in the early C19th, once the home of bankers and financiers, and later attracting writers, although many have now been converted into apartments.
The Fulton Ferry District was once the hub for steamboat traffic and there are old warehouses all around. We couldn’t come to the US and not sample a burger, and Shake Shack came highly recommended so Joanna and I sampled the ‘Smoke Shack’ Chris went for the portabella ‘Shroom Burger’ and they we all very tasty.
Thinking we should walk off our full tummies we headed to Dumbo which stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. Locals thought this strange nickname would deter developers, but it failed and many of the old warehouses have been transformed into very expensive condos, creating a surreal urban landscape of old and new juxtaposed with the angles of the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.
We went in search of the fab photo op at Washington Street … which everyone else knows about too, and waited for a lull in the crowd to get a snap.
Next, up to the Brooklyn Bridge. This bridge is almost as much of an icon to New Yorkers as the Empire State Building, especially as when built in 1883 it was the world’s largest and longest suspension bridge for 20 years. We walked along the central walkway, careful to avoid the cyclists whizzing along beside us, and got great views as we approached the Financial District of Manhattan.
We passed the gleaming white marble of New York City Hall and outside was Alice, a news reporter from CBS2, recording a news item on reducing disposable plastic bottles by giving NYC’s 320,000 high school students a free reusable, stainless-steel water bottle.
In 1913 the tallest building in the world was the Woolworth Building. It is apparently decorated with white terracotta tiles, whimsical gothic gargoyles and reliefs of Frank Woolworth counting out the very nickels and dimes that made his fortune … but it is so tall you can’t easily see the detail, and they didn’t want to let us in to peek.
Joanna wanted a stamp and we realised this smart Art Deco style building was actually a post office!
Once the location of the Twin Towers and Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks, the new World Trade Centre at present comprises 3 of the planned 5 towers, the tallest being the One World Trade Centre.
The 9/11 Memorial contains two pools representing the footprints of the original towers, each around an acre in size surrounded by bronze parapets inscribed with the victims names and some 400 oak trees. There is an extensive museum but we chose not to visit.
The Oculus was our last stop, above ground a striking white edifice with spiky steel ribs and below a futuristic transport hub and shopping centre.
The day had continued brighter than most, so we decided to end with a ride on the Staten Island Ferry to say goodbye to the Statue of Liberty. Amazingly this free service takes around 30,000 people to work daily not to mention the extra tourists and the crossing takes around 15 minutes.
We walked up the hill to Borough Hall for murals that depict the history of Staten Island. These murals were painted as part of The New Deal, a huge programme of public work projects to aid recovery from the Depression by providing government funded work for the unemployed. This resulted in some 200,000 works of public art across the country, many remaining. The first two depict Giovanni da Verrazano and Henry Hudson’s ship arriving.
It was certainly worth the trip as the light on the Statue of Liberty made for a couple of great snaps.
We had passed Ellen’s Stardust Diner on an earlier evening and seen a huge queue outside, but thought we would look again and managed to be seated after only a short wait.
This is the home of the singing waiters … a diner where the wait staff are wannabes on Broadway … entertaining us through our dinner. It was a novel experience and great fun.
And here is our waiter … Patrick!
Exhausted after another 9 miles on our feet, we returned to Harlem.
Off Travelling Together 