Visiting Manhattan—The Big Apple!

On June 25th , we boarded the Staten Island Ferry for the 25 minute voyage to Manhattan.  When you arrive and walk out of the Whitehall Ferry Terminal, you're in Lower Manhattan, the city's oldest area and full of history!  We've walked these streets at least three times before on previous visits but this trip we had a couple goals—see the new National 9/11 Memorial Museum and see again the adjacent National 9/11 Memorial and the near completion of the new World Trade Center skyscraper.  We also wanted to see City Hall, Trinity Church and Wall Street.  54 million visitors came to New York City last year to see the sights and we're following in their footsteps!

 

Manhattan skyline from the Staten Island Ferry

New York City is full of architecturally beautiful buildings and we will pass many on our walk today.

The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian is one of the first memorable buildings on the way to Wall St.  It is housed in the former 1907 Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House at 1 Bowling Green and the foot of Broadway.  It's a massive beaux arts style 7 story building with Four Continents monumental sculptures representing international commerce.  The 7 story tall Corinthian columns and a massive frieze on the front are distinctive features. We still haven't visited this free museum—next time!

Next we visited Trinity Church, but because of a service in progress, we were not able to go inside this time.  The first Trinity Church was built in 1697 and today's Gothic Revival church with the sculpted bronze doors opened on the same site in 1846.  We walked the Church's very old churchyard (graveyard) from 1681 and looked for familiar names from history.  We found:  Alexander Hamilton--military aide to George Washington and first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury; Robert Fulton—inventor of the steamboat; John Jacob Astor—a famous businessman and founder of the Astor dynasty; several Revolutionary War generals and Navy captains; many Continental Congress delegates; several signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and many early U.S. Senators and Representatives.

Wall Street is always interesting.  The 8 blocks of Wall Street encompass the world's principal financial center.    
The New York Stock Exchange, founded in 1792, is the largest exchange in the world, by market capitalization of its listed companies.  The NASDAQ is here.  Dow Jones began here with 11 stocks in its average in 1884.  The Wall Street Journal began here in 1889.  Most large financial firms are headquartered on Wall Street or nearby.  Wall St. and many financial companies, especially companies in the World Trade Center towers, were hard hit on 9/11.  The New York Stock Exchange was closed until 9/17 to reestablish communications and to avoid calamitous selloffs in the market.

The famous Charging Bull of Wall Street sculpture is a big tourist atttraction in Bowling Green Park near Wall St.  It arrived in 1989 and is a graphic symbol of financial optimism.  It's bronze, weighs 7100 pounds, is 11' tall and 16' long!  It's a true icon of Wall St.!

Federal Hall National Memorial at 26 Wall St., a grand Greco-Roman style building first built in 1700 as New York's first City Hall, is called the birthplace of American government.  It was the first U.S. Capitol and 225 years ago, our first president, George Washington, was inaugurated here on April 30, 1789!  Washington's inaugural bible is displayed inside the Museum.  The current building opened in 1842 and is a Memorial to the first President and to the beginning of the United States of America.

 

The McDonald's on Broadway had a disc jockey!!

We grabbed a quick lunch and hiked up Broadway 8 blocks to City Hall Park. The park itself has a long history, beginning in the 2^nd half of the 17^th Century when it was called  “The Commons” and used as a communal livestock pasture.  Many other uses has occurred including barracks for soldiers, execution grounds etc.  In 1999, the City restored the Park to its original triangular shape and added gardens, grass and trees plus reinstalled the 1871 Mould Fountain. A large circular history tablet was installed to educate visitors on the space's long history.

City Hall, in the center of City Hall Park, is being renovated and there are construction barriers everywhere.  It's an elegant French Renaissance style building opened in 1812 where today Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council conduct the City's business.  It is the oldest City Hall in the U.S. still housing its original government functions.  President Abraham Lincoln lay in state here after his assassination in 1865 as did famed Civil War General and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant in 1885.

Our final destination is the new National 9/11 Memorial Museum which opened to the public on May 21, 2014 after 8 years of construction.  It's a national tribute to honor the 2983 men, women and children killed in the 9/11 attacks.  The Museum contains 110,000 square feet of space, with most of that located at bedrock, 7 stories below ground!  Why underground?  Because the footprints of the original Twin Towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) complex are still visible at bedrock level and give a graphic view of the enormous size of these 110 story high buildings. 

Here's the background of the 9/11 attacks-- “102 Minutes” quoted from the Museum flyer.

“There were 102 minutes between the impact of terrorist-hijacked Flight 11 into the North Tower at 8:46 AM on September 11, 2001 and the collapse of the North Tower at 10:28 AM.  Between those events, hijacked Flight 175 struck the South Tower at 9:03 AM, the Pentagon was struck by hijacked Flight 77 at 9:37 AM, the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 AM and hijacked Flight 93 crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania at 10:03 AM. The artifacts also speak to the role and sacrifices of the first responders on 9/11.”

The Museum is filled with over 12,000 artifacts from the Twin Towers from the huge 7 story tall World Trade Center trident beams,  partially destroyed FDNY fire trucks and an FDNY ambulance. “The Last Column” 36' tall from the South Tower removed ceremonially with memorabilia and posters of the missing still attached at the close of the Recovery effort at Ground Zero. The Survivor's Staircase, a concrete staircase upon which hundreds of people on upper floors were able to escape is placed next to operating escalators.  Many smaller artifacts like melted telephones, survivor's shoes and the watch of Todd Beamer are also displayed.  Portraits of the nearly 3000 victims, 500 hours of video, personal stories of those killed and 2000 oral histories tell the story of that horrible day here at the WTC Twin Towers. The Museum also contains artifacts and multimedia displays on the attacks at the Pentagon and Flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, PA.  A movie in the Auditorium graphically reviews the events of that day.

The Survivors Staircase

Television transmission Tower on top of North Tower

The beams were bent like a pretzel because of the tremendous force

Many photographs and video brought back memories of that terrible day

There have been controversies surrounding the new Museum.  Exhibit planning was done by a group of victim's family members, survivors, first responders, downtown community and government leaders along with professional planners.  The result in today's museum is a sensitive but realistic interpretation of the events using the visual impact of the vast number of artifacts and audio-visual presentations to effectively tell the story. The huge spaces of the Museum, particularly in Foundation Hall, leave plenty of open space to reflect the enormous loss that occurred here.   

It's very somber, impressive and very well done. It was interesting to see, that in spite of the crowds of visitors, many young families with children, the atmosphere was very quiet and moving.

Leaving the Museum and back on street level, we once again walked through the above ground National September 11 Memorial with 2--one acre size reflecting pools.  “Reflecting Absence” is the name given to the pools and their bronze panels on top with the names of all the nearly 3000 dead inscribed.  The size of the pools are similar to the former footprints of the WTC Twin Towers so the enormity of the 9/11 tragedy is vividly evident when seeing the size of the buildings brought down and the vast number of persons killed.   Each pool's waterfalls are the largest man-made waterfalls in North America!  It is very graphic and emotional!

And above it all towers the beautiful nearly finished new 1976 ft World Trade Center as a symbol of triumph over adversity!

We were in New York in August, 2000 on the  Airstream (RV) Statue of Liberty Rally held directly across from Manhattan at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey.  Each morning we took the Liberty Landing Ferry from the Park to Manhattan Landing at the foot of the World Trade Center complex and walked through the buildings to catch our tour bus or the subway for a Manhattan excursion.  Each evening at sunset, we could look across and see those two huge sparkling towers dominating the Manhattan skyline.  We have many photographs from before the tragedy.  The destruction of the towers was a real shock to us who had been walking those floors only a year earlier!

New York wouldn't be New York without hot dog stands!

City Bike provides bicycles you can rent

Finally, we walked back to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal and boarded with the rush hour crowd and soon departed for Staten Island.  Standing far forward on the bow of the boat, we took  photo- graphs of the Brooklyn Bridge in the distance, Governors Island, a former Coast Guard base, Ellis Island, the famous immigration station and of course, the iconic Statue of Liberty.  It's a great ride to and from the Big Apple and we hope you'll decide to take it someday soon and see one of the world's largest and most dynamic cities!

Staten Island, New York--continuing the search for Lin's roots

We drove over the old 1928 Goethals Bridge over the Arthur Kill onto Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City, on June 24 for a 4 day visit. 

The traffic on I-95 was a nightmare!! 20 miles in 40 minutes!

Lin's maternal relatives all lived on Staten Island in the past and a few still do.  We had called the Staten Island Elks Lodge #841 earlier to request permission to park our little RV in the Lodge parking lot.  It was well into 80 degree temperatures and they very kindly offered us an electrical connection so we had air conditioning!  They even bought us a drink in the bar on arrival! Across from the Lodge is the bus terminal, very easy to catch the bus for the ferry!

Parked at the Staten Island Elks Lodge

Staten Island was permanently settled in 1661 by Dutch settlers, Huguenots (French Protestants) English and both slave and free African Americans.  Staten Island was renowned for superb oysters and cherries and peaches from its orchards in the past.  It became a popular beach resort and was known for its manufacture of Ivory soap and shipbuilding.  Today Staten Island is New York City's fastest growing borough and it is 2-1/2 times as large as Manhattan in area with a population of only 500,000.

 

Staten Island Borough Hall

A very patriotic wall on the old High School

We visited Lin's cousin, Judy and her husband Butch, one evening and had an excellent steak dinner and caught up.  A highlight was Judy going through photo albums and finding old photographs of Lin's Mom and Dad and several other Staten Island relatives that she gave us---priceless additions for our genealogy research!  Another day, we visited a couple cemeteries to find and photograph family graves that we hadn't been able to find previously.

And we did some touristy things too!  We visited the Staten Island Zoo, which opened in 1936, and is a small, specialized zoo on 8 acres without the large mammals—no lions, tigers or elephants! They only have a beautiful leopard.  What they do have is a great reptile house with many tropical snakes, lizards and alligators.  For many years, they have had one of the most complete displays of live rattlesnakes in the U.S.  They have a very nice rainforest exhibit that was a little bit like going back to Costa Rica for us with howler monkeys, many beautiful tropical birds and tropical plants too. 

Another neat area was a special house dedicated as a nursery for newborn animals of all kinds.  There was a tiny kangaroo and a baby sloth, both with baby blankets, rattles and other baby toys, like a human nursery!  The African Savannah exhibit is also very interesting and well done as is their aquarium display of many fish including some good sized sharks.

The Staten Island Zoo is also famous as the home of “Staten Island Chuck” a groundhog who is the official Groundhog Day predictor for all of New York City!   Chuck was asleep and we didn't see him!  There is also a carousel for the kids and a great playground with many large animal toys to crawl through or sit on.  Kids certainly seemed to have fun here.  And we did too, with no huge crowds and high prices like many big city zoos.  Two thumbs up!

We spent a couple hours exploring Historic Richmond Town, a large collection of historic houses and buildings in the original old Dutch settlement area of Staten Island.  This area was the government center for Staten Island aka Richmond County for two centuries!  When Staten Island became one of the 5 boroughs of New York City in 1898, the county offices moved to St. George, on the northern end of the island, near the Staten Island Ferry landing, bringing them closer to Manhattan.  Eventually all the government offices and related businesses left, leaving a semi-ghost town.  In 1935 the Staten Island Historical Society got permission to renovate the old County Clerk's office for a museum and in 1948 they began using the 3^rd County Courthouse on the site as offices.  In the early 1950s, New York City acquired the entire 100 acre Richmond Town site and made a preservation plan. 

The old Court House--now the Visitor Center

Today Historic Richmond Town contains over   30 historic structures including at least 15 houses of all ages and types, a tavern, the first county jail, the site of a Dutch Reformed Church, 2 railroad stations, a diner, a cemetery, Public School 28, St. Patrick's Church, a gas station, a general store, tinsmith shop, print shop, carpenter's shop, a water-powered sawmill, the town bridge, the Church of St. Andrew, a parsonage and the Dutch Voorlezer's House ca. 1695 (he was a schoolmaster and a lay Dutch Reform minister.) This is the oldest existing schoolhouse in North America. The Society runs guided tours daily and usually 4-5 buildings are entered on the visit.  The volunteer guides are excellent and especially good with kids, as we observed.  Many of the structures are still awaiting restoration but this is certainly one of the largest and most interesting open air type museums that we have visited. Also a good gift shop!   Is there such a thing as 3 thumbs up??

Inside the Voorlezer's House

 
The Conference House is a fascinating place all the way at the southernmost point of Staten Island less than a half mile across Raritan Bay from Perth Amboy, New Jersey.  This is the southernmost point of New York City as well as the state of New York.  The house itself was the manor house of Colonel Christopher Billopp built in 1680, set on his plantation which was a large grant of land given by the King.  It is a stone house similar to Dutch or Normandy farmhouses of that period.  The parlor on the first floor is the room where the Conference occurred. 

A Revolutionary War peace conference was held here on September 11, 1776 attended by Admiral Lord Richard Howe for the British side and John Adams, Edward Rutledge and Benjamin Franklin representing the American Continental Congress.  The goal was to try to end the war before Lord Howe had to commit more British troops and escalate the war.  But... Lord Howe was not allowed by the King to negotiate independence for the Colonies and the 3 Congressional representatives could not negotiate terms that did NOT allow independence from Britain!  Obviously, no agreement could be reached and both parties prepared for full scale war, which continued for 7 more costly years.  Eventually, the successful conclusion of this conflict gave Americans independence from Great Britain.  All the rooms are furnished in period pieces and the children's room was one of the most interesting with very old toys, dolls and a large stagecoach!  The kitchen is in the basement with a large hearth for cooking along with a root cellar.  The basement floor is made of imported Dutch bricks of a very old design!  We had an excellent tour guide who really brought the story to life!  We recommend visiting The Conference House and the nice waterfront park around it.

Staten Island is the unknown New York City borough, except of course, for the free Staten Island Ferry ride from Manhattan to Staten Island and back, including the great views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Manhattan skyline!  But there are many other museums, libraries and dozens of parks on the island, as well as the beautiful Verrazano Bridge going to Brooklyn.  

One of the problems, we think, is that even the SI Chamber of Commerce has no tourist brochure listing the favorite tourist areas.  Anything we were interested in visiting, they went to a computer and printed out part of a website!  The Zoo doesn’t even have a map, they tell you to get the app on your smartphone! Driving into Staten Island or Manhattan on any of the bridges or tunnels is rather costly with the Goethals Bridge having a toll of $13 cash per car, but at least that's for a roundtrip!  Parts of Staten Island got hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, even worse than some parts of New Jersey, but it is all coming back.  We think Staten Island is a great place to visit and encourage you to check it out!