Friday, October 11, 2019, Land & Sea, NYC

New York City is well defined by its museums, theater, and iconic food dis-tricts--from Chinatown to Little Italy--but perhaps it is best known as the “City of Skyscrapers.” This nickname began with its first cathedral: Trinity Church, one of the city’s tallest buildings at 280 feet tall at the time of its completion in 1846. The so-called construction boom for the highest commercial building began in the late 19^th century, and since then many architecturally significant buildings have emerged. Among them are the E V Haughwout Building (1857), Flatiron Building (1901), Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower (1909), Woolworth Building (1912), Manhattan Municipal Building (1914), New York Life Insurance Building (1928), Chrysler Building (1930), Empire State Building (1931), 30 Rockefeller Plaza (“30 Rock,” 1930s), and One World Trade Center (“The Freedom Tower,” 2013).

New York by Land & Sea

We saw New York’s famed tall ships and embark a motorboat for an hour-long scenic cruise of New York’s waterways. We met our guide and drove to the historic South Street Seaport. A designated historic district, the pier’s history dates to the 18th century. Some of Manhattan’s oldest architecture is here, including mercantile buildings with a rich past. We admired the graceful tall ships, then embarked on our motorboat for a scenic cruise along the East and Hudson Rivers. As we got underway, we enjoyed unparalleled views and informative commentary. We cruised under the Brooklyn Bridge and saw the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and World Financial Center. We cruised past Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Ellis Island, gateway into the US for countless immigrants. Later, our captain lingered in front of the Statue of Liberty for a fantastic photo opportunity.

At the dock where we were to board a tour boat, we saw this interesting historic cargo sail boat.

Wavertree was built in Southampton, England in 1885 and was one of the last large sailing ships built of wrought iron. She was built for the Liverpool company R.W. Leyland & Company and is named after the Wavertree district of that city.

The ship was first used to carry jute between eastern India and Scotland. When less than two years old the ship entered the "tramp trades," taking cargoes anywhere in the world. In 1910, after sailing for a quarter century, the ship was dismantled off Cape Horn and barely made it to the Falkland Islands. Rather than re-rigging the ship its owners sold it for use as a floating warehouse at Punta Arenas, Chile. Wavertree was converted into a sand barge at Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1947. This ship was discovered in 1967 at the Riachuelo River in Buenos Aires by an American citizen working on a sand barge and acquired by the South Street Seaport Museum in 1968. The ship was sent to the Arsenal Naval Buenos Aires for restoration. In 1969 after restoration was complete, the ship was towed to New York. The vessel was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 13, 1978.

We boarded this New York Water Taxi for a memorable one-hour ride to and from the Statue of Liberty and saw other sites from the water.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Water_Taxi

In the foreground is the Brooklyn bridge; the Manhattan bridge is in the background.

Freedom Tower.

Brooklyn bridge's Brooklyn end support.

Shopping mall on Manhattan pier.

Ferry terminals from Manhattan to Statue of Liberty and Staten Island.

Freedom Tower.

Manhattan Yacht harbor.

Relatively new buildings in New Jersey across Hudson River.

Train station used to take millions of immigrants west from NYC.

Ellis Island where arriving immigrants were required to in-process. Several million were NOT accepted.

Bridge from NYC to Staten Island; we passed under it on our way in two days ago and will again pass under on our way out this evening.

Staten Island ferry can hold 6,000 passengers!

Governors Island is a 172-acre island in New York Harbor, within the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is located approximately 800 yards south of Manhattan island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the 400-yard-wide Buttermilk Channel. The National Park Service administers a small portion of the north of the island as the Governors Island National Monument, including two former military fortifications named Fort Jay and Castle Williams, while the Trust for Governors Island operates the remaining 150 acres, including 52 historic buildings, as a public park. Much of the island is built on artificial turf, added in the 1900s with the dumping of 103 acres of fill to the south of the original island.

Governors Island was originally an island that the Lenape called Paggank ("nut island"). The name was transliterated into the Dutch Noten Eylandt, then Anglicized into Nutten Island, before being renamed Governor's Island by the late 18th century. The island's use as a military installation dates to 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, when Continental Army troops raised defensive works on the island. From 1783 to 1966, the island was a United States Army post, serving mainly as a training ground for troops, though it also served as a strategic defense point during wartime. The island then served as a major United States Coast Guard installation until 1996. Following its decommissioning as a military base, there were several plans for redeveloping Governors Island; it was sold to the public for a $1 in 2003, and opened for public use in 2005.

Governors Island has become a popular seasonal destination open to the public between May and September, attracting more than 800,000 visitors per year as of 2018. It contains a 43-acre public park, free arts and cultural events, and recreational activities. The island is accessed by ferries from Brooklyn and Manhattan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governors_Island

Williamsburg Bridge in background.

Light has not functioned since Hurricane Sandy's wave damage.

After our boat ride, we passed by a number of Manhattan features. Since it was not raining today, we were able to take some "dry" pictures out the bus windows (some pictures may be duplicated but dryer versions from Wednesday's blog).

Christopher Columbus at corner of Central Park.

Dogs permitted unleashed in a large fenced plot 8-9 AM daily.

St Patrick's Cathedral.

Central Park.

Broadway: Theater capacity 500+

Off-Broadway: Theater capacity 200-500

Off-Off-Broadway: Theater capacity <200

Small park on Wall Street.

Wall Street is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial services industry (even if financial firms are not physically located there), or New York–based financial interests.

Anchored by Wall Street, New York City has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world, and the city is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Several other major exchanges have or had headquarters in the Wall Street area, including the New York Mercantile Exchange, the New York Board of Trade, and the former American Stock Exchange.