Exploring "New Amsterdam" and Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan is the oldest part of the original colony of New Amsterdam that evenutally became New York City. It is generally considered to be any part of Manhattan Island south of Chambers Street. This walk will begin at the southernmost tip of Manahttan Island and proceed north to around Chambers Street. From there, you can continue northwest to Tribeca, or northeast to Chinatown, LIttle Italy and the Lower East Side.
Start at the Staten Island Ferry.
Take this free commuter ferry round-trip for great views of Lady Liberty. It takes about one hour round trip, and you must disembark and re-embark to go back to Manhattan. The Staten Island Ferry runs 24 hours a day, every day. Great for an inexpensive moonlight cruise, too! NOTE: THE STATEN ISLAND FERRY IS NOT THE FERRY THAT GOES TO THE STATUE OF LIBERTY AND ELLIS ISLAND.Battery Park and Castle Clinton This section of NYC was originally not attached to Manhattan Island. It was connected in the 1800s via landfill. Castle Clinton was originally built as a defense against our former rulers in England for the war of 1812. It was never used for wartime purposes. It was named after a 19th Century Mayor of New York City and New York State Governor, DeWitt Clinton, not a 20th Century US President. Check out the cool diaromas in the small exhibit hall.
YOU PURCHASE TICKETS FOR THE STATUE OF LIBERTY AND ELLIS ISLAND AT CASTLE CLINTON
The Skyscraper Museum: Located just north of Battery Park at 39 Battery Place. The museum shares a building with the Ritz Carlton in Battery Park City. The Skyscraper Museum is committed to the study of high-rise building, past, present, and future. The museum celebrates the city’s rich architectural heritage and examines the historical forces and individuals that have shaped its successive skylines.
Museum of the American Indian: This is part of the Smithsonian Institution. It houses collections of artifacts, clothes, crafts, photographs and wrtings of the Native Americans that inhabited what is now called The United States and other parts of North America. The museum is housed in the century-old Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House. This is also the site of the original New Amsterdam fort, where Dutch entrepeneurs and Native Americans traded, and where Director Peter Stuyvesant governed this profitable colony.
National Museum of the Amerian Indian.
Fraunces Tavern: This restaurant and museum is best known as the place General George Washington gave his farewell address to the American Revolutionary troops. However, before that, it was a hotbed of American Revolutionary intrigue, gossip and rebellious plans. Even though it is small, it is a must for Revolutionary War buffs and historians. It's also a great place for Thanksgiving Dinner.
Continue walking north up Broadway. Embedded in the sidewalk, you'll notice plaques indicating all the parades held here down the "Canyon of Heroes" over the decades.
"The Charging Bull", the Cunard Building and Bowling Green : Everybody ignores humble Bowling Green and heads straight to the back of this iconic bull statue. (By the way, you can also take a photo of the front of the statue as well.) Be careful - it's on a small traffic median. Bowling Green was a gathering area, livestock market, military parade ground, protest soapbox, and park during colonial times. Now, it's a nice place to have lunch, read the paper or rest between high-powered business meetings. On the west side of Broadway, note the old Cunard Building and the Post Office, both examples of great architectural facades.
Trinity Church: On your left is Trinity Church, at Wall Street. If there are no services going on, you can check out the beautiful interior. There may also be free lunchtime concerts. In the churchyard, see the gravesites of Robert "Steamboat" Fulton and Alexander "$10 bill" Hamilton. Born in the Caribbean, Hamilton was a staunch Federalist, which supported a strong central government. He was also the first U.S. Treasurer and a founder of The New York Post. He was killed in a duel with Anti-Federalist and possible romantic rival Aaron Burr in New Jersey. The pistols used are still housed at the headquarters of the Chase Manhattan Bank, which Hamilton helped establish.
2005 Exhibit on Alexander Hamilton at the New-York Historical Society
Wall Street, Federal Hall and the New York Stock Exchange: Immediately to your right is Wall Street and the canyons of finance. Wall Street was named for the wall that was bulit in the mid-1600s to keep both newer English settlers and hostile Native Indian tribes out of New Asmterdam. Note how narrow the sidewalks are. Most of the buildings here were built before any regulations requiring minimum space between buildings and streets. Make a right onto Wall Street.
On your left is Federal Hall (formerly known as the Subtreasury Building), where George Washington was sworn in as first President of the US of A - and New York City was the young country's first capital! (Look for big statue of George on steps.) If the lobby is open, you can see a piece of the actual floor where Washington stood. On your right is the New York Stock Exchange. Sorry, no visitors since Sept 11, 2001.
Overview of the New York Stock Exchange.
Federal Reserve Building: Make and appointment to take a tour and learn all about the root of all evil. Also, see the amazing gold vaults, hundreds of feet below street level.
Continue walking north up Broadway to Liberty Street. Make a left and cross diagonally through Zuccotti Plaza (formerly Liberty Plaza park) to Church Street.
Zuccotti Plaza is a great place to take a rest, bound by Broadway, Trinity, Liberty, and Cedar Streets. After Sept. 11, 2001, it was covered in debris. One of the most famous images of the park was the ash-covered sculpture, "Double Check", by New Jersey-based artist J. Seward Johnson Jr. People who saw the photos were convinced that a real human being was mummified by the falling debris.
The bronze, life-size, seated businessman peering into his briefcase and was a fixture for decades, and was cleaned and re-seated in its home in the renovated park in 2006.
"Double Check" regains his seat
The World Trade Center site: In front of you will be the WTC location, also known as "Ground Zero". As of early 2007, construction began on the Freedom Tower and reconstruction of the World Trade Center. But, it still looks like a construction site. The WTC and St. Paul's Chapel are described well in other Inside Pages here on T.A.
The Tribute Center: This amazing memorial, museum and shrine to Sept 11, 2001 is located on Liberty Street, west of Church Street, alongside the southern perimeter of the WTC site, and next to the Firehouse.
Century 21 Department Store: formerly known as "New York's Best Kept Secret", this store on Church and Dey Streets is now a regular stop for tour buses and guidebook shopping itineraries, especially when the US Dollar is weak. Not for the faint-hearted, it is known as a crazy, cut-throat jumble of deeply discounted designer merchandise, sold by slacker, gossipy staff, eyes glazed over from tuning out the din of the crazed shopoholics. Even though it is reknowned for women's fashions, Century 21's strongest points are actually children's and baby clothes, hosiery, underwear, men's clothes, luggage, small leathers and handbags, souvenirs, linens and small housewares.
Continue walking north on Church Street to Fulton Street.
St. Paul's Chapel. This was where George Washington worshipped. You can find his pew in the church. Stop in and absorb the Sept. 11, 2001 memorials. A moving shrine to those lost at the WTC, and the rescue workers, families and regular people who volunteered tirelessly for months and years at the site.
Now you have a choice: go WEST for Battery Park City and the World Financial Center or EAST for the South Street Seaport.
WEST: Go back to Liberty Street and continue past the Tribute Center. Go up the stairs and use the Liberty Street Pedestrian Overpass to get to the World Financial Center.
Battery Park City and the World Financial Center were built upon the land excavated in the 1960s while digging the foundation for the World Trade Center. BPC operates residential apartment buildings, a seniors assisted-living development and a Parks Conservancy. The World Financial Center is home to major international business firms such as American Express, Merrill Lynch, Dow Jones, and Deloitte. It is also home to free lunchtime and evening concerts, art displays, shopping, dining and a lovely palm tree-studded atrium - The Winter Garden.
Battery Park City Authority homepage
Map of the Parks of Battery Park City
World Financial Center - dining, arts and shopping
You'll find plenty of lovely walkways, trees and outdoor sculptures in BPC. One of the hidden gems of BPC is Tom Otterness' "The Real World" - a surreal, humorous but poignant commentary on the obsession with greed and power. Plus, the characters are fun and the kids can climb all over it!
Tom Otterness' "The Real World"
Between Murray and Vesey Streets, you'll find the Irish Hunger Memorial, made from a stone cottage from County Mayo, stones from all counties in Ireland, and plants native to Ireland.
If you continue south through BPC back towards the Staten Island Ferry, you'll be at the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Not only are the stories and artfacts fascinating, but the museum also curates fascinating exhibits about World War II, Jews all over the world today, and heroes of the Holocaust. Incredibly moving and inspiring.
Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
EAST: Make a right and walk east on Fulton Street to its end.
The South Street Seaport. Now a shopping mall, this area was once part of the thriving shipping and whaling industries of NYC, not to mention the famous Fulton Fish Market (now relocated.) There is a small museum, but many say it is not worth it. Think about Herman Melville, who wrote "Moby D ick" while working here. Think about Teddy Roosevelt - he bought his safari gear from the original Abercrombie and Fitch offices near here. Check out the tall ships from the 1800s, especially The Peking, and admire the Brooklyn Bridge span from Pier 17.
South Street Seaport Shopping and Dining.
Turn around and go back west on Fulton Street. On the way back, stop in at the incomparable Strand Book Store ("18 miles of books") Go back to Broadway and make a right.Continue north on Broadway to Barclay Street.
The Woolworth Building : the "tallest building in the world" for decades! Unfortunately, due to increased security, visitors are no longer allowed inside to admire the gorgeous lobby, decorated with gargoyles in the shape of nickels and dimes, caricatures of Mr. Woolworth, his staff and other financiers and businessmen of the time.
At Barclay Street is the southern end of City Hall Park and City Hall. Like other places in the area, visitors are no longer permitted to get too close to City Hall on their own. However, you can take free tours of the building.
Veer right and walk up Park Row, alongside the east side of City Hall Park. On Park Row, check out hte great prices and selection of JR Electronics to get fresh batteries for camera, or a new sim card.
Park Row turns into Centre Street at the intersection of Chambers Street, on the east side of City Hall. On the east side of Centre Street, you'll be standing under the Municipal Building. Most visitors mistakenly think that this is City Hall. Actually, you get your marriage license and domestic partnership registration here at the Municpal Building, not City Hall.
You will also be at the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian walkway. Walking the Brooklyn Bridge is a must do!
Slightly north of City Hall is the African Burial Ground. Both free and enslaved Africans were buried here in the 1600s and 1700s. Technically outside the original settlement of New Amsterdam, it was rediscovered in 1991 during construction of a new Federal office building. Exhibits and a memorial plaza are being built here.
That's the end of this tour. Centre Street changes name again and turns into Lafayette Street, which you can take further north into Chinatown, or take the #6 train uptown at the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall station to Canal Street. Or you can head west on Chambers Street, and make a right back onto Browadway, and continue north to Tribeca, or take the #1 train uptown at Chambers Street to Franklin Street.
You can find all the sites mentioned above on these excellent web maps, or order the maps for FREE:
Downtown Alliance - Interactive Map
