Day 10 - Empire State Building

The day was getting late by the time we got back to Manhattan. I think it was about 3 PM or so and we had the play to go to this night. Bless the subway - we got up to the area of the Empire State building in less than a half hour. The lines at the Empire State Building can be enormous in the summer but bless the fall season. We had very little wait. Also the day before the overcast had been so bad you couldn't see the top of the building from the ground. This day was great weather. We had overcast but that is all. This is the ESB from the ground looking up.You know sometimes you just have to take a picture. This guy was in line just before us and it wasn't a kid but an older guy no less. We were eating breakfast today with a guy that only had one sock since he had packed all his others and the luggage had been taken away. We suggested he just switch it from foot to foot every hour or so to make things even.

This is the very top of the building from the 86th floor lookout. They wanted another $20 to go up to the 101st floor but we opted out of that one. We never saw King Kong either - darn.

We took tons of puctures but this one has significance. The pointed building in the center is the Chrysler Building. It was the second tallest building in the world once upon a time. What is significant is that it tower bisects a dark piece of land that is a peninsula of Long Island. By my reconing that is where Sands Point, Long Island is located. My Sands ancestors owned land on that point back in the late 1600's.

Not the greatest picture as we were looking into the sun. This is looking south on Manhatten. Ground Zero is actually about where the furthest right tall buildings are located. You can see the Statue of Liberty out in the river and the island just to the right is Ellis Island.

And you ask where we were staying. We were on 40th Street just off 8th Avenue. This picture has 3 hotels in one. The black one is the Four Points, The red is the Marriot and the gray colored one is ours - Staybridge Suites at Times Square. Like I showed earlier it was an excellent hotel, even though a couple of doors past the Marriot was the New York Parole Board offices.

Day 10 - Ellis Island

The next stop on the ferry was Ellis Island - where so many immigrants passed through on their way to a new life in America. Barbara's own ancesors on both the Blessing and Yates families came through here on the way to Rhode Island and Chicago. It is interesting how close this island is to the island that the Statue of Liberty is located.

This is the grand hall at Ellis Island. It is the big room that all immigres would have had to be processed. If they were ill or didn't have a sponsor (or way to support themselves) they would be turned away. For Barbara this room was significant as she had ancestors who had to walk this very room.

Seeing the display of luggage also made us think about how much did her ancestors bring? I suspect we have more than they had just for this trip. I can't imagine leaving everything - family, friends, worldly possessions to start over in a new country. We actually didn't do the genealogy thing here as they charge for internet time and charge a huge fee for anything you want copied.

Day 10 - Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island

This was our one day to do New York on our own. We planned out the Statue of Liberty / Ellis Island, the Empire State Building, Phantom of the Opera in the Evening, and everything else we could cram in there. Well everything else ended up being getting our ticket situation straightened out.
We started our day about 8 AM purchasing tickets (we thought) from our hotel but the printer didn't work so they sent us over to Madam Truseau's to print the tickets. (No sweat we thought.) Well we ended up in at least a 30+ minute line with others trying to get tickets printed. We got the stuff printed so lets skip a head in the story to the Ferry to the Statue of Liberty. We try to get into the line and they turn us away because all we have is a voucher for tickets. The guy sends us a couple of blocks away to find the guys in the yellow jackets who actually issue tickets for this company. By the time we find them and get the voucher changed to a ticket it was 11:30! Lesson? There are ticket venders running around all over the city in Blue and Yellow jackets that can sell you tickets to the nearby attractions. The prices are the same so if I had to do it again I would just buy the tickets nearby from a vender.

As we left our hotel we passed the most interesting parking lot we have seen in the city. High rise parking - that is a unique use of space. The guy that owned it wanted to be in the picture so of course I let him pose.

Going back to our narrative, today we got to do my favorite mode of transportation in New York - the subway. You can't beat it for getting around the city fast. We bought one day - unlimited passes for $8.25. That allowed us to get on and off as much as we wanted as opposed to $2.25 per ride. So we walked a couple of street over to the subway and rode the length of Manhattan underground to the Staten Island Ferry and a short walk over to the Statue of Liberty through Battery Park. This park was the site of one of the three forts guarding the entrance to the Hudson River and Manhattan itself.

The picture below is a statue that was recovered from the site of the World Trade Center and will be moved back there when the park at that site is ready. It was part of a fountain there, and though damaged, survived.

How many pictures can you take of the Statue of Liberty? Apparently quite a few. This one is my favorite taken as we were coming in close to the island to land. The base that it sits on is in the shape of a star. Of course the green color is from the fact that it is a steel frame covered in sheets of copper.

Here is a picture of Barb standing at the base of the statue. After several days of rain or showers this was a gorgeous day with patchy clouds and no precipitation.

In the gardens were statues to several of the people responsible for the building of the statue, which by the way, was constructed in France and shipped here and put back together. The statue below is of Andre Eiffel who designed the steel frame of the statue. Yes, the same guy who build a little tower in Paris.

Our trip to the Statue wouldn't have been complete without finding the plaque with the famous Emma Lazarus poem. We never did find the actual plaque but we found this display with a copy of her original poem. I want to put the whole thing here:

Not like the brazen gient of creek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land,

Here at our sea-washed sunset gates

Shall stand a mighty woman with a torch,

Whose flame is the imprisioned lightning,

And her name Mother of Exiles.

From her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome;

Her mild eyes command the air-bridged harbor

That twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient land, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired , your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe fre.

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.

I lift my lamp besied the golden door!"

Day 9 - The 9 - 11 Site

The last major stop on our tour was the World Trade Center site of the 9/11 terrorist attack. This is a picture of the new Tower 1 being rebuilt. I think they said it would be finished in 2013 or so. The foundation and first few floors of the new Tower 2 will be built but that is all for now. They have the same financial problems that the Empire State Building and others had when they were built. You can build a building but then you need tennents. So until more financing and tennants appear there will be just one Tower fully built.

We were taking these pictures across the street from the Twin Towers site. The building we were in is absolutely beautiful and only had its windows blown out that day. It is interesting how buildings so close to this disaster were only slightly damaged. Memorials to the dead are being built at the actual site of each tower. In the middle of this picture of the site you can see some trees. That is the rear of St. Paul's Chapel. The church was undamaged that day but one tree in the cemetery was blown over.

This sculpture is actually a rendition of the root system of the tree that was blown over and is placed at Trinity Church due to a lack of space at St. Paul's. The metaphore is that as trees need roots to be anchored, we need to have roots to hold us firmly in our family and nation.

I don't know the name of this building but it is one half as wide as one of the original Twin Towers and one half as tall making it just a quarter the size of one of the original Towers. They were huge. That is the beginnings of the second tower in the foreground. Our guide was a witness to this disaster from two miles away in Brooklyn where he was working. He said they actually saw the second plane crash into the tower and after they came down didn't know what to do so they left work. He went to his wife's school in Queens to pick her up and he said he was covered with ashes from the buildings even though he had been so far away. He could hardly talk about it and was quite emotional. You feel a hallowed feeling here like I have felt at Valley Forge, Gettysburg, etc.

All good days must end and ours did too as we walked through Times Square to our hotel. This is where the ball is dropped each New Years Day.

Day 9 - Wall Street

Wall Street was our next stop. The Trinity Church is right at the beginning of the street. In the Colonial Days it Wall Street was actually a wall to keep the Indians out. During the Revolutionary War it was less than successful at keeping the British out though. There is a cemetery around the church and Alexander Hamilton and other famous Americans are buried there.

This is the front door of the NY Stock Exchange - just a block down Wall Street from Trinity Church. The security around here is extremely tight. No one gets next to the building without going through security.

Across the street is the Merchants Hall with a statue of George Washington in front. This was the spot that washington took the oath of office as our first President. His right hand is out as if he is placing it on the Bible he swore the oath of office. That Bible and an original of the Declaration of Independence are on display within the building.

This is a shot up Wall Street from the last location showing all the security barriers and how close Trinity Church is to this spot. After his inauguration, Washington walked to Trinity Church and prayed for the country.

Day 9 - Out on the Hudson River

We took a boat arond both sides of the tip of Manhattan and out to the Statue of Liberty. Below is a picture of the Manhattan skyline from out on the Hudson heading to the Statue of Liberty.

This is Ellis Island where all the immigrants entering the United States through New York City were sent to be processed. It was the first stop of immigrants in the later part of the 1800's and the early 1900's.

I think we all know who this is. Built my Mr. Eiffel - the builder of the Eiffel Tower.

This is Wall Street seen from the Hudson with Trinity Church at the end of the street. More on this in the next installment.

Day 9 - Manhattan Part 3

This coiuld have been the tour that would never end. Anyway, this is a building that was just unique and felt needed its picture taken. Interesting, wouldn't you say?

Speaking of buildings, these two make an interesing pair. They are both owned by Met Life. The one on the right is the Met Life building. The second one was planned to be 100+ stories but was never finished as they got this far and the Great Depression hit. The guide said that if they had finished it, the Empire State Building would never have been built.

Speaking of the Empire State Building, here it is in the low overcast. This wouldn't have been a good day to pay over $20 to go up it and get a good view of the city. We learned that it was mostly empty after being built and some obscure movie made it so famous that companies started moving into it. Remember a gorilla and a girl and airplanes shooting at the ape?

If I can sell you this, I could sell you the Brooklyn Bridge. Well this is a tower of the Brooklyn Bridge showing the hundreds of cables that support the roadway on the bridge. This was the largest suspension bridge in the world when it was built. I remember reading a book about the builder in junior high.