Lower Manhattan has, perhaps, a more palpable sense of history than any other part of the city. Bowling Green Park, a little patch of green near the tip of the island, is where Dutch general Peter Minuit bought the whole island of New Amsterdam from the American Indians in 1626 for roughly $24 in trade goods. The district has been shaped by trade ever since. As the city’s oldest quarter, Lower Manhattan today is a hodgepodge of skyscrapers, churches, statues and financial institutions, with the money-making machine of the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street sitting right smack next to a church dating back to the 17th century. However, Lower Manhattan is symbolic of more than financial wheeler-dealing these days. Downtown is still dotted with memorials, flowers and peace signs, but the sombre atmosphere that permeated Manhattan’s financial district after September 11th 2001 is giving way to a renewed sense of purpose, with plans approved in late 2003 for construction of the Freedom Tower on the World Trade Center site. Quite apart from the morbid allure of Ground Zero, the area has plenty of appeal for visitors, with some of New York’s most iconic symbols, Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty, within easy reach. SightsStatue of Liberty T 1-212 363 3200, http://www.nps.gov/stli Circle line ferry from Battery Park daily 0900-1700 in winter, 0845-1845 in summer. Admission to Liberty Island free. Ferry tickets $10, $8 seniors, $3 children (sold at Castle Clinton). New York’s most recognized symbol carries even more significance these days due to the gap in the Manhattan skyline. Modern-day Ms Liberty and her torch now seem more emblematic of the struggle for harmony than the promise of opportunity. The statue was the brainchild of the French statesman Edouard de Laboulaye, who wanted to honour the friendship between France and the USA. Sculptor Frederic-August Bartholdi was responsible for building it and Gustav Eiffel helped design a metal framework to support the base of the structure. It took 20 years to get the project finished but finally, in 1886, the 151-foot statue was unveiled. The famous poem by Emma Lazarus at the base reads, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door’. In the 1980s, the grimy statue underwent a massive $100-million renovation to clean her up and replace her torch. Since September 11, the statue, crown and museum have remained closed but visitors can still walk around the grounds. The Circle Line ferry runs to the Statue every 30 minutes from Battery Park but queues can be ridiculously long in the summertime unless you arrive early or go on a weekday. Ellis Island T 1-212 363 3200. Circle line ferry from Battery Park daily 0900-1700 in winter, 0845-1845 in summer. Admission to Ellis Island free. Ferry tickets $10, $8 seniors, $3 children (sold at Castle Clinton). The second stop on the Circle Line ferry, Ellis Island was the point of arrival for more than 12 million immigrants who came to the United States between 1892 and 1954. As many as 12,000 people per day were processed through Ellis Island, after medical examinations and interviews with immigration officers. The Museum of Immigration offers a fascinating glimpse in to the lives of the immigrants who passed along the human production line through the cavernous Registry room, where criminals, disease-ridden immigrants and anarchists were turned back after failing inspection. Items of clothing, faded photographs and other artefacts are organized according to cultural origin to show the contrasting items that families from different parts of the world brought with them to start their new lives in America. The hereditary database allows visitors to search for family roots. Between Brooklyn and Manhattan is Governor’s Island, which was home to the US Coastguard for 200 years. Battery Park South end of Broadway. Subway 4, 5 to Bowling Green. At the tip of Manhattan, congested Battery Park has splendid views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Governor’s Island. If you don’t have time to take the Circle Line Harbor Cruise, you can enjoy the panorama from the Rise bar at the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park. Within the park is the façade of Castle Clinton, built as a fortress for the War of 1812, before being decommissioned and turned into a garden and renowned concert hall in 1824. The shell now serves as a ticket booth for the Circle Line ferry. Smatterings of monuments throughout the park commemorate immigrants from around the world. More recently, the park has acquired The Sphere, a bronze and steel sculpture built in 1971 to honour world peace. It was the only salvageable piece of artwork from the World Trade Center. Just across the road from Battery Park is 7 State Street, the only survivor of a series of waterfront homes built in the 1790s. The elegant Georgian-style house is a Shrine to Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, who was born on Staten Island and canonized as the first saint in the USA in 1975. National Museum of the American Indian One Bowling Green, T 1-212 514 3700, Mon-Wed, Fri-Sun 1000-1700, Thu 1000-2000, free. Subway 4, 5 to Bowling Green. North of Battery Park is one of the city’s most enduring beaux arts structures, the former US Customs House. Built as a monument to the Port of New York, it is now home to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, a collection of artefacts from nearly every tribe in the USA, including crafts, rodeo items and contemporary art. Outside the museum is New York’s oldest park. Bowling Green, where the Dutch general Peter Minuit made his deal with the American Indians in 1626. It became a Dutch cattle market but was transformed into a space for bowls by the British in the 1730s. Just up the street is the brazen Wall Street bull, an icon of the economic strength of the city in the 1990s. A few blocks east of Bowling Green is refurbished Stone Street, a colourful, historic two-block area filled with restaurants and bars. Lively during the day and night with Downtown bankers, tourists and locals, it provides a welcome change of pace from the otherwise lacklustre eating spots around here. Fraunces Tavern Museum 54 Pearl St,T1-212 425 1778, Tue, Wed, Fri 1000-1700, Thu 1000-1900, Sat 1100-1700, $3, students $2. Subway 4, 5 to Bowling Green. This was where George Washington sent his troops out to recapture New York from the British in 1782. The tavern of Samuel Frances was destroyed in the 1800s by fires that wiped out many Dutch structures in Lower Manhattan but was restored in the early 1900s. The museum feels a little cobbled together but it has two period rooms showing the history of the tavern and of Manhattan in the late 1700s, as well as a working bar where you can raise a toast to George. Wall Street Subway 1, 2, 4, 5 to Wall St, J, M, Z to Broad St. Wall Street takes its name from the wooden barricade, or ‘wal’, that the Dutch constructed along the edge of their settlement in 1653, as protection from the English colonies to the north. These days it’s a narrow mile-long strip synonymous with capitalist wagering. The most noticeable landmark is the New York Stock Exchange, whose neo-classical façade built in 1903 has witnessed more money changing hands than anywhere else in the world. Now covered in an enormous American flag and with armoured military personnel outside, it is currently closed to visitors. Brokers and traders who formerly shouted on the floor are more likely to be sitting behind computer screens elsewhere these days. At the western end of Wall Street sits Trinity Church, an anomaly amongst the city’s financial buildings. The church, originally constructed in 1697 but rebuilt in 1846 after a fire, hosts music concerts during the week. Federal Hall, at 26 Wall Street, is where George Washington took the oath of office in 1789 and briefly served as the first US Capitol. Across the street, No23 (now the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company but formerly JP Morgan’s office) was the site of a massive explosion in 1920 when an anarchist killed 33 with a wagonload of explosives. Scars of the blast are still evident. Other noteworthy buildings include No14, the former abode of financier JP Morgan’s mistress, which now houses a chic bar and restaurant on the 31st floor, and the Merchants Exchange, an Ionic temple at No55, that is now a Cipriani’s restaurant. South Street Seaport Pier 17, at the East River and eastern end of Fulton St,T1-212 732 7678, http://www.southstseaport.org Subway 1, 2, 4, 5, J, M, Z to Fulton St-Broadway Nassau Located on the site of the city’s former fish market, this is one of the best surviving examples of what 18th-century New York was like. It underwent a major renovation in the late 1960s, following the construction of Franklin D Roosevelt Drive, which still roars overhead. Pier 17 now serves as a tourist destination with some breezy views and nautical appeal but little charm thanks to the herds of visitors. Within easy sniffing distance is the Fulton Fish Market, where New York’s restaurants stock up on seafood. The South Street Seaport Museum (213 Water St at Beekman St) encompasses a series of restored warehouses and recounts the history of the once-thriving seaport with displays of sailing vessels and tugboats as well as some maritime goods for sale. City Hall Broadway at Park Row,T1-212 788 3000, Subway 4, 5, 6 to Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall or J, M, Z to Chambers St. The heart of the city’s rather insipid civic centre, City Hall was intended to be the northernmost point of Manhattan when it was built in 1812. The building has a formal, federal air, with large columns and a spiral staircase inside. Abraham Lincoln lay in state here in 1865 before his funeral procession. Outside is the little green space of City Hall Park, recognizable to locals as the site of press conferences, political protests and countless marriages over the years. Most recently, it was the site of the shooting of a local councilman by a political rival in 2003. Across the street to the east is Park Row, formally known as Newspaper Row. This was New York’s version of Fleet Street in the late 1800s, with 19 newspapers clustered together here. A bronze statue of Benjamin Franklin holding his Pennsylvania Gazette sits at the intersection of Park Row, Spruce and Nassau Streets. Woolworth Building 233 Broadway between Park Pl and Barclay St. Subway 2, 3 to Park Pl. This elegant skyscraper across from City Hall Park is a Gothic masterpiece and tribute to architect Cass Gilbert’s designs (he also built the US Customs House, the US Courthouse and the New York Life Insurance Company building). When it was finished in 1913, it was the tallest building in New York at 60 stories, and remained so until 1931 when the Chrysler Building was completed. Its church-like design ensures that its elongated shape stands out in the otherwise modern landscape of Downtown. Nicknamed the Cathedral of Commerce, the Woolworth Building has a decadent lobby with mosaics, gargoyles and vaulted ceilings that is open to visitors during the day. Try to find the gargoyle of Woolworth himself counting nickels and dimes and the image of Gilbert holding a model of his building. St Paul’s Chapel Broadway between Vesey St and Fulton St. Subway 2, 3 to Park Pl. Two blocks south of the Woolworth Building on Broadway sits the oldest church in Manhattan, St Paul’s Chapel. Dating back to British rule, it was designed in 1766 to look like St Martin-in-the-Fields in London. George Washington came here to pray; his pew is still on display. Despite its location just opposite the World Trade Center, St Paul’s remarkably survived September 11th unscathed and played a big role as a refuge for the workers at the site. World Trade Center site Subway 1, 2 to Chambers St. Visiting the World Trade Center site will give you a sense of the enormity of what is missing but there’s little actually to see from the viewing platform, apart from a big open pit, a few signs of construction and street vendors, still capitalising on tourists’ morbid fascination, by selling souvenirs nearby. The plan for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site was finally agreed in late 2003 after months of creative wrangling between the original architect, Daniel Libeskind, and David Childs, who was brought in to work on the project by the leaseholder, Larry Silverstein. The highly sensitive redevelopment has had many groups to please, not least the families of the victims of the September 11th attacks. Architects, government officials, civic groups and property developers have all had a say since consultation started in 2002. At the heart of the new design is the 1,776- foot Freedom Tower (taller than the original towers), whose asymmetric form and 276-foot spire echo the Statue of Liberty. The tower will be accompanied by a memorial called ‘Reflecting Absence’ by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, consisting of a grove of trees reflected in two deep pools. However, some victims’ families have voiced concern that the memorial lacks a clear connection to the human cost of the attacks. A new transportation terminal designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava is also included in the plans, with construction due to start in summer 2004. Battery Park City from Pier 1 to Chambers St, T 1-212 267 9700, http://www.bpcparks.org Subway 4, 5 to Bowling Green. This peaceful 30-acre stretch of Downtown was created from the rock and other debris deposited here when the Twin Towers were built in the early 1970s. The landscaped Esplanade is used by roller-bladers, joggers and lunching office workers and is a pleasant place for a stroll. Walking tours are available. At the southern end of the Esplanade, close to Battery Park, is the interesting and well-presented Museum of Jewish Heritage (18 First Pl, T 1-212 509 6130, http://www.mjhnyc Sun-Wed 1000-1745, Thu 1000-2000, Fri 1000-1500. $7, $5 seniors and students), a memorial to Holocaust victims and to the survivors who found new lives in New York. Nearby, sculptures adorn Robert F Wagner Park, a fine place to take in the waterside views of New Jersey and the Statue of Liberty.
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