On June 26, my urban tourism and I took a walk down lower Manhattan. To get there I had to take the R train to Whitehall Street or if you prefer you can take the one to the south ferry train station. When I arrived I had to walk 2 blocks to the south ferry to meet with my class. We started down Water Street, looking at the historic buildings. The Watson house was one still standing built in the 1800s designed by John Macomb, now a Roman Catholic Church. The shrine of the first American born saint Elizabeth Ann Sutton was also apart of the structure.
We walked to one of my favorite structures from this trip Francine’s tavern. Francis tavern is one of the most historical buildings in Manhattan; it’s where Washington gave his farewell speech to the officers in the continental army. According to the plaque fraunces tavern is also listed as a memorial and on the national register of historic places in 1719. I loved that Fraunces Tavern was both a museum and a restaurant, when I walked inside it felt like I was back in the 1700’s. It felt as if the door was even the original door and even looking from the outside in was exiting. It felt like I was walking through history, where many notable people have come. I’m looking forward to coming back and hopefully touring the museum and having lunch.
We circled back to the old customhouse, which is now The National Museum of the American Indian apart of the Smithsonian institution; the world’s largest museum and research complex. Across from the museum is a park, New York City’s oldest park, according to NYCgovparks.org, this park is famously known as a place where native Americans where met by Peter Minuit to discuss the selling of Manhattan. It was also used as a place where people would sell and buy livestock. In the park stood a statue of George Washington, and the crowns on the gate where stolen. When we walked down Broadway past the park we spotted the charging bull statue. To me the little girl in front of the Bull symbolizes strength and not being afraid against the extremely intimidating bull that to me symbolizes life or a cause you care deeply about.
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The federal Hall and The New York Stock Exchange stood boldly on Wall Street. I decided to into the federal Hall building to look around, it pretty empty, besides 2 rooms on the corner containing information about how the Hall came to be. There was also an interesting art piece by Brian Tolle, symbolizing a distorted structure of 17thcentury Dutch house. We moved up to the Trinity church, and the first thing I thought was that it was very brown, but it stood out. When we saw it from the Federal hall national memorial, everyone was curious about this church. In the churchyard we saw many graves of officers from the continental army and the navy original members, like Richard Montgomery and Alexander Hamilton. We finally reached the 9/11 memorials, which I’ve never visited before. I really loved the concepts of the two pools carved into the shape of the building and where they stood exactly. I feel like water symbolizes a connection, in which we will always have with the deaths of thousands who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. After spending time there we went into the oculus. It was very beautiful symbolizing a bird in flight. But to turn it into a mall, where many people lost their lives is very unattached from the 9/11 memorial. Some of our class left but us who left, walked to our last stop, Brookfield Place. It is beautiful on the outside, looks like it is made out of glass. It is also a shopping mall; I still don’t understand why we needed two. But nonetheless I enjoyed my time here; we explored the outside, which was a boating dock for the prettiest looking sailing boats. We decided that we would part ways now and get something to eat, So many choices for food at Brookfield I could not make up my mind. Eventually I decided on a pork sandwich, I made the right decision.
