Out on the Water

On Friday we took to the water.  The East River Ferry plies the river down the east side from a pier near us, to one right down the bottom in Lower Manhattan, near Wall Street.  That turned out to be a much more pleasant mode of transport than the subway train, at least in this weather, and we had a great trip passing under three big bridges, including the Brooklyn Bridge we had already walked.

Wall Street was interesting because it was not as expected.  It is quite narrow and not straight, with the large buildings all around turning it into a canyon.  I guess that part of Manhattan is much older than "midtown" around our hotel, where the avenues are wide and dead straight for miles.   The other noticable feature is the security, as most of the street is blocked off to vehicles, and there are large "truck traps" in the road to stop any vehicle barging through.  The New York Stock Exchange building has barriers and police all around it stopping anyone getting near, and there were a few military-style characters standing on guard with big machine guns.  On nearby Broadway there was a police checkpoint, stopping and inspecting vehicles randomly.

We did find an excellent cafe there though, mysteriously named the the Milk Street Cafe, where I discovered that iced coffee is not my favourite drink.  Next stop was the nearby World Trade Centre, which is a hive of activity, although mostly still below the surrounding ground level.  Apparently there will be seven levels below ground when its finished.  There is one new tower going up, which is already up to the height of many of the surrounding buildings.  We walked right around the perimeter, with a diversion down to the waters edge on the western side where there is a large plaza where many were enjoying their lunch or watching various street performers doing their thing.

The Wall Street bull

On our way to Battery Park at the southern tip of the island we passed the famous 7000 lb bronze Wall Street bull.  Apparently it appeared overnight in Wall Street several years ago.  It was hard to get a good photo of that because of the crush of tourists all trying to do the same thing.  Battery Park is quite extensive, and home to several ferry terminals.  We saw our first squirrel there, and bought a hotdog.

We caught the Staten Island Ferry (to Staten Island of course) because it is free and goes past the Statue of Liberty.  About a thousand other people did the same thing - I think the ferry must have sailed with a distinct lean to starboard!  We came straight back again.  It was interesting to get closer to the statue, and we also enjoyed the views of the city from the water.  We booked seats on the ferry to the Statue of Liberty itself for Tuesday.  If you want to climb up to the crown of the statue you need to book three months ahead!

The view from the Staten Island ferry

 

Orange, and quite large.

 We liked the East River ferry, so went home the same way.  Also discovered a real supermarket on the way.