Today we were shooting to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and, if possible, the 9-11 memorial because it's within walking distance of the ferry. It turned out to be a long day.
The subway was actually simple. The most important aspect is whether you are going "downtown" or "uptown". You must know this. For the most part, anything south of you is downtown and north is uptown. As the ferry to the Statue of Liberty is at the southern most point of Manhattan (Battery Park), it was obviously downtown. It was also direct from Grand Central Station, so it was simple today.
After some research last night, I found this CityPass option. There was a lady in the museum yesterday yelling out for it and people that had it could skip the line. If you buy it, you can go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the American Natural History Museum, the 9-11 memorial and museum, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. These were all things we wanted to do anyway and with the CityPass you save about $50, so I bought it. We went to the Natural History Museum yesterday, but even considering that, we still save a little money.
When we got off the subway, we were in Battery Park, another rare green area in the city. We basically just bought tickets and made our way directly to the line for the ferry. I took almost 200 pictures today, so I'll try my best to prune out some.
This is a zoomed in shot from Battery Park with the 300 mm lens.
Looking back at Battery Park from the ferry.
The CityPass ticket includes an audio tour, which the kids ended up loving. The device had an option for an adult and kid version. They probably listened to them for an hour while we were walking around. It would tell you where to go and explain things along the way.
This is on the island looking back at the ferry. From what I could tell, there were probably two or three ferry loads of people on the island at any one time.
Weird fact, but I just read recently that the tallest discovered tree in the world is about 379 ft tall, taller than the Statue of Liberty from the ground to the tip of the torch. Look at this picture and imagine a tree taller than that...unbelievable! I mean, look at those piddly trees in the background for comparison! By the way, it was found at Redwood National Park in California.
Poor timing on my part, but the kids are starving and, guess what, we're on an island with a single, over-priced cafe. The food was expensive and mediocre, at best. When we wrapped that up, we hopped on the next ferry which takes you to Ellis Island, which is nearby. Ellis Island was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 to 1954, processing over 12 million people. Hmmm, "processing" doesn't seem like the best word choice here.
These were hospital and medical facilities, vacant today.
Inside are several areas describing the history of the island and the immigrants. It is mostly about where they came from, the reasons they immigrated, and what life was like on the trip, at Ellis Island, and after they left. The most eye-opening for me was that many were turned away. Essentially, if you couldn't work (child, too old, handicapped, etc.), you were turned back and the shipping company was required to pay for your return trip. They also turned back anyone who appeared to be sick after a very brief look-over by a doctor. Oh, if you were a woman without a "male escort", you were not allowed off the island until someone (a male) could come to claim you.
Upstairs was the registry room where people waited and progressed through the process. The dark benches in this picture are original, which I think is pretty cool. Your ancestor may have sat right here.
One of the boats coming over. Seems obvious from this picture, but there were many descriptions about how miserable the trip was for almost everyone and how they wept when seeing the Statue of Liberty because they knew the voyage was finally over.
Dormitory room
We took the ferry back to Battery Park and arrived about 5:00.
The 9-11 museum doesn't close until 9:00, so we decided to do that this evening and just make a long night of it. I won't try to describe all the various sights from the memorial and museum, but let me say that of all the things we did and saw in New York City, this was, by far, the most memorable for me. It is a powerful place. If you ever visit, I would highly recommend coming and not skipping the museum.
There is an internal section of the museum that really shows in great detail all the events and a timeline of September 11th from the perspectives of people on the ground, the media, and politicians. It was very informative and the only place where they actually showed pictures and videos of the plane impacts and the tower collapses. I guess we've never talked with our kids about 9-11 or they don't remember, but Brady is the only one who remembers anything about it from school. The girls just knew that something bad happened and I think this was very memorable for all of them. About half way through this internal exhibit, Adria said she didn't like it and wanted to go home. I don't think she was scared, but didn't really know how to process what she was seeing and reading. I actually went up in the twin towers when I was about ten years old, so this was poignant for me too.
American Merchant Mariners' Memorial
These names are engraved like this encircling both memorials. You can't see them in the picture above, but they are just below the shot. I probably was resting my elbows on them. They list every single person that died including those on the ground, in the towers, in the Pentagon, and on the planes. There were flowers laying on these all around.
A mangled steel support column from one of the towers.
This place is called the Oculus and it has an interesting story. There was a train subway station underneath the twin towers that was destroyed when they collapsed and it needed to be replaced. The centerpiece of that replacement is this building, the Oculus, designed by a Spanish architect to look from the outside like a winged dove in flight. Critics have blasted it for being inordinately expensive as well as its massive cost overruns. Originally planned to cost approximately $2 billion and take five years to complete, it has now cost $4 billion in public money and taken 12 years to complete. Even the New York Times called it a "boondoggle." To us, it seemed like a fancy shopping mall with a subway station downstairs. This tends to happen when people get to spend money that isn't theirs. That said, it was one of the coolest buildings I've ever been in.
Good pictures and facts.
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