New York and Niagara - 2

 

The next day, we started a little late and went to see the Downtown of NY city. The PATH train services were convenient to travel from Journal Square of Jersey City to WTC (World Trade Center), NY. Just outside the PATH station of WTC, NY, we saw the new WTC tower that was being constructed. It was high enough just like the old ones. However, we started roaming in downtown. We walked towards the World Financial Center. However, my eyes were looking into the sky half of the time. Again, when did they build all this? I was imagining the number of people, the number of companies and offices in this area. Where are these people parking their vehicles? Oh my God, no wonder this city is called the City of Skyscrapers.

The World Financial Center is home of various big companies like Merrill Lynch, American Express etc. From the Winter Garden of World Financial Center, we walked along the bay of Hudson River towards Battery Park. The Battery Park is the place from which the cruises towards the Liberty Island which is known for Statue of Liberty. However, our trip to Statue of Liberty was not planned for this day. We walked few steps further to visit the Bull of Wall Street, also known as the Charging Bull. It indicates the aggressive financial optimism (as defined in Wiki).

 

We walked few streets further in Broad street and into the world famous Wall Street, surrounded completely by skyscrapers, it was an unique experience. The New York Stock Exchange (just like BSE in India) building was awesome. Few steps further on the same street, the Federal Hall which was served initially as New York City hall, later as US Customs house, later as the first capitol building and was the site where George Washington took oath as first president of United States. Currently it is a place of interest for tourists.

We then had lunch in an Indian restaurant in Downtown and then we walked towards the Brooklyn bridge. In fact, we didn’t walk on the bridge as we were already tired of walking in the downtown. We took pictures from a visitor spot, a place from which the Brooklyn bridge was clearly visible. It is known for its age and as one of the oldest suspension bridges. We walked towards the Brooklyn bridge starting point on the Manhattan end and later to WTC memorial. The place itself gave us a feeling that we were missing the towers. A glimpse of the live telecast by CNN on the day of attack while I was a plus two student struck my mind. Being in ground Zero, brought me an imagination of how the people in those flights, people in the towers would have felt on the day of attack. Even the ground floor of World Financial Center was severely damaged during the collapse. The area was highly secured. I was not sure whether the security is generally high in the area or it was just high on the day we went since we visited the place on 09/09 which couple of days before 9/11. They have constructed two pools (biggest man made pools in North America) which exactly sit in the same location where the twin towers stood before. The names of every person who died in the attacks were inscribed on the edge panels of each of the pools. There is a small pool inside each of big pool and I believe there is a tree inside that one. It was not visible though. After the memorial visit, we were tired and exhausted and left home. Another wonderful day of the trip (09/09) came to an end.

The next day (09/10), we set out early to Battery Park for taking a cruise towards Statue of Liberty. The city was clearly visible on the river and from the far, the city looked like a bar code with uneven line lengths. It was not allowed to go inside the statue but we had roamed around the statue on the island. A prerecorded audio guide was provided for understanding the history and greatness of the statue. One thing that mesmerized me was the material with which statue was made. I have been under the impression that it was made of concrete or cement but in fact, it was made of copper plates. It was originally not green in color but it took 20 years to get itself turn into green as the copper metal got oxidized. The cruise trip continued to Ellis Island from Liberty island where there was museum of American history. We didn’t had much interest in it and came back to New York – Battery park. We had lunch, again in another Indian restaurant. There was a reason why we didn’t try other foods. I feel being a vegetarian is a sin in US. Most of the places, vegetarians get salads but nothing else. I am not saying that no vegetarian food is available but whatever that is available doesn’t satisfy my hunger. By the way, New York is a city of street foods. Again this reminds me of India. One would definitely enjoy the street food here. Lots of stalls and lots of varieties (no vegetarian though except donuts).

We planned to visit the American Museum of Natural History in mid town. I was particularly interested to see the fossils of prehistoric creatures like dinosaurs. We planned it for less time but in fact it was a museum for which we should dedicate a day to completely see each and every hall. Needless to say, an individual who has interest in it should visit it. Visit the website www.amnh.org for more information. Later we took a taxi to one of the most important places in New York, the Empire State Building.

If you are going to NY for one day visit, Empire state building should be there in the list of places to see. We bought the tickets in advance for visiting both 86th deck and 102nd deck. For reaching 86th deck, we should change 2 lifts and then one more to 102 deck. The 86th deck has both an open balcony around the building and a closed observatory. It was amazing and we felt excited to see the said skyscrapers as small buildings from the top. We got a feeling that we were on top of the world and walking in the sky. With high speed cold winds blowing on the four sides, it was absolutely an exciting moment. With in myself, I thanked each and every person who was responsible for me being there. There were no words to describe it and one should feel it. We then went to the 102nd deck which is a closed observatory. It was small as we were almost on top of the building. It was almost evening by the time we were there and the sun was about sign off for the day. It was the time when the actual number of visitors get doubled to see New York in lights. We could see each and every place that we have been to in these two days. The only building which we could see on par in terms of height with Empire state is the new WTC tower. Also, depending on the occasion, colored lights will be turned on top of this building.

We came back home in Jersey city at night and the next afternoon (on 09/11), we flew to Niagara from JFK airport, NY. If you wish to see JFK airport, then plan your boarding point as JFK. Else, if you are not going to stay in NY like how we stayed in Jersey city, please plan your trip from Newark airport or some other closest airport rather than JFK.

I would like continue to write about Niagara in the next sequel of this series and conclude.