Distance from Newport to New York City: 171 Nautical Miles
Port Information. New York is the largest city in the United States with a Population of 8.2 Million people living in the five boroughs. Giovanni Verrazzano explored New York Harbor in 1524 but Henry Hudson and the Dutch West India company built a trading post on the island of Manna-hata. The area became New Amsterdam after the island was purchased from the Manhattan Indians for $24 by the Governor, Peter Minuit. England took over the city in 1664 and named it New York after the Duke of York.
The iconic skyline of New York City is now marked by the presence of One World Trade Center (Old Name Freedom Tower). It is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere (104 stories; 1776 feet) and sixth largest in the world. The name is taken from the destroyed North Tower. It is across the street from the original site of the North Tower.
It’s a miserable, wet day in the Big Apple…
The Caribbean Princess is docked at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal – this is where we usually board Queen Mary 2.
Despite the weather outlook, we are both on tour today - “City Tour and 9/11 Memorial” – After a quick breakfast and tour dispatch duties in the Celebrity Theater, our group boarded a bus to the Brooklyn Ferry Terminal. There we were met by our Guide, Bill – stage producer. The water taxi arrived a bit late (after some phone calls from Bill). That was OK with us because we were able to get some very nice pictures of the Manhattan Skyline.
Brooklyn Water Taxi Port
In the pictures below, you can also see “Freedom Tower” now officially called “One Trade Center”. That orange object is some kind of art installation.
Ferry Port – Waiting For Our Boat
Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge
American Merchant Marine Memorial
Ellen came across an interesting object at the pier – a phone charging station (the kind you now see at the airport). This one, like the old pay phones, wasn’t working. At good idea, at least.
Public Charging Station – Inoperable
East River / Statue of Liberty
Our water taxi finally arrived and we boarded and were soon on our way. The water taxi would take us from Brooklyn to Manhattan, where our walking tour would start. The boat ride was pretty smooth but it was raining and difficult to take pictures. The best pictures could only be taken on the open deck. Dodging raindrops, I got some nice shots.
On the Water Taxi
Lady Liberty
We disembarked the Water Taxi and started our walking tour of Manhattan. The Wall Street Bull, which is the well known symbol of the Stock Market (at least there is no Bear), was saturated with vistors so the picture is full of random people.
The Wall Street Bull and Admirers
We passed by the Cunard Building – the building has different owners now, but at one time was the New York offices of the Cunard Line. A plaque commemorates the site and its history.
Cunard Building
The route took us past the NY Stock Exchange Building.
NY Stock Exchange
Federal Hall was built in 1700. It served as the first Capitol Building of the newly formed United States and it was the site at which George Washington was inaugurated. The Bill of Rights was introduced to Congress at Federal Hall. It then served as a US Custom House. It is currently a National Memorial adminstered by the National Park Service. Appropriately, a statue of George Washington stands in front of the building.
Federal Hall
Nearby Battery Park was adorned by an exhibit called “Cool Globes”. The installation’s goal was to increase awareness of options to counter climate change. The Globes were very unique and interesting.
Globes on Display in Battery Park
One World Trade Center from Battery Park
It was raining pretty good as we made our to the National September 11 Memorial Complex.
We were given about an hour of free time to explore the complex.
The 9/11 Memorial opened on the 10th Anniversary of the attacks. The memorial consists of twin reflecting pools built on the footprints of the North and South Towers. Each reflecting pool contains a 32 foot waterfall (largest man-made waterfalls in the US) with the water draining into a center shaft. The design of the Memorial was picked from over 5200 submissions (from 63 countries).
There are almost 3000 names inscribed on bronze plaques on the Memorial. They contain names of victims of both the 2001 and 1993 terrorist attacks. The location of the plaques is not random but based on relationships victims had with each other.
Memorial and One WTC
The 9/11 Memorial Museum stands on the grounds of the complex. It preserves the history of the event through the display of personal effect and multimedia presentations. I could not go into the museum. Under the museum in the bedrock, lies the repository of unidentified remains. This area is only open to the families of those victims. These remains undergo continuing forensic testing in the hopes of identifying additional victims of the WTC attacks.
9/11 Memorial Museum
The first building in the new WTC Complex is One World Trade Center. It is located across the street from the North Reflecting Pool. Today, cloud cover obscured the top of this impressive building.
One WTC
North Reflecting Pool
A flower next to a name indicates that today would have been that person’s birthday – very poignant but very sad.
South Reflecting Pool
The Survivor Tree was found standing after the collapse of the towers. It was brought back to health and transplanted to the Memorial site (still held in place by wires until it roots successfully).
We left the 9/11 Memorial, walked a few blocks in the rain to meet our bus, and continued our tour in a dry environment. We saw lots of sights but the one that I recall as most touching was the pier and hotel that were supposed to house the passengers of the Titanic in 1912. Broadway and Times Square did not make it on our route – rain and traffic probably had something to do with that.
We got back to the ship and got ready for dinner.
Tonight’s Headliner was Mentalist Jay Alexander – mentalists are not usually our thing but we went to see him. His outfit and look was very unique and his act was pretty entertaining. He explained the statistics of behavior using a diamond ring (he tried to determine which hand a person was holding it in). Very informative.
A long wet day in New York but also a very interesting one…
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