Lower Manhattan

This Tour Comes From...

National Geographic Driving Guide: New York

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A sliver of green at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, Battery Park offers an unforgettable view of New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty. It’s fitting that New York should have such a sublime vantage point—particularly since this was the city’s “front stoop” for millions of immigrants debarking from nearby Ellis Island.

Besides Battery Park’s offerings, this walking tour explores rich architecture, historic sites, and a wonderful river setting. Starting from Battery Park, you board a ferry for a harbor view of New York from the Staten Island Ferry, or one of the tour boats that ply to the Statue of Liberty and the Ellis Island Museum of Immigration. When you return to shore, you visit sites highlighting the city’s heritage, which dates back to 1626, when Dutchman Peter Minuit bought Manhattan from Indians for $24 worth of baubles. Moving northwest along Wall Street, you immerse yourself in the hustle of the world’s foremost financial district, with the Woolworth Building towering above. But you will find an escape from the crowd of “white shirts” (financial traders), on the grounds of Trinity Church, City Hall Park, and the piers of South Street Seaport, where tall ships reign. CONTINUED

- Battery Park
- Statue of Liberty National Monument
- Ellis Island Immigration Museum
- Bowling Green
- Fraunces Tavern
- Trinity Church
- City Hall Park
- Fulton Market Building

(Continued From Top)

Battery Park
Thank the Dutch for the starting point on this walk, Battery Park. This green apron on Manhattan’s point constitutes a landfill that began shortly after Dutch colonists arrived in 1626 and started developing the terrain. Over the years, construction debris has added several acres to the island’s tip, completely filling in the 200 feet [61 meters] between the shore and the park’s focal point, Castle Clinton National Monument (+1 212 344 7220). Completed in 1811, the harbor fortification with 8-foot [2.5-meter] walls and 28 cannons never fired a shot in anger. Through the years it has had long careers as an entertainment venue—where the great Jenny Lind sang—and the New York Aquarium. But the Castle’s greatest contribution to American history lies in its role as an immigration landing depot from 1855 to 1890. Nearly eight million immigrants, two out of three new arrivals in America during those years, entered through the Castle. Today, the fort contains a museum documenting its history; it’s also the place where you buy boat-ride tickets to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
Before you take to the water, the park is well worth a stroll, particularly on an early summer morning. Get some coffee from a vendor, enjoy the sea breeze, the shade trees, and the fanciful Verrazano Monument, recognizing the unheralded Italian discovery of the island in 1524. Notice the presence of police and sanitation workers sprucing up the park—signs that New York is committed to being a cleaner, safer place than it was just a few years ago.
When you feel the urge “to get to sea,” as Herman Melville did while water gazing from the Battery, your choice of routes depends on time and money. The Staten Island Ferry (South end of Battery Park. +1 718 815 2628) remains the cheapest harbor tour in the world—free. The best sightseeing comes when you board one of the older, open-decked ferries. Feel the wind and get an unobstructed view of M iss Liberty and Ellis Island as you sail past. The round-trip takes less than an hour. You may want to bring some fresh bagels or fruit salad aboard for a light breakfast al fresco.

Statue of Liberty National Monument

Statue of Liberty

Photograph © Pete Souza

The Circle Line-Statue of Liberty Ferry (Battery Park. +1 212 269 5755. Fare) makes a loop, stopping first at Liberty, then Ellis Island, so you can get off and return at will. The only snag is the crowd; there are lines for these boats almost everyday. And once you get to the Statue of Liberty National Monument (+1 212 363 3200), the wait to climb to her crown can take hours. If you arrive after 2 p.m., you might even be turned away. For those who don’t make it to the top, there is a museum and video in the pedestal to salve the disappointment.
But you don’t have to climb to the crown to appreciate Liberty: Many visitors find that just stopping at her feet is an inspiring pilgrimage. The statue was a gift from France; she was shipped to the U.S., assembled, and formally dedicated in 1886. Sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi made her 50 feet [15 meters] taller than the Colossus of Rhodes. She rises 151 feet [46 meters] above her 10-story pedestal, and her copper sheathing weighs over 220 tons.

Ellis Island Immigration Museum
Ellis Island Immigration Museum (+1 212 363 3200) makes the perfect sequel to Liberty. Between 1892 and 1954, more than 12 million immigrants landed here for medical and legal processing. Today, one of three Americans can trace an ancestor or relative to the Ellis Island center. After years of abandonment, it reopened in 1990 as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Legions have come ever since to follow in their ancestors’ footsteps. Visit the Baggage Room, Registry Room, Great Hall, and more than 30 galleries of artifacts, photos, oral histories, and ethnic music. You can also view a powerful documentary. The Wall of Honor overlooking the Statue of Liberty includes the names of over 400,000 immigrants. The island’s green spaces make fine picnic sites.

Bowling Green

At the National Museum of the American Indian

Photograph © Pete Souza

Returning to Manhattan, head up State Street to the foot of Broadway and the Bowling Green. The city’s oldest existing park, it dates from 1734. During colonial times a statue of King George III stood here, but patriots tumbled the statue after listening to a reading of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, and melted it to make bullets. Today, the green makes a vantage point from which to view the Alexander Hamilton Customs House (1 Bowling Green). This is one of the finest beaux arts buildings in New York City. The facade’s four sculptures representing Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America are creations by Daniel Chester French, who sculptured Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial. In 1994 the Customs House opened as the National Museum of the American Indian (+1 212 514 3700. Adm. fee). The regal interior spaces set the stage for the Smithsonian’s Native American collection; it features permanent and changing exhibits. The essence of the holdings are masterworks by Indian artists. Discover virtuoso carvings from the Northwest, gold work from South America, and Southwestern Navajo weavings. Public programs highlight Indian music, dance, visual arts, and storytelling.
After heading south on Whitehall Street to the intersection with Water Street, you see the small Peter Minuit Park, which memorializes the shrewd Dutchman who bought Manhattan from native people. In this same area, look for New York Unearthed (117 State St. +1 212 748 8628. April-Dec. Mon.-Sat.; Jan.-March Mon.-Fri.) if you want to view archaeological items from colonial New York. You can take an elevator that simulates a ride from Wall Street to the civilization that existed 400 years ago.

Fraunces Tavern

Eighteenth-century room in Fraunces Tavern

Photograph © Pete Souza

Walk a block east to Broad Street, then north to Pearl Street, to the tavern where George Washington made his farewell speech to his officers on December 4, 1783. Fraunces Tavern (54 Pearl St. +1 212 425 1778) is a brick Georgian building still vending grog and victuals—now to gangs of Wall Street traders. There is a small museum (Adm. fee) with period rooms, including the Long Room, site of Washington’s address.
New York’s distant past fades as you walk north on Broad Street into Wall Street’s skyscraper canyon. A district as well as a road, Wall Street takes its name from a wall the Dutch built in 1653. Spanning east to west across Lower Manhattan, it was erected as a defense against nearby Indians.

Hubbub at New York Stock Exchange

Photograph © Pete Souza

Amid the buildings of traditional financial houses, such as Morgan Guaranty Trust Company (23 Wall St. at Broad St.) and modern giants such as Citibank (55 Wall St.), stands the money pump called the New York Stock Exchange (20 Broad St. at Wall St. +1 212 656 5162. Mon.-Fri.). Billions of dollars trade hands in this neoclassical temple with its facade of Corinthian columns. If you want to get up to the third-floor gallery to watch the trading, you must get free tickets, which the exchange releases each working morning at 9:05. Inside you find slides, videos, and guides to inform you about what looks like chaos below on the trading floor. Quite a change from the days when traders leaned against the trees or set up tables along “The Street” to conduct their business.
Diagonally across Wall Street stands another imperial-looking temple. Federal Hall National Memorial (26 Wall St. +1 212 825 6888. Mon.-Fri.) emulates the Parthenon, and the statue of George Washington poised in front signals that this is the site where the general took the Oath of Office to become the first President of the United States. The museum inside has a self-guided tour and exhibitions on the U.S. Bill of Rights and Constitution. The steps are a favorite venue for the white shirts to smoke and snack on their lunch breaks.

Trinity Church
Another sanctuary from the frenzy lies west of here, where Wall Street dead-ends at Broadway. Trinity Church (+1 212 602 0872. Guided tours 2 p.m.) stood as the tallest building in New York for part of the 19th century, but today this Anglican parish with its rose-colored Gothic chapel and graveyard look Lilliputian. Dating back more than 300 years, the cemetery makes a popular place for Wall Street denizens to escape for lunch. Pilgrim William Bradford, Alexander Hamilton, and Robert Fulton are buried here. There is a small museum, and classical concerts are offered most Thursdays at 1 p.m.
Moving north on Broadway, you find the oldest continuous-use public building in the city, St. Paul’s Chapel (between Fulton and Vesey Sts. +1 212 602 0872), dating from 1766. Washington prayed here after his inauguration, and on Mondays you can sit near his pew as you enjoy a noontime classical concert (donation).

City Hall Park
The Woolworth Building (233 Broadway), a block farther north, ranks as one of the most ornate skyscrapers in New York. This 60-story, neo-Gothic building is F.W. Woolworth’s 1913 monument to his five-and-dime enterprise. The lobby with its soaring ceilings, marble walls, bronze furnishings, and murals is spectacular. Across the street in City Hall Park, originally the town common (now a haven for chess players), sits the stately City Hall (+1 212 788 7171. Mon-Fri. Group tours only). Still the seat of New York City government, the small 1812 limestone palace mixes French Renaissance details with federal architecture. Still functioning after nearly two centuries, the building is worth a visit to escape the noise of the city and marvel at the grandeur of the dome and spiraling staircases.

Dockside at South Street Seaport

Photograph © Pete Souza

As you stroll down Nassau and Fulton Streets—partially closed to vehicles—you see that the neighborhood is changing. Nineteenth-century storefronts replace the skyscrapers of Wall Street. Ethnic restaurants and cafés with outdoor tables abound. Picking up the view of the East River and tall ships, you smell fish—a reminder that this 11-block South Street Seaport Historic District (+1 212 732 7678) remains the site of the working Fulton Fish Market.
Preservationists began buying up this neighborhood of federal-style counting houses, warehouses, and markets in 1967 to save Manhattan’s historic waterfront from skyscraper development. But it took another twelve years before commercial interests such as the Rauch Corporation, which developed Boston’s Quincy Market, reclaimed the district. The historic core of the seaport lies aboard the massive square-riggers Peking and Wavertree (Pier 16. Adm. fee) and other tall ships; and at Schermerhorn Row, a collection of 19th-century buildings housing shops, restaurants, taverns, and the South Street Seaport Museum (Visitor Center, 12-14 Fulton St. +1 212 748 8600. Adm. fee). At the museum you can see exhibitions such as “Immigration in the Age of Sail” and obtain tickets for a summer sail aboard the schooner Pioneer (May-Sept.; fare included in museum adm. fee. Reservations required).

Fulton Market Building
The Fulton Market Building (Front and Fulton Sts.) still has the fish market, located on the building’s east side (before sunrise). But there are lots of famous-name shops and restaurants in this restored building as well. With more of the same, the Pier 17 Pavilion models a 19th-century recreation pier. This is the place to pick from a collection of outdoor restaurants, including Pedro O’Haras (+1 212 227 6735), which overlooks the river, street entertainers, and the seaport’s collection of tall ships. Sure the prices are a little steep...but where else will $3.75 buy you beer at a waterfront table overlooking the place your ancestors probably arrived full of dreams for this New World.