While visiting my friends in New Jersey, I decided to take a trip over the Hudson River to explore New York City, or specifically Manhattan, for a day.  The train trip was only about two hours in each direction, and it had been years since I’d been there.  The city has a certain atmosphere about it that’s just fun to be a part of, although like many people, I think it’s a nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there!

The first thing I saw when I got off the train at Pennsylvania Station was the Empire State Building down the road, and that was also my first destination.

New York is an easy city to walk in, and since jaywalking is almost mandatory, you get around fairly quickly.  The Empire State Building has always been one of my favorite places in the city, mainly for its many art deco features.  It’s no longer the tallest building in the city, of course, but still… it’s right up there!

There are multiple business entrances, but the tourist entrance brings you right into the spectacular lobby, and leaves you in no doubt that you’re in the right place.

Even the elevators are beautifully decorated.  They’re clad internally in marble, and although it used to require changing elevators half way to make the full trip, recent improvements that replaced the cables with belts have meant that you go to the 80th floor observatory in a singe ride.  The 86th floor observatory is reached in a separate elevator, and the 102nd floor lookout is yet another trip.

The 86th floor is really my favorite, with both internal and external observation platforms.  On a cold morning such as when I was there, having a warm internal space that still allows you to look out is a real bonus.

Looking south down the length of Manhattan, you can see the Flatiron Building in the center of the picture, the new One World Trade Center building is the tallest building in the distance, and the Statue of Liberty is just visible out in the harbor.  Spectacular.

Looking northeast, you can see more of midtown Manhattan, including the beautiful Sears Tower.

I particularly like this next picture, looking southeast down the island, because of the shadow of the Empire State Building falling on the buildings below.

Although the guards walking around the observation deck do their best to discourage this, I also held my phone out through the rails to take a picture straight down.  Yes, I could have dropped my phone, but I didn’t.  Yes, they’d rather you didn’t do this, but hey, it’s New York, and rules are made to be broken here.  And look… cool picture!

I have so many pictures from the top of the Empire State Building that I could bore you with them all day.  But there were other things I wanted to see in the city, so I eventually and reluctantly moved on.  I decided to walk down the length of 5th Avenue just for the fun of being on the streets of the city.  It’s only a bit over three miles, so it’s an enjoyable walk.  On the way I passed the Flatiron Building that I had just seen from above.

I walked through the arch into Washington Square Park.

Of course it’s not New York without social and political commentary, and this made me laugh…

One of the main reasons that I came to New York in the first place was to see the new World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial.  I was living in Australia in 2001, but happened to be visiting New York when the attack occurred, and the events of the day are still vivid to me.  I had previously seen Ground Zero as a devastated hole in the ground after most of the clean up was accomplished, and then again when construction was beginning on the new buildings, but it’s much more complete now.  The memorial itself consists of squares about waist high that outline the footprints of the original Twin Towers.  The squares are made up of plaques with the names of everyone who died that day engraved on them.  Inside the squares water flows from under the plaques to fall into a central pool, and there’s a square well in the center of each pool where the water falls down again.  No matter how far you lean forward, you can’t see the bottom of the central wells.  The vast emptiness of the space gives a sense of hollowness and loss, a sense of the enormity of what’s missing, that’s very haunting.

In addition to the people who died in the towers themselves, the names of the people who were on the planes are also there, as well as all the first responders who died.  They’re arranged by flight, company, engine, ladder, squad, or department.  The names of the first responders alone cover nearly two full sides of one of the squares.

There are roses by some of the names, showing that the people who died here 15 years ago are still well remembered and missed.  I couldn’t help but remember the times that I had been to the top of the Twin Towers — thousands, millions, of people have been — so this could have been any of us.  Only the timing of the attack meant that these names are on the memorial instead of any of a million others, instead of mine.  I think this is why Americans, and the world, were so shocked and united when the attack occurred — it could have been any of us, so it was an attack on all of us.

I was told that the names with the white roses on them were the people who would have had birthdays that day.  There were at least a dozen.

I found myself wanting to take a picture of every name to say to them, yes, I see you.  There were just too many.

There’s also a museum on the site, and looking through the windows I saw these broken girders from the Twin Towers.  Somehow these had almost more impact than the names on the memorial, since they were such solid reminders of the damage done.  I didn’t go into the museum, though.  I don’t get emotional easily, but this would have done it for me.

While in the center of the memorial all was peaceful and contemplative, the streets around were still busy with activity and progress.  The new One World Trade Center building was just stunning.  It wasn’t as tall as the Twin Towers were, but was beautifully shaped and reflected the sky like a mirror.  The more modest new building beside it is Seven World Trade Center.

Across the street, Four World Trade Center (on the right below) looked complete, while work was continuing on Three World Trade Center (left) and the Oculus (not pictured).

Here’s a map of the area to give you some perspective.  It’s well worth a visit.

After leaving the memorial site, I walked south again to Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan Island.  I’ll admit that I was looking for a knish, which you just can’t seem to get anyplace other than New York, but  I didn’t find one.  It was getting later in the day, and the clouds had moved in, but there were still ferries running, so I decided to take a trip out to Liberty Island to view the Statue of Liberty.

You can get tickets to go inside either the base of the statue, or all the up to the top, but I’ve been in it before, so just got the cheap ticket to wander the grounds this time.  I think she’s more impressive from the outside anyway, although the internal tour is worth doing at least once.  Oddly, although she’s huge, she’s always just a little bit smaller than I expect.

And there she is.  I wandered all around the island, watching the people there was much as I looked at the statue.  Probably the majority of people were from other countries, speaking in languages and accents that I only sometimes recognized, but this was exciting and a bucket list kind of experience for all of them.

I liked wandering around and viewing her from all different angles.  For some reason I also kept thinking that those robes look like a really comfortable way to dress, but wow, her arm must be tired by now..

It kind of looks like she’s scored a goal from this angle…

When I start getting silly it often means that I’m hungry, which was definitely true in this case.  I stopped into the café for a very late lunch, and these were the door handles.  Nicely done, excellent attention to detail.

Often the ferry also stops at Ellis Island, where a huge number of immigrants first entered the United States.  Because it was late in the day, I was on the last ferry off the island, and it returned directly to the mainland.  I was getting tired by this point (and my barely healed toe was starting to complain), so I wasn’t too disappointed to miss it.  I’ve been to Ellis Island before though, and it’s definitely worth a visit.

Back on Manhattan, I tried a couple more places to get a knish (seriously, doesn’t anyone eat them any more, they’re delicious!), but without success, so I headed for the subway to go back uptown.  I walked through the lovely Bowling Green on the way.

The New York subway, while not the prettiest place you’ll ever see, is wickedly efficient, and I got back uptown to Penn Station in no time following the orange and blue lines.  From there I took the New Jersey Transit train back to where I was staying on the Jersey shore.

I only saw a few things in New York this time, but I expect to be back in the city in a couple of weeks, so I’ll think about what else I want to see.  I always enjoy being in the city, and I’m always happy to leave it again too.  It’s the epitome of east coast cool, but it is truly “the city that never sleeps,” and me… I need my rest.