New York City - Part 3, Lower Manhattan

If Midtown is known for entertainment, then Lower Manhattan is known for business - including, of course, Wall Street. We paid a visit to the Charging Bull, a statue that was dropped off near Wall Street in the middle of the night to represent optimism as the USA recovered from the 1987 stock market crash. It’s rumoured to be good luck financially to go around to the back of the bull and help “stimulate the economy”. [](http://www.flickr.com/photos/craigandsal/7580292028/ "IMG_2625 by Craig and Sal, on Flickr") We took a walking tour to explore Lower Manhattan and learnt about some of the history of the city along the way. New York has been a diverse, multi-cultural city right from the start. Settled first by the Dutch and then by the British, it received thousands of immigrants from around the world. At one point a major part of the city was a third Irish! The Statue of Liberty has become a symbol of early immigration to the USA – “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to break free” etc. It’s a shame that nowadays many people talk about immigration in a negative way, rather than seeing the cultural and economic benefits it can bring. Here are some of our photos from Lower Manhattan.  

While immigration may have been valued to help New York grow, there were some views on the world that would now be considered overtly racist. For example, the customs building in Lower Manhattan has four statues representing the four major trading continents of the time (sorry Australia, you don’t count). Europe is represented as a long established bastion of wealth and power. The Americas are shown to be moving forward, full of promise and ambition. Asia, on the other hand, is shown as advancing only on the back of broken slaves (ironic given the US’s own poor record in the area). Africa is slumped asleep in her chair, moving backwards, and hasn’t even dressed for the occasion. All this walking is hungry work, so we dropped into Five Guys, a well renowned burger chain. Sautéed onions, mushrooms and capsicum made for a fantastic burger. We had learnt early in our time in New York that we could share a meal between us as the portions are so large here. This was no exception, we were well satisfied! Just look at all that grease! [](http://www.flickr.com/photos/craigandsal/7571965868/ "IMG_2484 by Craig and Sal, on Flickr") Rebuilding of the World Trade Centre is underway, with the largest tower well on the way to completion. We went to the 9/11 Memorial that is a part of the new site. It is a solemn and peaceful memorial with two deep fountains on the footprints of the original towers. The names of all those who died in the attack are inscribed around the edges of the fountains. [](http://www.flickr.com/photos/craigandsal/7572004976/ "IMG_2521 by Craig and Sal, on Flickr") To the north of the financial district are several interesting neighbourhoods with a surprising lack of skyscrapers (due to council zoning). One afternoon we wandered through Greenwich Village, Soho, Chinatown and Little Italy. One don’t-miss attraction in the area is the High Line, where an old, disused elevated rail track in Chelsea was converted into a park in the sky. It’s been designed really well and offers great elevated views of the surrounding area. Here are some photos of these neighbourhoods and from the High Line:  

A lucky coincidence was being in New York for the annual MP3 Experiment, run by Improv Everywhere. Improv Everywhere is a fun organisation which we’ve long enjoyed – they “create scenes” in public places, bringing improv theatre and a bit of lightness to places around New York. If you don’t want to do any work for an afternoon, have a look at the dozens of “missions” on their website: [www.improveverywhere.com](http://www.improveverywhere.com/). The MP3 Experiment is an event where thousands of people put themselves at the mercy of Improv Everywhere. We downloaded an MP3 containing instructions and were given a shopping list: something soft, something hard and flat, a white sheet, water guns, shower caps and musical instruments. We were also told what colours to wear. We then made our way to Governor’s Island (along with thousands of others). Bystanders were very confused about the long line for the ferry! Having synchronised our watches in advance, we pushed play at 3pm and started following the instructions. It was very funny to watch most of the people around us suddenly lie down on the ground, leaving some very confused bystanders! An added challenge for us was trying to share an MP3 player while running, dancing, high-fiving, etc. The event culminated in a massive water fight. It was so much fun to have a water fight with thousands of people, we were grinning until our cheeks were sore :-) [](http://www.flickr.com/photos/craigandsal/7693145010/ "IMG_2598_crop by Craig and Sal, on Flickr")

Without a doubt New York has been our favourite city so far. It’s vibrancy, beauty, history and excitement makes it a wonderful place to visit. We hope we will be back again someday.