The Fourth of July weekend closed out in spectacular fashion. The weather on Sunday was especially beautiful but rather than bear the heat of the concrete jungle, I set myself the goal to basically "Hug the Hudson" and walk from my neighbourhood all the way along the westside of Manhattan down to Battery Park. A distance of nearly 7 miles (11 kilometres)? Piece of cake, right?
I set off around 11am and walked underneath the High Line, and past many of the art galleries of Chelsea, ending up at the intersection of 23rd Street and 12th Avenue (also known as the
West Side Highway and
also known as the Joe Di Maggio Highway). This busy spot is also the gateway to the
Chelsea Waterside Park and my closest entrance to the beautiful, 550-acre
Hudson River Park. If I hadn't been on a mission yesterday, I would definitely have brought my picnic blanket and book down and just sprawled on the lawns somewhere. The lush, green grass has been well-tended in recent months, and it looked very inviting. No surprises that they have outdoor cinema and even yoga classes here during the warmer months.
History was made not far from this entrance actually, because the survivors of the
Titanic disaster were brought to nearby
Chelsea Piers after their rescue at sea. My walk yesterday took me past this amazing section of the City, now home to a state-of-the-art fitness facility, golf driving range, marina, bowling alley and more. I took a bit of a detour from the runner/bike path and basically walked through the Chelsea Piers development and it is a really impressive place ("awesome" in the original sense of the word).
The midday sun was pretty fierce yesterday but there were still plenty of people getting their exercise, including a man who was doing squats with his girlfriend on his shoulders.
Show offs! But having said that, there were just as many people lolling around on the grass, or sitting under the shade of giant trees and around the sculptures dotted along the paths.
Across from the NYC Department of Sanitation (administrative
offices) is the new headquarters of the
Whitney Museum of American Art which will formally
relocate from the Upper East Side to this spot in 2015.
It’s not much to look at right now, but I
suspect with some landscaping and modern signage it will end up looking
great.
I’m sure it will be a real draw-card
for the area too.
There are a number of playgrounds along the path, all fenced in so the kids are safe and a couple of the playgrounds even have a water feature/sprinkler, which the kids were very much enjoying yesterday. You'll need to trust me on the quality of the
playgrounds though, because I really didn’t want to linger too long and be that weird
lady who takes photos of other people’s kids.
Having said that, I had no such qualms about hanging out to watch the
dogs playing in the numerous dog parks along the route. There is a lot of space for them to run and
play, and they were really enjoying themselves yesterday.
Ahead on the horizon, I could see the
Freedom Tower at One World Trade Center dominating the skyline and it was nice to see it get steadily bigger as my walk
was coming to an end.
It's quite an iconic part of the skyline now.
With the serene Hudson River and the shoreline of New Jersey on
your right, and the roar of Manhattan traffic on the Highway to your left, it
can be tricky to work out how far you’ve come on the walk along the
Island. So I was pretty pleased to
notice engravings on the ground that tell you what street you’re level with,
so you can get your bearings. Once
the footpath signs had told me I had crossed over Houston Street and then Canal
Street, I knew I was off my familiar grid, and I was rather pleased to be
bypassing the web of nonsensical streets that make up Tribeca and the Financial
District.
Rounding the corner into
Nelson A Rockefeller Park (site of another popular playground and family picnic area), I
could finally see the Statue of Liberty.
She was only tiny from where I was, but she was definitely out there in
New York Harbour, and being hounded by the tourist-laden cruise
boats that visit her every day.
There are a number of museums along this part of the Park
(like the
Museum of Jewish Heritage) and a couple of historical monuments too
(including the
Irish Hunger Memorial) but I didn’t want to detour too far from my mission to go sightseeing.
Plus, it was about this point in
the journey that I’d started thinking about an ice-cold beer.
Of course this thought occurred to me pretty much at
the same time as I passed the leafy patio area at
PJ Clarke’sbar, which sits out the front of
the large, glassed-in headquarters of AmericanExpress.
I pressed on, confident I would
find a cold ale soon enough.
I thought my entrance into
Battery Park, one of the oldest
parks in the City, was going to be as simple as following the riverfront path
all the way along, but it was not to be yesterday.
There are extensive renovations being done to
Battery Park at the moment, including the establishment of
a really cool urban farm.
From what I can tell, it has been
set up to teach school kids about organic farming and where their food comes
from.
It was all fenced off yesterday so
I couldn’t poke around for a closer look.
Instead, I followed the plodding tourists around the construction site, along
the walkway, and into Battery Park proper.
Battery Park was an important site in the early days of
Manhattan.
It was here that the Dutch
forces mounted their first “battery” of cannons to defend New Amsterdam.
Castle Clinton was constructed in anticipation
of the war of 1812 but was later converted into the City’s first formal outdoor
entertainment venue (and renamed the more genteel “Castle Garden”).
In 1896 it was again transformed into the
New York Aquarium but these days, Castle Clinton (or Castle Garden) is
basically a giant ticket booth for
cruises to Liberty Island and Ellis Island,
and I’d highly recommend you visit both sites.
There’s also a pretty good gift shop within the Castle walls, which I am
glad I avoided yesterday because it was full of people.
Speaking of which, the cruise boats were jam-packed
yesterday and you couldn’t have got me on one of them for anything.
But while I marveled at the contortions being
undertaken to fit everyone on board, I noticed there were sailboats and even
acouple of tall ships and speedboats out in New York Harbour.
Now, that wouldn’t be such a bad way to
cruise, would it?
Rather civilized, I
should say, and definitely something to keep in mind for a future visit.
I stopped to take some photos of
“The Immigrants” statue as well as the
East Coast Memorial, which has the names of all 4,601 American WW2
servicemen who died during combat in the Atlantic Ocean engraved on it.
I contemplated buying a couple of yummy churros from the food vendors onsite but
I ultimately decided against it.
I was
too focused on making a beeline for the excellent
Table Green Kiosk (there are
actually two of them along this part of the Park).
Icy-cold beer in hand, I sat at one of the
kiosk tables in the shade and read my book for a while all under the watchful
gaze of Lady Liberty.
It was a very good
day.
I was a bit snap-happy on this seven-mile walk, and you can
see all my photos at the link below:
