NYC Walking Tour - Liberty Enlightening the World

Liberty Enlightening the World

The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) is a colossal neoclasical sculpture on liberty Island in New York City, designed by Frederic Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886. The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France. Bartholdi was inspired by French law professor and politician Edouard Rene de Laboulaye, who commented in 1865 that any monument raised to American independence would properly be a joint project of the French and American peoples. Due to the troubled political situation in France, work on the statue did not commence until the early 1870s. In 1875, Laboulaye proposed that the French finance the statue and the Americans provide the pedestal and the site. Bartholdi completed the head and the torch-bearing arm before the statue was fully designed, and these pieces were exhibited for publicity at international expositions. The arm was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in 1876 and in New York's Madison Square park from 1876 to 1882. Fundraising proved difficult, especially for the Americans, and by 1885 work on the pedestal was threatened due to lack of funds. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer of the World started a drive for donations to complete the project that attracted more than 120,000 contributors, most of whom gave less than a dollar. The statue was constructed in France, shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe's Island. The statue's completion was marked by New York's first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland.

The statue was administered by the United States Lighthouse Board until 1901 and then by the Department of  War; since 1933 it has been maintained by the National Park Service. The statue was closed for renovation for much of 1938. In the early 1980s, it was found to have deteriorated to such an extent that a major restoration was required. While the statue was closed from 1984 to 1986, the torch and a large part of the internal structure were replaced. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, it was closed for reasons of safety and security; the pedestal reopened in 2004 and the statue in 2009, with limits on the number of visitors allowed to ascend to the crown. The statue, including the pedestal and base, closed beginning on October 29, 2011, for up to a year so that a secondary staircase and other safety features can be installed; Liberty Island remains open. Public access to the balcony surrounding the torch has been barred for safety reasons since 1916.

NYC Walking Tour - Little Italy

Mulberry Street cira. 1900

Little Italy is a neighborhood in lower Manhattan, New York City, once known for its large population of Italians. Today the neighborhood of Little Italy consists of Italian stores and restaurants.

 Much of the neighborhood today has been absorbed by Chinatown, as immigrants from China moved to the area. What was once Little Italy has essentially shrunk into a single street which serves as a restaurant area but which has few Italian residents. The northern reaches of Little Italy, near Houston Street, ceased to be recognizably Italian, and eventually became the neighborhood known today as NoLIta, an abbreviation for North of Little Italy. Today, the section of Mulberry Street between Broome and Canal Streets is all that is left of the old Italian neighborhood. The street is lined with some two-dozen Italian restaurants popular with tourists and locals. Unlike Chinatown, which continues to expand in all directions with newer Chinese immigrants, little remains of the original Little Italy.

The Feast of San Gennaro originally was once only a one-day religious commemoration. It began in September, 1926 with the new arrival of immigrants from Naples. The Italian immigrants congregated along Mulberry Street in Manhattan's Little Italy to celebrate San Gennaro as the Patron Saint of Naples. The Feast of San Gennaro is a large street fair, lasting 11 days, that takes place every September along Mulberry Street between Houston and Canal Streets. The festival is as an annual celebration of Italian culture and the Italian-American community.

Shrine at the Feast of San Gennaro

Free NYC Walking Tour - RMS Titanic

Jack Phillips wireless operator RMS Titanic

nycUpAndDown.com is offering

Free Titanic Walking Tours: April 9, 16, 23, 30, 2012. Meeting 11:30 a.m. West 23rd Street and 11th Avenue by Chelsea Piers. Call for reservation (917) 478-0597.

RMS Titanic the New York Arrival - A century has sailed by since the luxury steamship RMS Titanic met its end in the North Atlantic, after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage. The deep sea grave became the final resting place of the Titanic in the early hours of April 15, 1912. The lives of the 705 survivors and those that perished had a profound impact on the City of New York that was waiting to welcome her.

Tour duration: about 2 hours
Sights: Titanic pier; Jane Street Hotel; Cunard piers; Hudson River Park

NYC Walking Tour - The Great Fire of 1835

NYC Great Fire of 1835 - Merchant's Exchange

New York City has seen its share of fires The Great Fires of 1776 and 1835, The fires set during the Draft Riot, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, However one of my favorite NYC tours is the Great Fire of 1835.

The Great New York Fire of 1835 destroyed the New York Stock Exchange and most of the buildings on the southeast tip of Manhattan, New York City around Wall Street on December 16–17, 1835.

The fire began in the evening in a five-story warehouse at 25 Merchant Street  at the intersection with Pearl Street between Hanover Square and Wall Street in the snow-covered city and was fed by gale-force winds blowing from the northwest towards the East River. With temperatures as low as −17 °F (−27 °C) and the East River frozen solid, firefighters had to cut holes in the ice to get water. Water then froze in the hoses and pumps. Attempts to blow up buildings in its path (a technique later regarded as counterproductive) were thwarted by a lack of gunpowder in Manhattan. Firefighters coming to help from Philadelphia said they could see signs of the fire there.

About 2 a.m. Marines returned with gunpowder from the Brooklyn Navy Yard and blew up buildings in the fire's path. By then it covered 50 acres, 17 blocks of the city, destroying between 530 and 700 buildings. The area is now reported as Coenties Slip in the south to Maiden Lane in the north and from William Street in the west to the East River. The losses were estimated at twenty million dollars, which, in today's value would be hundreds of millions. Two people were killed. Many of the stores were new, with iron shutters and doors and copper roofs, and in burning presented the appearance of immense iron furnaces in full blast. The heat at times melted the copper roofing, and the liquid ran off in great drops. The gale blew towards the East River. Wall after wall was heard tumbling like an avalanche. Fiery tongues of flame leaped from roof and windows along whole streets, and seemed to be making angry dashes at each other. The water of the bay looked like a vast sea of blood. The bells rang for a while and then ceased. Both sides of Pearl Street and Hanover Square were at the same instant in the jaws of the hungry monster.

An investigation did not assess blame and reported that the cause of the fire was a burst gas pipe that was ignited by a coal stove

Since the fire occurred in the middle of an economic boom caused by the recent opening of the Erie Canal, the destroyed wooden buildings were quickly replaced by larger stone and brick ones that were less prone to widespread major fires. The fire also prompted construction of a new municipal water supply, now known as the Old Croton Aqueduct, and a reform and expansion of the fire service. As a result, this was the last great fire of New York. Still, the insurance companies who lost buildings in the fire decided rebuilding was not worth the risk, and moved operations to Hartford, Connecticut. Today, Hartford is still known as the "Insurance Capital of the World."

Free NYC Walking Tour - Titanic the NYC Arrival

RMS Titanic - April 14, 1912

nycUpAndDown.com is offering Free Titanic Walking Tours: April 9, 16, 23, 30, 2012. Meeting 11:30 a.m. West 23rd Street and 11th Avenue by Chelsea Piers. Call for reservation (917) 478-0597.

RMS Titanic the New York Arrival - A century has sailed by since the luxury steamship RMS Titanic met its end in the North Atlantic, after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage. The deep sea grave became the final resting place of the Titanic in the early hours of April 15, 1912. The lives of the 705 survivors and those that perished had a profound impact on the City of New York that was waiting to welcome her.

Tour duration: about 2 hours
Sights: Titanic pier; Jane Street Hotel; Cunard piers; Hudson River Park

Deckplan of the RMS Titanic

The Titanic - God Himself couldn't sink her

                                                 Titanic the night of April 14, 1912

The RMS Titanic was advertised as unsinkable because of added safety features included in her construction. Titanic had a double walled keel and bulkheading that allowed her to float with any two or the first four compartments open to the ocean. If only the bulkheading went all the way up to the main deck instead of the G deck she may have floated until the Cunard liner Carpathia arrived or even her own lifeboat as the over 15,000 souls that perished believed would happen from her advertisements.

However, judge for yourself. John Jacob Astor IV, age 47 was on the Titanic with his pregnant wife Madeleine Talmage Astor, age 19. Society considered this scandalous in 1912. Another Businessman, Benjamin Guggenheim was aboard the doomed ship with his mistress a French singer  by the name of Madame Leontine Aubart. When the list of survivors was telegraphed to New York City she was listed as Mrs. Guggenheim. The spiritualist William Stead a journalist and writer was also aboard the Titanic and had written a story about a mail ship that hit an iceberg and sank, with great loss of life because the ship did not have enough life boats. Isidor Straus a partner in Macy's Department Store in Manhattan, New York City sent word to his brother that he and his wife Ida had booked passage and that they should join them on returning to the United States.

Even the Titanic's rescue ship Carpathia sank on July 17, 1918 from the torpedo of a German Imperial U-boat off the coast of Ireland.

Titanic at Rest

Black Tom explosion New York City - July 30, 1916

On July 30, 1916 the Black Tom munitions depot exploded rocking New York Harbor and sending residents tumbling from their beds. The noise of the explosion was heard as far away as Maryland and Connecticut. On Ellis Island, terrified immigrants were evacuated by ferry to the Battery. Shrapnel pierced the Statue of Liberty (the arm of the Statue was closed to visitors after this). Property damage was estimated at $20 million. It is not known how many died. Why the explosion? Was it an accident or planned? According to historians, the Germans sabotaged the Lehigh Valley munitions depot in order to stop deliveries being made to the British who had blockaded the Germans in Europe.

Black Tom was a major munitions depot for materials manufactured in the northeast. American industries were free to sell their materials to any buyer, but by this time the Allies were the only possible customers. It was reported that on the night of the attack, two million pounds (1 kiloton) of ammunition were being stored at the depot in train freight cars, including one hundred thousand pounds of TNT on the Johnson Barge No. 17, all awaiting eventual shipment to England and France. Jersey City's Commissioner of Public Safety, reported he had been told the barge had been tied up at Black Tom to avoid a twenty-five dollar towing charge  (US$534 in 2012).

After midnight, a series of small fires were discovered on the pier. Some guards fled, fearing an explosion. Others attempted to fight the fires and eventually called the Jersey City Fire Department. At 2:08 a.m., the first and largest of the explosions took place. Fragments from the explosion traveled long distances, some lodging in the Statue of Liberty and some in the clock tower of The Jersey Journal building in Journal Square, over a mile away, stopping the clock at 2:12 a.m. The explosion was the equivalent of an earthquake measuring between 5.0 and 5.5 on the Richter Scale and was felt as far away as Philadelphia. Windows broke as far as 25 miles (40 km) away, including thousands in lower Manhattan, New York City. Some window panes in Times Square were completely shattered. The outer wall of Jersey City's City Hall was cracked and the Brooklyn Bridge was shaken. People as far away as Maryland were awakened by what they thought was an earthquake.

Property damage from the attack was estimated at $20 million (US$ 427 million in 2012). The damage to the Statue of Liberty was estimated to be $100,000 (US$ 2,136,000 in 2012) and included the skirt and the torch.

Immigrants being processed at Ellis Island had to be evacuated to lower Manhattan. Reports vary, but as many as seven people may have been killed and injuries numbered in the hundreds. Smaller explosions continued to occur for hours after the initial blast.

Free Titanic Walking Tours in New York City

nycUpAndDown.com is offering Free Titanic Walking Tours: April 9, 16, 23, 30, 2012. Meeting 11:30 a.m. West 23rd Street and 11th Avenue by Chelsea Piers. Call for reservation (917) 478-0597.

RMS Titanic the New York Arrival - A century has sailed by since the luxury steamship RMS Titanic met its end in the North Atlantic, after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage. The deep sea grave became the final resting place of the Titanic in the early hours of April 15, 1912. The lives of the 705 survivors and those that perished had a profound impact on the City of New York that was waiting to welcome her.

Tour duration:  about 2 hours
Sights: Titanic pier; Jane Street Hotel; Cunard piers; Hudson River Park