New York: A City of Memorials

Our walk around Lower Manhattan and the Financial District took us past several impressive memorials, which together reflect the diversity of the city.

First we walked from the Brooklyn Bridge past the site of the fallen One World Trade Center.  There, the new Freedom Tower is under construction.  It will be 1,776-feet tall (counting the antenna).  We stopped by the small church that survived the 9/11 devastation, St. Paul’s Chapel.

Freedom Tower on the site of the former One World Trade Center

9/11 memorial inside St. Paul’s Chapel, across from the World Trade center site

Flag and white ribbons on the grounds of St. Paul’s Chapel

From there, we walked past the construction site along Vesey Street all the way to the Hudson River.

Pedestrian tunnel on Vesey Street

The Irish Hunger Memorial is at the end of Vesey Street in Battery City Park.  The Irish potato famine of 1845 – 1852 killed 1.5 million people, and resulted in a large emigration to New York City and America.  The memorial is designed to create awareness of the problem of hunger and the events that led to the famine.

Irish Hunger Memorial

We walked south along the Hudson River, stopping by Three World Trade Center, with its immense glass atrium.

View of Freedom Tower through the ceiling of Three World Trade Center

The NYPD Police Memorial, also in Battery City Park,  commemorates those police officers who lost their lives in the course of their duties.

NYPD Police Memorial

Benches in Battery City Park along the Hudson River

Continuing our stroll along the Hudson River, we next came to the Museum of Jewish Heritage.  I have long wanted to see an Andy Goldsworthy installation, so we stopped in to see the Museum’s Garden of Stones, which he designed to remember and honor those who suffered, died, and survived the Holocaust.  Admission to the Garden of Stones is free.

The Andy Goldsworthy Garden of Stones, with the Statue of Liberty in the background

Dwarf oak trees emerge from each boulder — the ephemeral and the timeless

Garden of Stones at the Museum of Jewish Heritage

The esplanade along the Hudson River is a beautiful walk.  We followed it all the way to the southern tip of Manhattan Island, where we caught the free Staten Island Ferry.  We got great views of the Statue of Liberty from the ferry.

Free Staten Island Ferry

Statue of Liberty viewed from the Staten Island Ferry

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shores.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
— Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus”