Day 5: Statue of Liberty, Standing in the Harbour

Today was a long day. Lots of standing in lines and waiting.

Manhattan is surprisingly far from Pitt Station - about an hour on foot. I decided to catch the subway instead of walking - all my San Francisco hiking is catching up to me and I figured I shouldn't push the friendship.

The first stop on my Manhattan Mission was Wall Street. Later on today I noticed that my New York pass had a walking tour for Wall Street, which I was disappointed to have not seen. However, I imagine I may have a second opportunity to experience the tour. However, I did enjoy the walk.

New York Stock Exchange

Some period band dudes - they were entertaining

Coming up trumps

After walking Wall Street, I headed down to the water to pick up a ferry across to Liberty Island. First there was a wait to pick up my ticket which wasn't too bad, but to get on the boat I had to stand in line in the sun for forty five minutes. That really took the wind out of my sail for the rest of today. That and the other tourists, who experienced the same issues I did, were quite rude and pushy too, which was a real shame.

Liberty Island itself is a fair way out from New York. For anyone who doesn't have tickets to climb up the statue - which sold out well in advance so I didn't have any - there's not much to do. Just walk around the island to find Lady Liberty's best side and admire the view across the water. I did make friends with a couple from Florida and they had funny accents (really southern ya'll kind of accents) but they were really sweet and I finally got a photo of myself somewhere to prove I'm actually here and not just googling stock photos.

Battery Park - where you pick up the ferry - has a lot of memorials. One, The Sphere, used to be at the World Trade Centres and was moved after 9/11

She was such a good model - stood so still for the whole shoot

Manhattan!

See? I'm really here

After Liberty Island, my ferry tour continued to Ellis Island, which used to be a immigration screening and detention centre, back before Australia thought it was cool. It has since been transformed into a museum commemorating immigration and migration and the role it has played on the development of American culture. It wasn't that interesting of a museum, although some sections that covered the examinations and the adaptations that had to be put in place to allow for thousands of medical and legal exams to be completed a day were fascinating.

It's probably a good time to mention that America is incredibly culturally diverse. It's made me realise how non-multicultural Australia actually is. As a kid, I was convinced that Australia was a huge melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, but it looks like a monoethnic society compared to America. Nearly everyone you see is ethnic of some description: black, hispanic, asain. Some areas like Mission in San Francisco have signage in a language other than english. 

By the time I returned to Battery Park it was 3pm and I wasn't particularly hungry. I decided to head towards Ground Zero to see the 9/11 museum. Originally, I put the address into my phone to get GPS directions, but when I looked up I realised I could actually see the One World Trade Centre already, so it was a bit silly to get directions. 

The park itself where the towers used to stand is gorgeous. The fountains, built into the footprint of the old towers, are absolutely breathtaking. The only jarring thing is seeing people taking selphies and tourist snaps as if we were standing in front of Lady Liberty. It just didn't quite feel right. 

One of the two memorial pools/fountains

Surrounding each pool were the names of those who died

One World Trade Centre overlooking the place

A few white roses lain next to names

Inside the museum was heaps of exhibits, samples from the ruins of the buildings and mementos from that fateful day. There were also recordings of witnesses and footage of what happened. It reminded me very much of my visit to the Hiroshima Memorial Museum last year - very much the same feel and concept.

Personally, I was amazed to find out that the twin towers had levels below ground. I didn't realise that. I had always thought they stopped at ground level. Even more surprising to me was that in 1993, they were bombed by terroists - attempting to destroy them. It made me realise how unaware I am of significant events that happened before I was born and made me appreciate at least why the 14 year old kids looked bored and disinterested. They don't know what the world was like before September 11 so they have no appreciation for the significance of it all.

The old tourist sign for the twin towers that was recovered from the rubble

The underground foundation wall of tower one

The last pillar removed from the ruins was also used as a tribute

Some of the steel that had formed the facade of the 1st tower, destroyed and burned by the plane impact

The supporting tower columns and the tower foundations

Ladder 3 - all firefighters on duty for Ladder 3 died in the attack. New York has a lot of memorials to the emergency service officers who died in the line of duty that day

There was a large exhibit you could not take photos that followed the progression of events. It was incredible extensive, including interviews with survivors, footage of the attacks and aftermaths, voice recordings of those that died leaving voicemails to their loved ones. The problem I found with the exhibit was it went into too much detail and took so long to get through everything that it left one emotionally exhausted. Not everything that was shared was important to have - such as multiple samples of firefighter uniforms at different stages of the display. Going through each plane and its path and the government response in step by step detail caused a lot of repetition and I felt myself switch off at a point. That was very disappointing, particularly because by the time I reached the aftermath and the information on the 1993 attack I was over it.

It was still amazing, from an engineers perspective, to see massive steel beams, designed to resist deformation due to bending, simply folded in half by the force of the building collapse. Really blew me away.

I still think the museum itself is a must see. It is at bit like Hiroshima, a memorial to an important, tragic event that has shaped the modern world.  But maybe don't try and take everything in.

As the line for the World Trade Centre Observatory was long, and after the museum I was very tired, I decided I would have an early night in. My back has been playing up again - lots of standing makes me hurt - so a rest should fix it.

Besides, tomorrow is one giant party. HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!