A Day Exploring Lower Manhattan
Morning
Begin at Battery Park for a view of the waterfront, and look into
Castle Clinton
, an 1807 fort, to see dioramas of a changing New York. Then visit the Museum of the American Indian at the U.S. Custom House. Cross to Bowling Green, the city’s first park, then turn right on Whitehall, and left on Pearl Street for the Fraunces Tavern Museum, a restoration of the 1719 building where George Washington bade farewell to his troops.
Head up Broad Street to Wall Street to the New York Stock Exchange, where there is chaos on the trading floor. Close by is
Federal Hall
, where the country’s first president took his oath of office. Steak is a Financial District specialty, so stop for lunch at
Bobby Van’s Steakhouse
, on Broad Street and Exchange Place.
Afternoon
Continue uptown on Nassau Street (a continuation of Broad Street) to see Chase Plaza and its famous sculptures. At the end of the Plaza on Liberty Street is the ornate Federal Reserve Bank and then Louise Nevelson Square, featuring the artist’s Shadows and Flags.
Go back on Liberty and turn downtown on Broadway to find
Trinity Church
and the Charging Bull. End the day with dinner at the Ritz-Carlton’s restaurant, 2 West @ Battery Park Place
(see 2 West).
Outdoor Sculptures
The Immigrants
Reflecting
the diversity of newcomers to the U.S. from 1855–90, Luis Sanguino’s
1973 work includes an African, a Jew, a family, a priest, and a worker.
Giovanni da Verrazzano
The first European to sail into New York Harbor in 1524 was honored by fellow Italians with this 1909 statue by Ettore Ximenes.
The Four Continents
Sculptor
Daniel Chester French reflects 18th-century U.S. views – meditative
Asia and exotic Africa to the sides, regal Europe and a dynamic U.S. in
the center.
The Four Continents
Shadows and Flags
Louise
Nevelson’s 1977 figures enliven the traffic island they inhabit. The
largest is rooted to the ground, others are on stilts.
Sunken Garden
The
spray from a central fountain covers the floor of the recessed circular
garden. Isamu Noguchi’s 1960s work suggests rocks rising from the sea.
Group of Four Trees
Jean Dubuffet’s 1972 mushroom-like sculptures hover over pedestrians nearby and bring a reason to smile in this busy area.
Group of Four Trees
George Washington
Designed and cast in 1883, a bronze Washington on a massive granite pedestal lifts his hand from the Bible after being sworn in.
Red Cube
Isamu Noguchi’s 1967 red, 28-ft (9-m) high, metal cube balances on a corner defying gravity.
Double Check
The
briefcase of J. Seward Johnson, Jr.’s 1982 seated bronze figure
contains a stapler, calculator, and an occasional sandwich provided by a
passerby.
Yu Yu Yang Sculpture
This untitled sculpture by artist Yu Yu Yang creates intriguing patterns with an L-shaped steel slab pierced by a circular disk.
