Skyscrapers & Historical Sights of New York City – It’s All Here
I had some glitches with my photos yesterday so I was unable to post but here it is today. 🙂
Day 2 of our visit to New York city continued…
You may think of NYC as all modern day skyscrapers but New York was given that name back in 1664 after the Duke of York.
Grace Church was built in 1846 by a young architect, James Renwick who was only 23 years of age.
The church was built in the Gothic Revival style.
There was a tomb inside with the name of Edith Gorse Evans inscribed on it.
She was a passenger on the Titanic who gave up her seat on a lifeboat seat to a mother who had children at home.
There are so many people in NYC that everywhere you go there are crowds. The traffic is very thick as well so it’s easier to take the subway a lot of the time.
Grand Central Station was built in 1871 and it is beautiful.
The inside…
My wilderness lover son.
Here’s a 14 second video from a subway station. Sometimes there would be musicians playing for tips and/or to sell their CD’s. This group sounded really good from the little I heard them play. This was a really busy time of day – it was when everyone was headed home from work, so we tried to stick real close to each other so none of us would be left behind. The subways were packed and we ended up having to split up. Good thing our hosts were leading the way!
We made a point of going to the Waldorf-Astoria hotel because we love the story and film about the WWI hero Sergeant York.
When he was a given a medal for his heroism in the war and then brought to New York City he was given a room at the Waldorf-Astoria. So we were excited about going but after we were there and reading some of the history of the hotel we realized that this one was built after Sergeant York visited. Kings and queens have been here but not our Sergeant York. 🙁
I thought the housekeeping uniforms interesting, I guess because they are so similar to what was worn years ago.
I had to chuckle because here we were in this historic elegant hotel where the rich and famous stay, (as a matter of fact, Hilary and Trump had been there the night before for a dinner) and Russell is on his flip-phone. Even in our circles people think the flip-phone is sooo outdated but we are in this hotel where rooms rent for $400 per night using our dinosaur phone.
This clock stands in the middle of the lobby. It was exhibited at the 1893 World’s Fair but then the Waldorf-Astoria purchased it. It weighs 2 tons and is 9′ tall. Around the base are the likenesses of 7 presidents (including Washington & Lincoln) and Queen Victoria. Under this are depicted various sports and scenes. Things were so ornate back then.
My farm boy feeling at home at the Waldorf. He’s at this gangly age (13) where he’s all arms and legs and I would have been only slightly surprised if he would have managed to knock over the 2 ton clock.
Back on the streets…
Just look at all those people!
This shop had beautiful artisan breads but the display was a little bit messy.
We were told by a few people that we should visit the New York Public Library on 5th Avenue – the Stephen A. Schwarzman building which was built in 1911.
Unfortunately it closed right when we got there so we never got to tour it.
Incidentally, NYC is very open to tourists and set up for it. There are tours you can take for the New York Public Library and for Grand Central Station. Even the Waldorf-Astoria had historical displays set up.
My recently graduated daughter, Serenity who is at once serene and very adventurous with trying new experiences.
That evening on our return to the subway station we bought some homemade churros. They were very good. Three extra long churros for $2.
It was a great day with lots of walking!