Trinity Church

You can spend weeks traveling the narrow streets of lower Manhattan and never tire of the historic buildings, architecture, statues and the like...that is if you like historic places to begin with.

New York is not the oldest European settlement in the U.S., but it could be the richest spot for studying the beginnings of American society. With extensive shipping ports, the foothold of high society, the eventual location of the first Presidential residence as well as being the beginning and continual steward of American Capitalism, lower Manhattan is the birthplace of what America has become. But above all that, religion was the driving force behind early US society, and Lower Manhattan holds some of the oldest and culturally relevant churches in the country.

If you were to travel into New York Harbor at any point between the 17th and early 20th century, you would see a rectangle building high on the hill and eventually the tall spires of Trinity Church towering above the low skyline at Broadway and Wall st. The Church is now in its third rebuilding. The first was destroyed in 1776 during the Great New York Fire after the British took the city, the second was torn down after water damaged during a wave of snow storms in 1839 and the third still stands today.

Walking in there today you might think it just another memorial to 9/11 seeing all the photographs of post tragedy church yard and a knocked down sycamore tree, but the church has tremendous historic value. The inner sanctum of the church is a Gothic hodgepodge of architecture with incredible stained glass windows. The cemeteries are among the oldest in New York and hold the remains of Alexander Hamilton, Robert Fulton and James Astor. Some of the tombstones are famous for their mysterious masonic markings and more than one story has ended with treasure hunters finding their holy grail buried deep under the churches foundation.

Amongst the newest draw and drawbacks of the church are its bells There are 23 original Bells and a new set of 12 installed after 9/11 are artistically groundbreaking but causing the locals to complain about the noise. Ain't that like New York.