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.

Sidewalk Clock

I was talking about my tour to a friend of mine this weekend and he asked me "So, what was today's adventure."

"No adventure, I told him, but I did go see the clock in the sidewalk."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, there is a clock in the sidewalk at Broadway and Maiden Lane."

"Really, I live on John Street...i cross there everyday, I've never seen a clock in the sidewalk."

And there is the point of my Farewell Tour. I have seen some of the big things (Ellis Island, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens), and I have seen some of the hidden things (yellow submarine, Atlantic Ave. Tunnel) but there are some things out there that pass us by everyday that we miss. New York is filled with amazing little crevices and quirky architecture or long forgotten monuments to out past.

The Clock (seen above) is embedded in the sidewalk on the northeast corner of Maiden Lane and Broadway. Its the size of a large Frisbee and is protected by a thick piece of glass. It was put there in 1899 by William Barthman Jewelers. It has withstood many attempts by nogoodnicks to break it or dig it up. Its electric motor has kept it running and in good time for well over a century without fail.

I wonder how many people pass it everyday without noticing it. I also wonder how many people use it everyday to see how late they are for work.

NYC Marathon

In 14 years in NYC I have failed to see the NYC Marathon up close. I either forgot it was happening, was out of town, or slept right through it. In a former apartment of mine in Clinton Hill, I was actually on the marathon route and didn't even go down the stairs to see it. I know, I know...pretty pathetic.

Today I made up for all those years of neglect and woke up early and got a good viewing spot along Lafayette in Brooklyn. This is Mile-8 of the 26.2 mile race route. I watched the beginning of the race on TV and then got to my spot just in time to watch the Female leaders come by. It was still only 1/3rd into the race but the eventual leaders Paula Radcliff and Gete Wami were already far ahead of the pack.

The Male leaders came by about 20 minutes later a little with the lead pack of about 10 runners, including Martin Lel and Abderahin Goumri who later finished 1st and second. I waited another 20 minutes and after a few scattered packs of "elite" runners, the mighty horde of runners came by. Thousands of runners from around the world being cheered on by onlookers from everywhere. Right in front of me was a man from Scotland holding up his flag. As runners from all over Great Britain came by they shouted Yea Scotland and touched the flag.

Before, during, and after these crowds were assisted runners, racers in wheelchairs and all sorts of cancer survival stories came by to massive roars of the Brooklyn crowd.

The NYC Marathon, as I have now finally experienced, is a great NYC day. Nearly 40,000 runners started the race and thousands more enjoyed the brisk sunny day here in the big city. Thankfully, after a long race and millions of hours of preparation, months of grueling training and I can still go watch for an hour and then go home and down a few slices of pizza without feeling guilty. Maybe years from now, when I make a triumphant return to NYC, I'll do it by running in the Marathon...probably not, but maybe!

Pictures

Hippies Take Manhattan

New York isn't all skeptics with bad attitudes and punk rockers dressed all in black. There is a very strong and vibrant population of tree-huggers, free spirits, bleeding hearts and yes even hippies. They aren't all Grateful Dead fans...but the ones that are had their eyes and minds focused on the Nokia Theatre last night to see Phil Lesh and Friends.

There have been many semi-reformations of grateful dead members and projects since Jerry Garcia dies in 1995, like Ratdog, The Dark Star Orchestra, Bruce Hornsby solo, The Dead. None of them have continued to excel quite like Phil and Friends. Each tour, Phil has invited new musicians from other great bands to join him and celebrate the music of years past as well as share in new musical experiments together.

This year the band includes Steve Molitz (Particle), Jackie Greene, Larry Cambell and John Molo. Their 7 show encampment in NY is called "The Other New York City Marathon". Last night they added Ryan Adams to their team and pulled off a great 3 set show.

As in most things, the music reflects off your mood and opens up to what you want it to. The 3rd set opener "Wharf Rat" which i predicted with the 50 year old former-head-turned-banker i was standing next to, meant so much more to me last night than ever before, especially during:

But I'll get back on my feet someday
The good lord willing, if he says I may
I know that the life I'm livin's no good
I'll get a new start, live the life I should
I'll get up and fly away, I'll get up and fly away

After 4 hours at the Nokia, many of us in a big hippie parade went 30 blocks south for 4 more hours of music lovers crack and watched Particle play for another 4 hours with Guest guitarist Josh Clark from Tea Leaf Green.

Maybe music is escapist in New York, maybe it hides reality, maybe its nothing more than a little entertainment. But, going to shows like these in a city like this is so much the Paradox that makes life fun.

Breakneck Ridge

Even though this Blog and my Farewell Tour are dedicated to the glory of New York City, I decided to take a trip up the Hudson River and explore some of the best hiking available to New Yorkers in the river valley just to the north. Small weekend escapes and little getaways are a big part of life in NYC and unless you go looking for it, you may miss some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, less than an hour away.

Yesterday's destination was Breakneck Ridge, named by trails.com in 2005 as the best hike in the country. You can get there by Metro North or by driving to Cold Spring. The ridge is on the almost shear cliffs of Mt. Taurus in the Hudson Highlands State Park. Just north of the ridge are a string of other peaks leading you all the way to Beacon.

The interesting story about this cliff for me is it's location. Across the river is Storm King Mountain and the town of Cornwall, the town where I grew up. All through my teenage years, i spent many hours on Storm King, biking up the world famous rt. 218 (storm king highway) hanging out at "high point" and hiking to the peak. I always wondered about the mountain and cliffs across the river, but never made any attempt to find out what was there. When my buddy asked me to go hiking up Breakneck Ridge i told him that it sounded a lot like the mountain across from Storm King...what luck!

Reading a little about the trail before hand could scare the shit out of any leisure weekend hiker. Every magazine and web-site I found warned hikers of the "arduous and very difficult" level of hike we should expect. Or this little gem from GORP web site :

"If you deviate much from the rock ledges that comprise most of the trail, you'll fall hundreds of feet down the mountain's south face. Utmost care is required on Breakneck and deaths have occasionally been the price exacted for carelessness"

Even after rosy reviews like that, we went out for an early hike. On weekends in good weather, the trail is probably more crowded than we would have liked, but yesterday, on November 1st, a Thursday, on a semi-cloudy morning there was nobody out there but us. In fact we hiked for 6 hours and did not see another person on the train all day.

From the small car pull-off at the tunnel on route 9D, the trail head started at the aqueduct building just north of the tunnel. Immediately, the trail went up, and when I say it went up...it went UP! For the 1st 3/4 of a mile, the hike is almost all a giant rock climb. There were few times in that stretch that i didn't need to use at least one hand to help my ascent and most of the time it was a hand and knees scramble up steep ledges, shear rock face and natural steps heading up the ridge.

It was absolutely amazing. The climbing was exhilarating and challenging to say the least, but what made the physical exertion worth while was the pay off at the lookout points. If you were to design a perfect rock climb, this might be it. Just when you thought your calves were about to explode or your breaths couldn't get any heavier, the trees cleared and the rocks flattened out. There are 5 "knobs" along the path. These are platforms or natural lookout points...or in our case yesterday, resting spots for a sip of water and chance to snap some photographs.

The views of the Hudson Valley are what makes this hike special. Up river you can see the Newburg-Beacon Bridge, Cornwall-on-Hudson and Bannerman's Island. This little island looks like something out of a movie about William Wallace. There are old castle ruins and Gothic structures that make the island a gem for site seers, but visiting the island is a no-no. Bannerman's now owned by the state of new york is thought by both Native American and Dutch settlers to be haunted. Even if it wasn't, there are old weapons and other remnants buried on the island that makes for a dangerous trip.

Looking south you can see the lower Hudson valley and West Point. The most striking view and the one that keeps people climbing the ridge is that of Storm King Mountain. Storm King is the most unique and recognizable natural site along the river and the sheer cliffs broken only by the cut of the highway halfway up makes even the most experienced outdoorsmen stop and appreciate the sculpting powers of the glaciers that once ruled the landscape.

Once on top of Breakneck, there is a trail that takes you down a less arduous trail back down towards the river...at least that's the theory. We missed the turn off!!! We kept hiking up and down other peaks and valleys for the next 5 hours, until we finally came to the highway about 2 miles from where we should have. What should have been a nice 3 hour hike over a 2.5 mile trail, ended up being over 6 hours and probably closer to 8 miles. I looked at some trail guides today and found where we went wrong. We ended up hiking over South Beacon Mountain, the highest in the region. Oh well, we went out for an adventure and we got one. My bad ankle may be a little angry that we went so far off trail, but i am glad we got to see the rest of the area.

Final analysis: Although Breakneck Ridge is not as hard and dangerous as the trail mythology would like to make you believe, it is a physically demanding hike, but on of the best you'll find...especially this close to NYC.

Check out some photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/82369865@N00/

1920 Wall Street Bombing

On September 16th, 1920 a horse drawn wagon carrying 500 lbs of explosives was detonated on Wall St. killing 33 and injuring 400 people.

Yesterday I took a small walk down Wall St. to see the damage. 90 years later there are still marks left on the building as evidence of the attack on the financial district (pictured above). 23 wall has always been the headquarters of JP Morgan Inc. Also seen from that intersection are the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall.

No reason for the attack was put forth, but Russian communist and Italian immigrant groups were widely blamed. The bombers were never caught although even today on the historic landmark sign out in front, the incident is still being attributed to unknown and ubiquitous "Anarchist" factions.

Brooklyn Promenade

Brooklyn Heights is the oldest neighborhood in Brooklyn. In 1834 when the borough was formed, the Heights was still called Brooklyn Village. It still has that quiet feel of a nice town. It was the neighborhood where the Huxtables from the Cosby Show lived and it looks like it. With shady tree-lined streets and old Brownstones, on any given afternoon it feels like a Sunday afternoon. In the mid-nineteenth century, residents were known to feel a bit superior to the "dirty industrial" (at least Walt Whitman did) city across the harbor, and much of New York's founding families called Brooklyn Heights home. (The names of the streets still bear their names...Hicks, Degraw, etc.)

The area is called the Heights because of its location atop a bluff, once its defining feature. After Robert Moses failed to bulldoze through the cities elite for his BQE highway project, the bluff was to become another defining feature and one of my favorite places to sit and drink a cup of coffee. The highway route was moved to just below the Bluff and the view from the neighborhood like so many others after Robert Moses got to them was turned into that of a motorway. Instead, the now famous Brooklyn Promenade was built.

In another great adaption to over-industrialized urban landscape, a walkway and overlook was built on the bluff to cover that stretch of the BQE and create a nice, semi-quiet park that boast of amazing views of lower Manhattan, Governor's Island, The Statue Of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. It is the premier spot in Brooklyn to watch the July 4th fireworks.

The sunset from there, which I have seen 5 times in the last month, does not set perfectly over the skyline or the Statue as you might want. However, on a clear night, when the sunset turns orange, the south faces of all the Manhattan buildings reflect the color with a unique glow that has to be seen to fully appreciate.

It is almost always a quiet place to sit and even now...especially now as the weather gets a bit colder one of those sit-and-gather-your-thoughts hot spots that makes New York so special.