When in New York, take the cruise
November 22nd 2008 00:46
Part of our City Sights NY 3 day package was a boat trip around Manhattan Island with the Circle Line cruise company. So, on the third day, we sailed.
The Circle Line is New York’s oldest and largest cruise company. It has been sailing since 1945 and has hosted over 60 million passengers. It is one of the world’s most famous boat rides and the Circle Line terminal on Pier 83 is one of 42nd Street’s most famous landmarks.
The cruise circumnavigates Manhattan Island and passes the other four boroughs – Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx - which make up the five boroughs of New York. It heads south along the Hudson River, between Manhattan and New Jersey. It sails into Upper New York Bay for a glimpse of Staten Island, then rounds the south end of Manhattan and heads north up the East River, passing Long Island, with Brooklyn and Queens on the southern tip. It continues into the Harlem River and passes the Bronx, on the mainland. At the northern end of Manhattan, it turns back into the Hudson through the Harlem Canal ,for the final stretch down to Pier 83.
The New York skyline looks different from the deck of our circle line boat. It is softened too by a veil of fine autumn drizzle.
To our right, on the New Jersey shore, lies Hoboken, home town of Frank Sinatra, once struggle town but now gentrifying like the rest of the Big Apple. On the left we spot Battery Park, the mile of land reclaimed from the Hudson, where the largest real estate development in the US forms a backdrop to Pier A, the oldest in NYC. Behind and above Battery Park is the forlorn space in the sky where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre once stood. We cruise up to the Statue of Liberty, holding her torch 300feet above the harbour and pause at Ellis Island, once the immigrants’ gateway to the US and now home to the Immigration Museum.
We turn back between Governor’s Island, headquarters of the US coastguard, and Lower Manhattan passing the historic South Street Seaport with the Fulton Market in the block of century old buildings behind it. We cruise under the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. We pass the United Nations Building, (looking rather the worse for wear from this side) and Roosevelt Island, fully self-contained and dubbed ‘one of the most unusual new communities in the United States’. Just across the river the lawns of elegant Gracie Mansion, official residence of the Mayor of New York, slope down to the water’s edge. We sail under the Triborough Bridge which connects the Boroughs of Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx and look into the shell of Yankee Stadium which witnessed its closing game just weeks ago.
We turn up the Harlem River and under the Spuyten Dyvil (Spitting Devil) Bridge, where, after 3 blasts on our boat’s horn, an invisible operator swings the center section open so that we can pass through. High on a hill at the northern tip of Manhattan, among the thick bush of Fort Trynon Park are the towers of the Cloisters, once a monastery and now an outpost of the Metropolitain Museum of Art. Our last Bridge is the George Washington, with its little Red Lighthouse, no longer operational but preserved as a children’s playground. The tomb of Ulysses S Grant, Civil War hero, the Riverside Church, home of the World Council of churches and the Soldiers and Sailors monument, in memory of those who lost their lives in the Civil War, slip by. We sail into Pier 83. The circle is closed.
The Circle Line brochure declares “cruises are designed to provide the best viewing opportunities, but also to be informative, comfortable and entertaining as well” Our Circle Line cruise did not disappoint. In fact it exceeded our expectations. Highlights for me, however, were not the landmarks, although I wouldn’t have missed the circle line views of them for the world. Nor were they the highly controversial New York City Waterfalls cascading from giant scaffolds at Brooklyn Bridge, Governor’s Island, Pier 35 in Manhattan and Piers 4 and 5 in Brooklyn. The most memorable parts of the cruise for me were the unexpected glimpses of quiet rural scenes; deserted little beaches and inlets, patches of forest, overhanging trees, shady parks contrasted with the intensely urban; grim apartment blocks in the Bronx where kids waved from high windows, fenced-in concrete courts in Harlem, where boys shot hoops. And then, there was David, a drama graduate, a history buff and an amazing raconteur, who brought monuments, buildings, Boroughs, bridges, waterfalls, islands and little secret spots along the river to brilliant life.
Manhattan from the Hudson
The Circle Line is New York’s oldest and largest cruise company. It has been sailing since 1945 and has hosted over 60 million passengers. It is one of the world’s most famous boat rides and the Circle Line terminal on Pier 83 is one of 42nd Street’s most famous landmarks.
The cruise circumnavigates Manhattan Island and passes the other four boroughs – Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx - which make up the five boroughs of New York. It heads south along the Hudson River, between Manhattan and New Jersey. It sails into Upper New York Bay for a glimpse of Staten Island, then rounds the south end of Manhattan and heads north up the East River, passing Long Island, with Brooklyn and Queens on the southern tip. It continues into the Harlem River and passes the Bronx, on the mainland. At the northern end of Manhattan, it turns back into the Hudson through the Harlem Canal ,for the final stretch down to Pier 83.
The New York skyline looks different from the deck of our circle line boat. It is softened too by a veil of fine autumn drizzle.
The Statue of Liberty
To our right, on the New Jersey shore, lies Hoboken, home town of Frank Sinatra, once struggle town but now gentrifying like the rest of the Big Apple. On the left we spot Battery Park, the mile of land reclaimed from the Hudson, where the largest real estate development in the US forms a backdrop to Pier A, the oldest in NYC. Behind and above Battery Park is the forlorn space in the sky where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre once stood. We cruise up to the Statue of Liberty, holding her torch 300feet above the harbour and pause at Ellis Island, once the immigrants’ gateway to the US and now home to the Immigration Museum.
We turn back between Governor’s Island, headquarters of the US coastguard, and Lower Manhattan passing the historic South Street Seaport with the Fulton Market in the block of century old buildings behind it. We cruise under the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. We pass the United Nations Building, (looking rather the worse for wear from this side) and Roosevelt Island, fully self-contained and dubbed ‘one of the most unusual new communities in the United States’. Just across the river the lawns of elegant Gracie Mansion, official residence of the Mayor of New York, slope down to the water’s edge. We sail under the Triborough Bridge which connects the Boroughs of Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx and look into the shell of Yankee Stadium which witnessed its closing game just weeks ago.
We turn up the Harlem River and under the Spuyten Dyvil (Spitting Devil) Bridge, where, after 3 blasts on our boat’s horn, an invisible operator swings the center section open so that we can pass through. High on a hill at the northern tip of Manhattan, among the thick bush of Fort Trynon Park are the towers of the Cloisters, once a monastery and now an outpost of the Metropolitain Museum of Art. Our last Bridge is the George Washington, with its little Red Lighthouse, no longer operational but preserved as a children’s playground. The tomb of Ulysses S Grant, Civil War hero, the Riverside Church, home of the World Council of churches and the Soldiers and Sailors monument, in memory of those who lost their lives in the Civil War, slip by. We sail into Pier 83. The circle is closed.
The Circle Line brochure declares “cruises are designed to provide the best viewing opportunities, but also to be informative, comfortable and entertaining as well” Our Circle Line cruise did not disappoint. In fact it exceeded our expectations. Highlights for me, however, were not the landmarks, although I wouldn’t have missed the circle line views of them for the world. Nor were they the highly controversial New York City Waterfalls cascading from giant scaffolds at Brooklyn Bridge, Governor’s Island, Pier 35 in Manhattan and Piers 4 and 5 in Brooklyn. The most memorable parts of the cruise for me were the unexpected glimpses of quiet rural scenes; deserted little beaches and inlets, patches of forest, overhanging trees, shady parks contrasted with the intensely urban; grim apartment blocks in the Bronx where kids waved from high windows, fenced-in concrete courts in Harlem, where boys shot hoops. And then, there was David, a drama graduate, a history buff and an amazing raconteur, who brought monuments, buildings, Boroughs, bridges, waterfalls, islands and little secret spots along the river to brilliant life.
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