At the north end of the island...
...after passing a huge piece of Columbia University graffiti...
...we passed through another bridge...
...that was the passageway from the East River into the Hudson River...
...with its large, wild currents.
You can see the Rockefeller's elaborate medieval art warehouse, The Cloisters...
...before passing Grant's Tomb and Riverside Church.
The luxurious section of the Upper West Side...
...gives way to another residential monstrosity from Donald Trump...
...before finally returning to the 42nd Street pier where cranes and new construction bring us full circle.
Lovely photo tour of my childhood home--many thanks. One small correction: that's not St. John the Divine to the right of Grant's Tomb, but Riverside Church. (St. John is on Amsterdam Avenue at 112th St., 3 blocks from where I grew up, and not visible from the river.)
ReplyDeleteIf you're still in NY, you can take the Water Taxi from Manhattan (several departure points) to Fulton Pier in Brooklyn, right next to Olga Bloom's wonderful Bargemusic boat. If it's a nice day, you can catch a chamber concert, then stroll through Brooklyn Heights to the Clark St. subway station and so home, wherever that is. (The first lines of Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" are incised into the railing around Fulton Pier, which is nice.)
Dear rootlesscosmo: Thanks for the St. John / Riverside Church correction. I'll fix it in the text.
ReplyDeleteNice tour, mike. I'll sweet talk my hosts into the ride next time I visit.
ReplyDeleteThere's a shorter version that follows the same route as far up the East River as about the UN buildings, then turns back around the Battery to the departure point. If your hosts aren't up for the whole thing (though the northern end is actually more interesting, because you see things most Manhattanites are barely aaware of), they might go for the truncated one.
ReplyDeleteWonderful trip. When I visit in NYC, I get to run along the river in the Grant's Tomb stretch. Always interesting and amazingly safe feeling nowadays.
ReplyDeleteApparently the whole perimeter can now be done on foot or bike. Someday...
SFMike, I discovered the Circle Line after moving out of New York but now must take the tour every time I visit the city. I enjoy the trip with a pot cookie and my Ipod to drown out the hackneyed drone of the tour announcer. The area where the East River and the Hudson meet is called Spuyten Duyvil, which means the spit or spite of the devil because of its strong currents.
ReplyDeleteDamien