Today is the second day of our NY Pass and these are the attractions we visited today. We actually scheduled NY Skyride for Day 1 but it was closed by the time we reached yesterday so we added it to today. However, I wouldn't recommend NY Skyride as it was utterly underwhelming.
Day 2 Overview
1/ Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Immigration Museum
2/ 9-11 Memorial & Tribute Centre
3/ Madison Square Garden All Access Tour
4/ American Museum of Natural History
5/ The Metropolitan Museum of Art
6/ NY Skyride
Understandably then that there would be many people at the ferry terminal and the security would be extremely tight, with constant threats of terrorism, especially after 9/11.
We reached Liberty Island only around 10:35 am, a whooping 2 hours 20 minutes after leaving home. Considering the time required to walk to subway station, buy breakfast along the way, take train, walk towards ticket counter, exchange ticket, go through security, on top of a 15-minute ferry ride, you gotta leave early in the morning. It's a must.
View of Manhattan from our ferry
Lady Liberty from afar
Follow me to Lady Liberty
This copper statue was a gift to the United States from the people of France. The robed female figure represents the Roman goddess Libertas who bears a torch and a tablet with the inscription of the date 7 July 1776, marking the American Declaration of Independence.
Designed by a French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and built by Gustave Eiffel (the man behind the illustrious Eiffel Tower), this iconic Lady Liberty was dedicated on 28 October 1886.
Height of copper statue was 46m while the total height from foundation of pedestal to tip of the torch was 93m. Total weight of the statue was an astounding 450,000 pounds! 7 rays on her crown represents each of the 7 continents of the earth.
This icon of freedom and of the United States was such a welcoming sight to immigrants arriving from abroad on ships to realize their own American Dream.
After an hour of being awed by Lady Liberty, we boarded ferry towards the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. It took us about 15 min to line up for ferry boarding, then less than 10 min of boat ride to Ellis Island.
Ellis Island served as a federal immigration station for more than 60 years from 1892 to 1954. It was the gateway for over 12 million immigrants and close to 40% of all current U.S. citizens can trace at least one of their ancestors to Ellis Island.
After an arduous sea voyage, passengers were directed into lines for medical and legal inspections before they could enter the United States. While approximately 80% successfully passed through inspections, a few others could be further detained for days or weeks. During its heyday, Ellis Island Immigration witnessed the passage of 5000 - 10000 immigrants per day!
We completed our island tour at a brisk pace in 15 min. After another 15 min of queueing for ferry, we were back onboard, heading towards Manhattan.
15 years old Annie Moore from Ireland was the first to pass through the new immigration counters at the Ellis Island on 1 Jan 1982.
Charlie Chaplin was one of the many famous names who had gone through Ellis Island.
Back at the ferry dock by 12:45 pm
Reflecting Absence by architect Michael Arad & landscape architect Peter Walker
We then took the slow, 30 min walk towards 9-11 memorial. The memorial was located at the former location of the twin towers, destroyed during the September 11 attacks. There were 2 one-acre square pools where the twin towers used to stand, to commemorate the attacks and the thousands of lives lost.
The names of every person who died in the 2001 (1977 names ) and 1993 attacks (6 names) were inscribed into bronze panels edging the Memorial pools, a powerful reminder of the largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on American soil and the greatest single loss of rescue personnel in American history.
All these names are arranged using an algorithm, to create meaningful adjacencies based on relationships / organization affiliations as well as about 1200 requests from family members.
Before I visited the site, I had absolutely no idea of the reasons for this design with a deep hole in the middle, surrounded by waterfall. However, with the sound of water falling, as well as the peaceful surrounding of blue sky and white oak trees, I could reflect on the fragility of life. The whole setup invoked a deep sense of loss and I felt such a profound void.
During the time of our visit (2014), NY Pass didn't offer free entry to 9/11 Museum. So we instead visited 9/11 Tribute Center located just around the corner.
Together with artifacts from ground zero and emotional testimonies from survivors and rescue workers, this visit touched our souls. It restored our faith in humanity, about how can we could be selfless and how strong we are to have overcome such tremendous loss.
Trinity Church
We spent about 15 min at the memorial and 30 min at the tribute centre. Despite the brief duration of our visit, the impact was nonetheless powerful.
Statue of Liberty has always been a welcoming symbol for immigrants with American Dream. They have built their own dream as well as contributed to the creation of melting pot which makes up the United States of America. Thus, these brutal attacks on the twin towers were just simply an attack on humanity, affecting people of all races, religion and color. Terrorist attack was what it was. Terrorism shouldn't be allowed to hide behind the name of religion.
With heavy hearts, we bid farewell to ground zero around 2 pm and walked over to subway station.
Adios!
xoxo
Miss N
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