More in New York City

Friday I had the weather I wish I'd had the day before when I went to Brooklyn - so I decided to go back again and walk across the Brooklyn Bridge today.

I love this building in lower Manhattan - originally known as Beekman Tower and currently marketed as "New York by Gehry"; it's a 76-story skyscraper designed by architect Frank Gehry.   It is just south of the Brooklyn Bridge - impossible to miss when you're in that area.
At 265 meters high it is the 12th tallest residential tower in the world and the second tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere.  It contains a public elementary school owned by the Department of Education (the first five floors of the building), above that a few floors of retail, and then the tower contains only residential rental units (898 in total), a rarity in New York’s Financial District.

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States.  Completed in 1883, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. With a main span of 486.3m it was the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge.  Since its opening it has become an icon of New York City, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and a National Historic Civic Engineering Landmark in 1972.
The Brooklyn Bridge has a wide pedestrian walkway open to walkers and cyclists, in the centre of the bridge and higher than the automobile lanes.  More than 4,000 pedestrians and 3,100 cyclists cross the Brooklyn Bridge each day.

Looking back at lower east Manhattan 

Looking south along the East River towards Governors Island.  And if your eyesight is very, very good you can just see the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island off to the right. 

Midtown east Manhattan with a bit of the Manhattan Bridge.  Near the left side, the tallest building is the Empire State Building.

On the Brooklyn side with the Brooklyn Bridge Park underneath, looking north up the East River.

The Manhattan Bridge

Coming back now - from Brooklyn to Manhattan

The Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge is located very near to City Hall Park and some beautiful, old, historic buildings can be found here.  The Manhattan Municipal Building is a 40-storey building built to accommodate increased governmental space demands after the 1898 consolidation of the city's five boroughs.  Construction began in 1907 and ended in 1914, and this was the first building to incorporate a New York City Subway station into its base.  It is one of the largest governmental buildings in the world; it was designated a New York City landmark in 1966 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

New York City Hall is the oldest city hall in the United States that still houses its original governmental functions, such as the office of the Mayor of New York City and the chambers of the New York City Council.   Constructed from 1810 to 1812, New York City Hall is a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

City Hall Park is right in front of the City Hall building and as usual in New York City, it was a bustle of activity.

A cellist playing by the fountain in City Hall Park 

Some great public art 

And of course, a clown...

From here a short walk south takes you to New York's Financial District and Wall Street.

Federal Hall National Memorial on Wall Street was built in 1842 as the United States Custom House and later served as a sub-Treasury building on the site of the old Federal Hall.  It is now a museum commemorating the historic events that occurred there.  The original building on this site - Federal Hall - was built in 1700 as New York's City Hall.  It later served as the first capitol building of the United States of America under the Constitution, and was the site of George Washington's inauguration as the first President of the United States.  It was also where the United States Bill of Rights was introduced in the First Congress.  The original building was demolished in 1812.

I couldn't possibly be in New York's Financial District and not take a look at the infamous New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), sometimes known as the "Big Board".  It is located at 11 Wall Street and is the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at US$16.613 trillion as of May 2013.  Average daily trading value is approximately US$155 billion.  The NYSE building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978.

As you may know, New York's financial district is just a couple of blocks away from 'Ground Zero' - the World Trade Centre.  I did spend some time there today as well - look for my next post which will be only about this area.

And then for the end of today, I figured I couldn't be in New York without showing you the Flatiron Building.   It is this modest, twenty-storey building, built in a section of the city which, at the turn of the 20th century was considered “uptown”, that quickly became a symbol of the skyscraper era and holds the distinction of being considered the nations first true skyscraper.  It was built in 1902, designated a New York City landmark in 1966, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, and finally designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.