Free
Some call New York City “Gotham,” a nickname that became popular in comic books and movies.
Others call it “the Big Apple,” a nickname with lots of origin stories. One of them describes the many apples on the tree of success, with the biggest one being New York City. Hence, the Big Apple.
By whatever name, New York City is a record-setting town of places and sounds not found just anywhere. It goes without saying that the World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island are here. But there’s so much more. Let’s take a tour.
Loading the player...
▲ Times Square is a hub of tourism, entertainment, and business. As such, some refer to it as “the Crossroads of the World.” Times Square was originally known as Longacre Square. The name changed to Times Square in 1904 when the New York Times opened its offices there. Three years later, people gathered at Times Square to watch a huge ball being lowered at exactly midnight on New Year’s Eve. The tradition has continued ever since. Just beyond Times Square is the area some call “the Great White Way.” The name refers to the dazzling white lights of the theater marquees. Here you can join the audiences of dozens of shows.
The beauty of the park should be the beauty of the fields, the meadow, the prairie, of the green pastures, and the still waters. What we want to gain is tranquility and rest to the mind.
◀ During the 17th and 18th centuries, an area in downtown Manhattan was the burial ground for more than 15,000 enslaved and free Africans. At the time, the area was far from the hustle and bustle of the city. But with time, the city developed around it and on top of it. That is, until 1991. During that year, as workers dug up ground for an office building, they discovered the remains of Africans and their belongings. Since then, the site has been preserved and developed. Now, it has a visitor center with a video tour and exhibits. At the same time, scientists and historians have studied it to learn about the people in the African community of the time.
▲▶ The events of September 11, 2001, took place in a matter of hours. But they left behind deep and enduring scars on individuals and on the country as a whole. The 9/11 Memorial plaza is intended to honor the victims of the attacks. Located in downtown Manhattan, it includes two waterfall pools surrounded by walls. The walls contain the names of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, plus the victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Also at the site is a museum with audio and video recordings of people’s remembrances of the day as well as the history leading up to the attacks.
▲ Before the British, before the Dutch, and before Henry Hudson were the Lenape peoples of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (also known as the Iroquois Confederacy). Here, on the northern tip of Manhattan, is a system of caves that were their seasonal camp. In 1890, engineer and amateur archaeologist Alexander Chenoweth discovered the caves. Anthropologists believe they are the site of the earliest human settlement in Manhattan. This is part of the account published about Chenoweth’s discovery in the New York Sun:
Mr. Chenoweth dug away the dirt until he found an easy entrance to a chamber in which a man in stooping posture might crawl about with some difficulty. The chamber was dry, and the dirt on the floor was soft. Mr. Chenoweth began turning it through with his trowel. Many pieces of pottery, some as large as a man’s hand, a few as large as a man’s two hands, lay in little pockets of the sediment. After six hours of digging Mr. Chenoweth had all the fragments of six pots of curious forms and unique manufacture. As he pushed ahead the next day he found a dark exit from the first chamber to a second one.
◀ If you’re in Manhattan, you might come across street performers, or buskers as they are sometimes called. They may be singing or dancing. They may be juggling, doing acrobatics, or drumming. If performers are lucky, you’ll drop money into their upturned hat or music case. Busking goes back to ancient Rome. It is legal in New York City (except for the years between 1936 and 1970).
If you like jazz, R&B, soul, or blues, you can find it at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. The theater that became the Apollo opened in 1914. At that time, Black people were not allowed to perform or attend performances there. But all that changed in 1933. That’s when it was closed down for a year and reopened as the Apollo Theater. Since then, many of the “greats” in Black culture have performed there. They include Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Gladys Knight, and more. ▶
