New York City, Holland and Belgium in the Springtime
April 19 - May 6, 2014
Part One - New York City
Page Two - New York City continued (Manhattan)
Central Park
Carnegie Hall
Radio City Music Hall at night
View of Manhattan skyline from the Top of the Rock
Observation deck at Rockefeller Center. Empire State
Building lit up on the left.
Outside NBC News at Rockefeller Center
One World Trade Center from 9/11 Memorial
9/11 Memorial Museum in lower right of the photo.
Part of 9/11 Memorial
The winner of the World Trade Center site memorial competition was Israeli architect
Michael Arad of Handel Architects, a New York- and San Francisco-based firm.
Arad worked with landscape architecture firm Peter Walker and Partners on the design
which calls for a forest of trees with two square pools in the center,
where the Twin Towers once stood.
A callery pear tree became known as the "Survivor Tree" after enduring
the September 11, 2001 terror attacks at the World Trade Center.
In October 2001, the tree was discovered at Ground Zero severely damaged,
with snapped roots and burned and broken branches. The tree was removed
from the rubble and placed in the care of the New York City Dept. of Parks
and Recreation. After its recovery and rehabilitation, the tree was returned to
the Memorial in 2010. New, smooth limbs extended from the gnarled stumps,
creating a visible demarcation between the tree's past and present.
The tree stands as a living reminder of resilience, survival and rebirth.
New York Stock Exchange at Wall Street
The Charging Bull (sometimes called the Wall Street Bull or the Bowling
Green Bull) is a 7,000 pound bronze sculpture that sits in Bowling Green
Park near Wall Street. The depiction of a bull, leaning back on its haunches,
with its head lowered and ready to charge, is a symbol of a prosperous
financial market.
Completed in 1883, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan and
Brooklyn by spanning the East River. It has a main span of 1,595.5 ft.
and was the first steel-wire suspension bridge constructed.
We took a boat cruise of New York harbor to see the Manhattan skyline,
Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty. Here we had just passed under
the Brooklyn Bridge.
Great view of the World Trade Center area.
Ellis Island in Upper New York Bay was the gateway for millions of
immigrants to the United States as the nation's busiest immigrant
inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded
with land reclamation between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much
smaller original island was the site of Fort Gibson and later a naval magazine.
The island was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in
1965, and has hosted a museum of immigration since 1990.
The Statue of Liberty, designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and dedicated on October
28, 1886, was a gift to the United States from the people of France.
The statue is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman
goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet
evoking the law) upon which is inscribed the date of the American
Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet.
The statue is a symbol of freedom and of the United States: a welcoming
signal to immigrants arriving from abroad.
Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island
Pat standing on the boat with the Statue of Liberty in the background.
Another view of the Brooklyn Bridge
Manhattan
International United Nations Headquarters
When you pass through the gates of the United Nations visitors' entrance,
you enter an international territory. This 18-acre site does not belong to just
one country, but to all countries that have joined the Organization; currently,
the United Nations has 193 Member States.
Warwick Hotel, where we stayed in New York City. It was in easy
walking distance of Times Square and Central Park as well as the
Rockefeller Center.
Link to Page Three - Amsterdam and Zaanse Schans
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