Stone St Between Broad St and Whitehall St

    

When I set out to walk down this block, I had blindly selected it based on the fact that I had heard people talking about its unique outdoor cafe seating and cobblestone surface. Imagine my disappointment when I realized I had picked the wrong segment of Stone Street (the part everyone talks about is two blocks away). But, I had made my choice and went ahead and took photos of this depressing block.

The block is fairly typical of this neighborhood – towering buildings with decaying bases and dirty sidewalks. The rare moment of sunlight trickling through is immediately curtailed by either construction canopies or rows of parked trucks. Both ends of this block are dead ends with huge buildings blocking thru-traffic. Walking down it you almost feel like you're on a movie set (you know, the type where you can't see infinitely down the street, usually due to the impracticability of building a ridiculously-long set?) that's easily escapable.

Ann St Between Nassau St and Park Row

I must admit, I didn't really know this street was even here. The whole maze that makes up this neighborhood makes it very easy to overlook entire areas. When you're standing on Park Row, this block seems to disappear into the background; and why wouldn't it? You have so many prominent landmarks surrounding you, what use is it to notice Ann Street? 

The block itself was a lot of fun to walk down. Full of incredibly narrow, yet tall buildings that cast uneven shadows on the ground. One third of the way down the street is Theater Alley, which Scouting NY had a great little write-up on recently.

Really, the key to this block is to keep your gaze skyward. Every rooftop and wall seems to have something unique to present. The street-level, by comparison, isn't all that much to look at.

Battery Pl Between State St and West St

With Bowling Green behind us, the sparsely populated Battery Place is a mostly-open concrete sidewalk. Sure, the park offers a respite to the south, but the sheer width of the space here makes it seem like almost a chore to make your way over there. Across the street, One Broadway lines the street with a series of great marine-inspried images. Previously owned by the International Mercantile Marine Company, the plaques surrounding the second floor list a series of ports-of-call, while two entrances on the ground floor are labeled "First Class" and "Cabin Class". 

Though significantly less ornate, the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel air shaft (which may also hold offices? Anyone?) is also a rather interesting building to look at. Perhaps better known from the movies as headquarters for the Men In Black, this is one of the more plain-looking air shafts around the city. I'm always amazed more attention isn't given to them, since they show up at every underground river crossing.

Before entering Battery Park City, a large, classic-looking building currently known as "Ocean" sits at 1 West Street. Claiming to be the "First address in Manhattan" (I didn't know addresses were necessarily ordered outside of their street numbers), the building is just over 100 years old. Digging in a little deeper I found that this was originally the Whitehall Building, and is landmarked. The taller building behind it is actually one in the same; known originally as Greater Whitehall, it was built only 5 years after the original structure since it had been such a big hit.

Trinity Pl Between Morris St and Rector St

I always feel bad for the people driving their cars around this area. The streets are such a confusing mess that one wrong turn could be taking you to Brooklyn instead of the east side. Likewise, walking around as a pedestrian is not picnic either. More than once I've found myself somehow stranded between streets, practically walking through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, and thus forcing my to wander through the Battery Parking Garage to get back on track. 

The various streets that run around here create for some unique sights, it's a shame there isn't much more than a bar or two around here. Working you way northward, a large and unsightly Syms store takes over one block while the back end of Trinity Church offsets it across the street.

State St Between Whitehall St and Battery Pl

As you would expect, the very tip of Manhattan can be a bit of a convoluted mess thanks to the 33 different streets all trying to terminate at the same spot. State Street tries to clean up that mess a bit by wrapping around and separating the Ferry Terminal and Battery Park from the street grid. "State" is just one of a number of names this road has; if you follow it up in either direction long enough you get Broadway on the west and Bowery on the east. If you were intent on doing it, you could actually start here at the tip of State Street and follow Broadway all the way up to Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County.

Right in the middle of all this activity are two very different buildings. Against the waterfront is the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. A new building, that I'll admit is pretty inviting, it also holds an entrance to the new South Ferry subway station. Across the street is a much more humble structure known as the James Watson House. Originally the home of Elizabeth Ann Seton – the first American-born saint – it's now a New York City Landmark. Looking absolutely dwarfed amongst the towering skyscrapers it reminds me a bit of The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. In between both the ferry terminal and the humble hut is what appears to be an utter wasteland of construction. Embarrassingly, I have no clue what they're working on here.

Following the street around the bend, there isn't much of note. Of course there's the always-great Battery Park, which is one of my favorite places to walk around when I'm in this area. Across the way a series of rather anonymous buildings sit in a row.

Making your way up to Battery Place (and the name change to Broadway) the US Custom House takes over the landscape. The beautiful Beaux-Arts building is well-known for its series of statues and architectural embellishments. Finished in 1907, the Custom House is actually one of only a few Government buildings constructed under the Tarsney Act which allowed private architects to design federal buildings. The act was repealed in 1913. One of the statues that line the front entrance can be seen on the cover of New York Changing, a book I've mentioned here before. Across from the Custom House a much smaller, but equally beautiful Bowling Green subway shelter sits all alone.

Liberty St Between Trinity Pl and Nassau St

Though there's plenty of sights to gawk at here, the main attraction, by-far is the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site. Though the progress seems painfully slow to most of us, it still is heartening to see the steel frames peeking about the barricades. Though the towering 1 WTC is mostly obscured from this corner, you can still get a rather good view of Tower 4 (or, what I think is Tower 4). 

The wide-open Zuccotti Park, which runs the length of Liberty Street here, acts almost as an amphitheater to view the WTC construction. Bookending the park are two very different buildings: 1 Liberty Plaza is a hyper-stark obelisk which depends on repetitive window patterns to lull you into a sense of nausea. Trinity Centre (115 Broadway) holds its own in terms of sheer mass, but the architectural embellishments and creative layout make it the far superior structure. In between the two is "Joie de Vivre" by Mark di Suvero, a 70-foot-tall, bright red steel sculpture, which in its own way seems to bring the two different buildings together.

Continuing past Broadway, you'll encounter more public art before you're forced into the narrow street of FiDi, leaving you somewhat disoriented.