Insight Guides Pocket New York City (Travel Guide eBook)

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight Guides
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781789193145
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Insight Pocket Guides: ideal itineraries and top travel tips Plan your trip, plan perfect days and discover how to get around - this pocket-sized guide is a convenient, quick-reference companion to discovering what to do and see in New York, from top attractions like the Brooklyn Bridge, to hidden gems, including places in Greenwich Village.

Compact, concise, and packed with essential information about Where to Go and What to Do, this is an ideal on-the-move companion when you're exploring New York
Covers Top Ten Attractions, including the Empire State Building and Central Park and Perfect Day itinerary suggestions
Offers an insightful overview of landscape, history and culture
Inspirational colour photography throughout
Sharp design and colour-coded sections make for an engaging reading experience

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides is a pioneer of full-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps, as well as phrase books, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

Where To Go

While the majority of visitors to New York never leave Manhattan, there is more to the city than its most famous borough. Those who venture to Brooklyn, for example, will find a world-class art museum along with parks, gardens, and fascinating ethnic neighborhoods. One of the country’s great zoos is located in the Bronx, near an equally notable attraction, the New York Botanical Garden. In Queens you will find a top-notch filmmaking museum. Meanwhile, the journey to Staten Island is that borough’s highlight, a ferry ride right by the Statue of Liberty, and best of all, it is free.

Fall in the West Village

Tagger Yancey IV/NYC & Company

However, Manhattan is the focus of most visitors’ attentions, with its wealth of sights and activities. Only 13.5 miles (22km) long and 2 miles (3.5km) wide, New York’s most popular borough is what everyone calls ‘the city.’ Getting your bearings in this metropolis is remarkably easy thanks to the grid system. Apart from Lower Manhattan – where the thoroughfares twist, turn, and usually have names instead of numbers – all roads running from west to east are called ‘streets’ and those running from north to south are called ‘avenues.’ Streets are numbered from south to north and avenues from east to west. Some avenues also have names, such as York Avenue, Lexington Avenue, Park Avenue and Madison Avenue (street signs and addresses list Sixth Avenue as Avenue of the Americas, but New Yorkers rarely call it that). Inclusion of ‘West’ (W) or ‘East’ (E) in addresses shows whether it lies west or east of Fifth Avenue. There is just one avenue that doesn’t conform to this pattern: Broadway cuts across the island diagonally.

Downtown

In Lower Manhattan, at the island’s southern tip, is the oldest, most historic part of the city; the Financial District corresponds roughly to the area south of Worth Street, which begins just below Chinatown. Here you’ll find Wall Street, One World Trade Center, the 9/11 Memorial, South Street Seaport, and ferries to Staten Island and the Statue of Liberty. After years of neglect, clubs and bars have moved in, making the area worth a visit even after 7pm. A good source of information on developments in Lower Manhattan is the Alliance for Downtown New York, Inc. at www.downtownny.com.

Icon of hope

Remarkable as it might seem, a huge globe-shaped metal sculpture survived the tons of metal and concrete that crashed down upon it on 9/11. The Sphere by Fritz Koenig had stood for more than 30 years in the World Trade Center Plaza. In March 2002, it was moved to nearby Battery Park, where, on the first anniversary of the attack, an eternal flame was lit in memory of the victims. In 2017 the sculpture was returned to the World Trade Center where it will reside permanently in Liberty Park.

One World Trade Center and 9/11 Memorial

For decades, the most visible tourist attraction in Lower Manhattan was the World Trade Center. It was a huge complex of offices, a hotel, shopping malls, subway stations and the twin towers themselves. When the towers were opened in 1970, they were the tallest buildings in the world.

After September 11, 2001 – when the towers became the target of the country’s worst terrorist attack – the construction site where the complex once stood became a moving memorial. The former Ground Zero now holds as much, if not more meaning for visitors, as when they came to marvel at the buildings themselves. Today, the shimmering One World Trade Center 1 [map] (formerly known as Freedom Tower) rises up at the center of the site, and the surrounding 9/11 Memorial offers a tranquil place to reflect and honor the victims.

Completed in 2014 to a design by David M. Childs, One World Trade Center is the highest building in the Western Hemisphere, standing 1,776ft (541 meter) high. Its observation deck (https://oneworldobservatory.com; daily Jan 4–April 30 and Sept 5–Dec 20 9am–9pm, May–Sept 4 8am–9pm, Dec 21–Jan 3 8am–8pm) on the 102nd floor offers unrivalled views over the city. Access is provided thanks to a $4 billion transportation hub connecting subway, train, ferry, and bus lines in a striking structure designed by acclaimed Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Also connected to the transportation hub is the Cortlandt Street subway station which, after suffering severe damage in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, reopened in 2018.

The memorial, which incorporates the footprints of the twin towers into its design, was dedicated on the 10th anniversary of the attack. Visitors to the memorial and its accompanying museum need to reserve a pass, which is free, from www.911memorial.org.

Risen from the ashes: One World Trade Center

iStockphoto

Battery Park City

When the World Trade Center was being built in the late 1960s, some 30 million tons of excavated landfill were dumped on adjoining Hudson River docks to create the site of what became, in the 1980s, Battery Park City, a collection of high- and low-rise apartment and office buildings and parks. A lovely esplanade lined with parks and gardens stretches along the river from Stuyvesant High School on the north end, all the way south to historic Battery Park.

The highlight of the World Financial Center is the fine Winter Garden, a public atrium ringed by shops, restaurants, and bars. Grab take-out from a café and join the stockbrokers on one of the benches, or enjoy a more upscale lunch at one of the sit-down restaurants.

Castle Clinton

Britta Jaschinski/Apa Publications

A stroll down the promenade is a pleasant way to spend an hour, and also a great place to view the sunset. At the end of the promenade, near Bowling Green subway station, is the Museum of Jewish Heritage 2 [map] (www.mjhnyc.org; Sun–Tue 10am–6pm, Wed–Thu 10am–8pm, Fri 10am–5pm, until 3pm on Fri early Nov–mid-Mar, closed Sat and Jewish holidays). Beyond the first floor’s interesting multimedia introductory show are galleries about Jewish life and culture; the second floor is devoted to the Holocaust, while the third floor contains exhibits about Judaism today. By focusing on the complexity of Jewish life in the 20th century, the museum give a less harrowing account than others devoted solely to the Holocaust.

Nearby is Battery Park, a leafy expanse at the tip of Manhattan. Most visitors head for Castle Clinton. Originally the West Battery – a fortification to help protect ships in New York from the English navy – the building dates to 1811. By 1824 its military mission was fulfilled and the fort became a...

Table of contents

• New York’s Top 10 Attractions
• A Perfect Day In New York
• Introduction
• A Brief History
• Where To Go
• What To Do
• Eating Out
• Restaurants
• A–Z Travel Tips
• Recommended Hotels