Category: Blog

Robert Moses

Nowadays, the name Robert Moses conjures up displaced families, highway construction, the departure of he Brooklyn Dodgers, and even accusations of racism for some. Despite the negative associations that Moses brings up, Moses is also responsible for the Lincoln Center, World’s Fairs in Queens, and a number of bridges that help to connect the city.

Moses was born in Connecticut and moved to New York as a child with his family. He earned degrees from Yale, Oxford University, and Columbia University. With expertise in urban planning, he soon caught the attention of Al Smith, governor of New York. Moses worked as a planner for Smith and later his successor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in building parks projects throughout New York State—including Jones Beach in Long Island. Moses soon became associated with the city government, working on planning and construction projects around all five boroughs. He met with public approval as he worked to rehabilitate parks and playgrounds across the city in addition to building new crossings such as the Triborough Bridge. At his zenith of power, he held multiple chairmanships of important city and state commissions that were responsible for building infrastructure across the city. His chairmanship of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority helped give him access to capital to fund other infrastructure projects. Like former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, Moses had de-facto final say over many projects despite not being the leader of a political entity.

Moses’ reputation began to take a hit during World War II. A proposal for a massive suspension bridge from Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan was shelved in favor of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. Moses also favored massive clearance projects that demolished dilapidated tenements, but displaced hundreds of thousands of people all across the city. These were most evident in highway construction projects (the BQE and the Cross-Bronx Expressways were the two most notable). Moses earned the ire of New York residents, led by Jane Jacobs, over the proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway. This highway would have cut a massive swath through SoHo, Little Italy, and the Lower East Side. The project was eventually abandoned, leading to a wave of freeway revolts across the country. Moses is probably best remembered outside of the city for his battle with the Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley—which caused the team to decamp for Los Angeles.

Moses gradually lost power as public perception of him diminished. The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority was folded into the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. With the publication of The Power Broker by Robert Caro in 1974, his reputation lay in tatters. Despite this, his mark on the current city is undeniable. In addition to seeing several places directly connected with Robert Moses on a Sights by Sam tour, this is the type of information you will learn.

Skyscraper Museum

Perhaps no other invention typifies New York more than the skyscraper. This invention was the result of the dual inventions of steel and the safety elevator. Before these inventions, people could only tolerate walking up six flights of stairs to live and work (think about older buildings in the Lower East Side and Chinatown). Only the spires of churches and some other large items (the Brooklyn Bridge towers) rose above several stories. Although Chicago lays claim to the first skyscraper in the U.S. and the world, New York was the most eager adaptor of this new building type. The limited space on Manhattan coupled with hard rock on the island that made buildings easy to securely anchor led to a proliferation of skyscrapers that created the manmade canyons known the world over.

The Skyscraper Museum in Lower Manhattan is the perfect place for lovers of tall buildings. In addition to captivating changing exhibits, the permanent collection of the museum has details about the tallest buildings in the world and famous skyscrapers in New York. Given the location of the museum in Lower Manhattan, the museum has made an exhibit about the World Trade Center twin towers part of its permanent collection, celebrating these marvels of engineering and giving pause to their demise. Predictably, the museum also has a first-rate gift shop for everything tall buildings.

This museum is a must for fans of Manhattan’s most recognizable architectural form. Participants on Sights by Sam tours are guaranteed to receive detailed explanations of skyscrapers and other sights worth seeing on every tour.

The Javits Center

New York is a year-round destination for not only tourists, but also conventioneers. With a storied history and landmarks in every corner, the city and region are also home to a large number of headquarters and home offices of companies and other organizations. To accommodate the high volume of conventioneers who want to come to the city, the Jacob K. Javits Center (Javits Center) was constructed to handle the great number of people who come to the city for everything from trade conventions to gatherings of TV show fans.

Completed in 1986, the convention center sits on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan. It is named after the longtime New York State senator who was born in the Lower East Side and lived in the northern reaches of Manhattan later in life. The Javits Center was built in this formerly industrial area by architect I.M. Pei’s firm. The Javits Center replaces the New York Colosseum, which was where the Time Warner Center now stands. The convention center has about 1.8 million square feet of exhibition space. The center has been expanded many times over its history, most recently in the first decade of the century. There are reports that it may be expanded agaIn. While the neighborhood around the Javits Center has long been an industrial area, it will soon be near the center of the new Hudson Yards development.

New York is one of the top convention destinations in the country, keeping pace with other popular destinations such as Chicago, Las Vegas, and New Orleans. Some of the most notable conventions in the country, such as New York Comic Con, take place at this facility. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Morgan Library and Museum

Most people collect at least one thing. Many important collections exist within the city limits of New York. These include everything from some of the world’s most important art collections to interesting items that DSNY workers have recovered from being dumped on the street over the years. One of the most important collections assembled within the five boroughs is found in Midtown Manhattan at the Morgan Library and Museum (the Morgan Library).

The Morgan Library was founded as the private library of wealthy financier J.P. Morgan. When Morgan was not singlehandedly bailing out the federal government before the days of the Federal Reserve Bank or managing his financial empire, he was adding to his incomparable collection of art and manuscripts. After 1924, the museum was opened to the public by J.P. Morgan’s son. The collection today encompasses several important items such as three Gutenberg Bibles (there are believed to be only 81 still in existence), a sizable collection of autographs, and original manuscripts. There is also a collection of artwork—including sumptuous decoration in the interior itself.

The building itself has an impressive pedigree as well. The original structure was designed by the firm of McKim, Mead, and White, one of the most prestigious architectural firms in the city. The library was built adjacent to Morgan’s former residence. When the collection began to get too big, an addition was made in 2006 by architect Renzo Piano. The interior and exterior have been designated landmarks by the city.

J.P. Morgan spent the equivalent of $900 million in today’s value for his collection. In addition to the great permanent collection, the museum also hosts informative temporary exhibits. A visit here is well worth it—especially if you are into medieval manuscripts (and makes a great companion to the Cloisters in Upper Manhattan). This facility is pointed out on Sights by Sam tours of Midtown.

The Grid of Manhattan

It is hard to believe sometimes that the average speed of a vehicle has not changed in over 100 years in Manhattan—around 12 miles. The very same streets on the island that are packed most of the day today were the same way back then. Yet, there is a rigid order that has helped to shape Manhattan into the recognizable island that it is today.

When the Dutch founded the city, the residents crowded close to Fort Amsterdam at the foot of the island. Some criminals were forced into exile—prey to hostile Native American tribes, bandits, or others that lived outside of the city’s walls in the wild. The population of New York grew under the British, but the jagged paths the streets cut in Manhattan expanded upward. Much like London and other cities in Britain, the street pattern grew organically. This led to little order being imposed on the street system and a danger if fire broke out due to fire fighting companies having to navigate a rabbit-warren of streets to the disaster area.

In 1811, the State of New York hired a three man commission to impose an orderly street plan on Manhattan. The plan they instituted famously established the grid of streets above Houston Street in Lower Manhattan. East to west streets and north to south avenues divided the island into parcels perfect for building enough single-family homes to house up to one million people. Due to the scarcity of land on the island, tenements and apartments would pop up on the grid—in addition to factories and stately commercial structures. Avenues were wider than streets and remain an easier way of traveling around town (this was not lost on the planners of the city’s subway system, who tunneled under these avenues in Manhattan).

Most of the streets go one-way, with evens being eastbound and odds being westbound. With that said, you can drive on both sides of the street on 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, 57th, part of 59th, 72nd, 79th, 86th, 96th, 106th, 116th, 125th, 135th, 145th and 155th. Motorists can also go through Central Park through “traverses” at 65th, 79th, 86th, and 92nd streets.

With the parcels of Manhattan divided into neat and orderly rectangles, the island we know today came into existence. In completing the grid, a herculean effort was undertaken to “grade” the island, erasing most of the hills that gave Manhattan its name. With limited land, the necessity to build up gave the island its characteristic towers and canyons of steel and concrete. It also led to natives and visitors being able to find any point north of Houston Street with relative ease (the corner of X Street and Y Avenue). Not all aspects of the grid were positive (gridlock), but the commission responsible for ordering the streets in 1811 was remarkably forward thinking in shaping a city no one of that era could recognize today. This is the type if information you will learn on any Sights by Sam tour.

The Frick Collection

Nestled in the Upper East Side among several of the museums on the world-famous Museum Mile is the Frick Collection. A small art museum that bears similarity to the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia or the Taft Museum in Cincinnati, and the collection of Frick’s artworks in Pittsburgh at the Frick Art and Historical Center, the Frick Collection contains works of art collected by wealthy industrialist Henry Clay Frick.

Similar to fellow Pennsylvanian Solomon R. Guggenheim, Frick was a titan of industry as one of the founders of U.S. Steel. Frick’s massive wealth allowed him to collect art, especially paintings by European old masters. He housed many of his collected works in a New York mansion designed by the firm of Carrere and Hastings (who also designed the main New York Public Library). Frick only lived at the mansion for a short time, but turned the house over as a museum after he and his wife passed away. The Frick Collection also contains a massive art reference library. Although it functions solely as a museum today, the Frick Collection is housed in one of the last mansions on Fifth Avenue. In the coming years, the amount of the facility on view will expand as the upstairs of the mansion will open to the public.

Although the Museum Mile is dominated by several larger museums, including the Metropolitan Museum, the Frick Collection is worth a visit for those interested in the art of old world masters and fans of architecture. This is the type of information your will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Staten Island Ferry

Every day, 60,000 people from Staten Island descend upon Manhattan for work and play on one of New York’s most picturesque and cost efficient forms of transportation, the Staten Island Ferry. The eight orange-and-blue ferry boats ply the five mile route in about a half hour between the two ferry terminals.

The Staten Island Ferry was first run in the 1700s, but came into its own in the 1800s when it was first run by a turnpike company and later by the Vanderbilt Family as part of their railroad empire (later sold to other railroad companies). After a major accident in 1901, New York City’s government seized control of the ferries, which has owned and operated them since. In 1997, the ferry was made free when Mayor Rudolph Giuliani followed through on a campaign promise to make service free (to heal the rift in relations between Staten Island and the other four boroughs alluded to in my previous blog article about the history of Staten Island). Passengers were once able to bring cars on the ferry boats, but this has been banned since 2001. Since the first decade of the 2000s, the ferry calls on two renovated terminals in Whitehall, Manhattan, and St. George, Staten Island. Visitors are able to be transported easily through the borough they arrive in via several subway stations on the Manhattan end and a jumble of bus lines and a Staten Island Railway stop near the St. George terminal.

The boats plying New York Harbor are an important symbol of the Borough of Staten Island and form one of the most distinctive modes of transportation in the city. While you are in New York, a trip upon the Staten Island Ferry is worth your time and an attraction that is also easy on the wallet. This is the type of information that you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

The Flatiron Building

Although it was never the tallest in the city, the Flatiron Building (built in 1902) is one of the most beloved skyscrapers in the city.  The building, with its triangular shape, has many admirers throughout the world.

The Flatiron Building is the only New York skyscraper designed by noted architect Daniel Burnham, who gained fame for designing several structures in Chicago.  The beaux-arts structure towers over the surrounding area at 22 stories, but was initially scorned by New Yorkers.  It did, however, prove popular with local men as the building caused wind patterns to change at the building’s address at the confluence of 5th Avenue, 23rd Street, and Broadway.  The phrase “23-skidoo” was coined as NYPD officers had to herd leering men and boys from gawking at the exposed legs of women, whose skirts would blow up from the wind as they walked near the building.  The Flatiron Building was originally built for the Fuller Company, an architectural firm.  It now has several tenants.

One of the most notable things about the Flatiron Building is not its height, nor its shape (it is far from being the only skyscraper on a triangular plot of land), but what it would lead to.  When it was built, the Flatiron Building was only one of a couple tall buildings north of Lower Manhattan.  Its construction would be the harbinger of massive commercial skyscrapers going up into the formerly residential Midtown neighborhood.  With the conversion of many formerly commercial buildings into residential or hotel uses (70 Pine and the Woolworth Building come to mind), the Flatiron Building soldiers on as an office building.

While the Empire State Building and many others are taller, the famous Flatiron Building still represents one of the most distinctive pieces of architecture in the city.  The building, with its terra cotta exterior, still captures the imagination of many visitors and natives alike.  The Flatiron Building and the surrounding area can be seen on several Sights by Sam tours.

Adolph Weinman

Born in Germany, Weinman immigrated to the U.S. when he was a teenager and was educated at the famous Cooper Union in New York City.  He became a gifted sculptor and is perhaps best known for sculpting coins.  His most famous design was the Walking Liberty Half-Dollar and the Mercury Dime designs of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Weinman is famous for his sculptural work.  In New York, he is most famous for designing eagle statues that once graced the front of McKim, Mead, and White’s 1910 Pennsylvania Station in Midtown.  As I mentioned in my blog article about the Manhattan Municipal Building, his most famous work is the 25’ tall gilded copper statue, Civic Fame, which celebrates the unification of all five boroughs into New York City in 1898.  Weinman also sculpted ornamental details on this building, which can be seen on a Sights by Sam-led “Foundation of New York” tour.

This is the type of information you will learn on any Sights by Sam tour.

Your City and New York: Washington, D.C.

New York and Washington are locked in a perpetual battle to be the dominant city in the U.S.  While New York has tall buildings and a population that may be more cosmopolitan, Washington styles itself as the most powerful city in the free world given that the federal government is headquartered there.  Despite this rivalry and some of the aesthetic differences in the city (the glass towers of Midtown Manhattan versus the marble-sheathed government buildings in Washington), there are many similarities.

Both cities can claim the title as capital and have a connection to George Washington.  While Washington, DC, is obviously named for our first president (he never lived in the Federal City (he passed away before its completion), he was inaugurated as president of the United States in New York at Federal Hall (which you can see on a Sights by Sam  “Foundation of New York” tour).  The attempt to keep New York as the capital failed due to a political compromise to keep the Union together— partially proposed by New Yorker Alexander Hamilton.  Although not quite as stately as the Capitol Building in DC, the New York City Hall was a stop for Abraham Lincoln on his way to Washington from Illinois and when he returned to be buried after his assassination in 1865.

In terms of other aspects of the similarities between both cities, both Washington and New York are ordered by famous street grids that use easy to remember letters and numbers to find one’s way around (with the odd other name thrown in for good measure).  Both cities even have traffic circles in their grids—although New York counts Columbus Circle as the big one for this while there are many in Washington (lending their names to various neighborhoods).  Both cities also have world-class museums— and the Smithsonian Institution even has arms in both locations.  Washington is defined by its rivers—the Potomac and the Anacostia— while Manhattan is surrounded by three main rivers.  Each city also has a subway system that is central to the identity of natives and visitors alike.

While Washington and New York will probably be locked in combat for bragging rights and in sports rivalries until the end of time, these two cities have more similarities than immediately meet the eye.  A final point to ponder is that each city is also a magnet to people who are looking to make a mark on society or start anew.  This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.