Category: Blog

The High Bridge

As I mentioned in my post about the Brooklyn Bridge, many cities are defined by their bridges.  Structures such as the Tsing Ma Bridge in Hong Kong, the Roebling Bridge in Cincinnati, and the Harbour Bridge in Sydney, Australia, are instantly recognizable symbols of the city.  Like San Francisco or Pittsburgh, New York is a city of bridges—with many stately structures connecting the city together.  While there are many bridges worthy of blog articles on this website, one of the most important bridges to the city is the High Bridge.

Connecting Manhattan to the Bronx across the Harlem River, the High Bridge was completed in 1848.  The bridge is 2000 feet long and was the first permanent bridge connecting Manhattan with the mainland.  It was partially designed by James Renwick, Jr, who is known for designing the Cathedral of St. Patrick in Midtown.  The bridge had a dual purpose—to allow transportation between the two boroughs and to transport water into the city.  The water was held in the stately water tower and reservoir where High Bridge Park in Manhattan is now.  According to some accounts, the tower was needed to increase water pressure so that increasingly common modern toilets could flush.  When initially constructed, the area became a destination for amusement and pleasure seekers as it was near the river, leading to many restaurants and hotels being built.

As industry grew along the river in the 1900s, this area lost its cache as a tourism destination and declined.  This led to part of the High Bridge being demolished and replaced with a metal span to allow larger ships to pass up the Harlem River.  As the Harlem River Drive and the Major Deegan Expressway were completed in the 1950s and 1960s, the neighborhood was cut off from the waterfront.  Faced with increasing crime in the area and vandalization of the bridge, the High Bridge was closed in the 1970s.  It was closed until 2015 after a massive restoration project fixed the bridge and rehabilitated it for pedestrian use.

While not a sweeping suspension bridge like so many of the more photographed bridges, the High Bridge is a historically important bridge that is a true symbol of the city.  If in this part of Manhattan, the High Bridge is worth your time for a walk.  The views from the bridge of Manhattan and the Bronx as well as the high bluffs on both the Manhattan and Bronx sides make this a great place to take photos—especially on a sunny day.  This is the type of information that you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Located in Central Park, with over two million square feet of exhibition space at its Central Park flagship, collections encompassing every period of history, and now spanning three locations, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), is the largest museum in the U.S.  The collection of the museum has artifacts in it such as a medieval hall of armor, baseball cards, Tiffany lamps, a paintings collection that is world class, and an Egyptian temple.  The museum is also the setting for one of my favorite books from the fourth grade, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

The main museum campus opened its doors in 1872 further down Fifth Avenue from its current location.  The current location was built in 1880, and was added onto over several years (the original building is actually encased by its additions—look for the red walls while inside of the museum).  Over the years it has greatly expanded to encompass a large super block between 79th and 86th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

A trip to the Met can encompass an entire day.  Check out the temporary exhibits (which change every few months), which are done well and always stunning.  The Hall of Armor is always a crowd pleaser as is the reconstructed Ancient Egyptian Temple of Dendur (reconstructed in the northern edge of the museum).  If you are there in the summer, the roof deck offers a stunning view of Central Park and has an installation on it.  As I am a big fan of modern art myself, while not the MoMA or the Whitney, the Met can hold its own with regard to its collection of 19th and 20th century art.

If you somehow have more time after a day of gallery cruising at the Fifth Avenue location, your admission will allow you to enter another Met affiliate (such as the Cloisters in Upper Manhattan or the Met Breuer in the Upper East Side) for free the same day.  There is almost no way that you can see the entire collection in one sitting.  Plan ahead with the art and artifacts you want to see in mind.  If it is raining outside, rest assured that most tourists and locals from the Upper East Side will be in the main location of the Met with you.  This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

The Yiddish Rialto

Today the beginning of Second Avenue in the East Village is a commercial strip and an up and coming residential area.  In the early part of the 20th Century, this area, then in the center of the Jewish Lower East Side, was the location of a thriving live theater district.  Colloquially, this area was called the Yiddish Rialto after the language the vast majority of the immigrants spoke and the area in Venice, Italy.  This theater district experienced its heyday from the turn of the 20th century and the 1950s.

In the late 1800s to early 1900s, around two million Eastern European Jews arrived in New York, fleeing religious persecution in their former homelands.  They mainly settled in the Lower Eat Side of New York and often worked in menial jobs in sweatshops or hawking items from pushcarts.  The main source of entertainment for many of these immigrants was Yiddish theater.  The first one was in the Lower East Side on Grand Street, but the district soon spread to Second Avenue, with over a dozen Yiddish language theaters lining the street.  In the beginning, Yiddish theater used Shakespearean plays or borrowed themes from other theater productions, but soon came into its own, with original productions being produced.  Actors such as Jacob Adler and Fyvush Finkel both got their starts in Yiddish theater productions.  Songwriters Ira and George Gershwin also were great fans of Yiddish theater in their youth.  At one point, there were over 20 Yiddish language theaters in the district, rivaling Times Square as the second largest theater district in the city.  The rise of Yiddish theaters also promoted a rise in new businesses such as restaurants and clubs around where the theaters were located, such as the Second Avenue Deli (which opened at the time that the district started to decline).

In the 1950s, with the arrival of television and changing settlement patterns—where Jews were leaving the neighborhood, the Rialto fell into decline and vanished.  An additional factor in the district’s decline was that many Jewish immigrants did not teach their children Yiddish in order to help them assimilate into American society.  Today there is only one Yiddish theater company in the East Village.  There is also the Yiddish Theater Walk of Fame where the Second Avenue Deli used to be at the corner of 10th Street and Second Avenue.  You can see the former Yiddish Rialto on the Sights by Sam tour, “Lost in the Lower East Side.”

Manhattan Civic Center

New York has been the largest city in our country since the adoption of the U.S. Constitution.  The city covers over 300 miles and has over eight million people within its borders.  Governing this city is no easy task.

In addition to an elected mayor, comptroller, and public advocate (who acts as a watchdog/ombudsman for the citizens of the city), a 51-member city council governs the city.  The council meets in a stately building located at the heart of the Manhattan Civic Center.  Built in 1811, the building was designed by Joseph-Francois Mangin and John McComb Jr..  City Hall was built at the then Northern edge of the city.  It was originally clad in marble on three sides–the northern side used another type of stone as some in the city government felt the city would never expand far enough north where people would notice (the building was restored in Alabama limestone in the 1950s).  The building is done up in a French Renaissance style on the outside.  The interior has a more English Georgian style.  The building also has a portrait collection worth millions of dollars.  The governor’s room, originally for use when the governor of New York was in the city, now houses a desk used by George Washington and a desk used by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia (if you take my tours, you will know he is my favorite mayor).  The building is the meeting place for the City Council and used to have a second chamber for the Board of Estimate, which was declared unconstitutional in the 1980s.  The Board’s chambers are now used by the Mayor of New York.

Across City Hall Park from the City Hall is the Municipal Building.  This hulking edifice containing 1 million square feet of office space and housing a couple thousand workers was built to consolidate numerous city departments.  The building, opened in 1916 and designed by the firm of McKim, Mead, and White, is 580’ tall, has a subway station built into it, and arches made out of Guastavino tiling on the outside.  The building also has a statue at the top, the gold-covered Civic Fame, sculpted by Adolph Weinman, which symbolizes the union of the five boroughs in 1898.  The five pointed crown is evident of this.

The Municipal Building also contains one of the most unique gift shops in the city–the CityStore, which being run by the city, has gifts such as park signage, taxi medallions, and municipal books that are difficult to obtain elsewhere.

There are numerous court buildings in the area, but that will be the subject of another entry at another time.  You can learn about these on a Sights by Sam tour of Lower Manhattan.

Upper West Side

Extending on the west side of Manhattan and bounded by 59th Street to the south, the Hudson River to the west, 110th Street to the north, and Eighth Avenue/Central Park West to the east, the Upper West Side is one of the largest neighborhoods on Manhattan in terms of real estate and with a population nearing 200,000, is one of the more sizably-populated neighborhoods in the borough.

The Upper West Side was sparsely settled through most of the early part of New York’s history.  Broadway was cut through the neighborhood.  A great amount of settlement began in the period after the Civil War, when New York grew and the street grid pushed northward.  Many brownstones and apartment buildings were built—especially after the arrival of elevated railroads and subways in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Along Central Park, there exists a very fashionable area where upscale apartment buildings such as the Dakota and the San Remo are located.  The largest house on Manhattan, the 75-room Schwab Mansion, used to be located on Riverside Drive between 73rd and 74th Streets.  This mansion was torn down after World War II.  The neighborhood is also defined as being bounded by both Central Park, and a great portion of the 172 acre Riverside Park, which runs alongside the Hudson River.  The neighborhood is mostly residential.  Exceptions to this are some grand hotels along the southern edge around Columbus Circle and 59th Street, the Lincoln Center on Broadway and the low-60s, and the headquarters of ABC on 66th Street.

Today, the Upper West Side is known for being a cultural hub.  It is in this neighborhood that one can find the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the American Museum of Natural History, and the New-York Historical Society, among many other cultural institutions.  In terms of famous residents, the neighborhood is home to such personalities as Tina Fey and Denzel Washington.  Some other famous people associated with the Upper West Side include Woody Allen (through many of his early movies) and Jerry Seinfeld (both his longtime home in real life and the neighborhood where Seinfeld was set).  This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour—and a tour of this neighborhood can be done on request (go to sightsbysam.com for more details).

Cherry Lane Theater

Along with London, New York is one of the centers of English-speaking theater in the world.  The most well-known part of this industry in New York are Broadway theaters, which produce original and revival productions of musicals and other shows.  Broadway theaters are  also a significant economic generator for the city.  Often, the incubators for Broadway shows are the so-called “Off-Broadway” theaters that have more experimental productions or those by new and emerging writers or actors.  While there are many Off-Broadway theaters in the city, one of the most famous is the Cherry Lane Theater in Greenwich Village.

Founded in 1924, the Cherry Lane Theater is the longest-running Off Broadway theater in the city.  According to the theater’s history, the building was originally used as a box factory before being converted into its present form.  Noted poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was among the founders of the theater—along with the Provincetown Players.  Over the years, there have been many famous writers who have had plays performed such as Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill, John dos Passos, Gertrude Stein, and T.S. Elliott, among others.  In terms of actors, Cary Grant, John Barrymore, James Earl Jones, and Gene Hackman have all performed in plays at the theater.  In 1996, Angelina Fiordellisi bought the theater and made numerous renovations to the performance areas in addition to starting a mentoring program for new playwrights.  There are two theaters in the complex: a 179 seat main stage and a 60 seat studio theater.

Today, the Cherry Lane Theater still hosts performances by new and emerging playwrights and actors.  This institution helps to carry on the artistic legacy of Greenwich Village and still continues to be a place for new actors and playwrights to gain exposure.  With the location of the theater in the heart of Greenwich Village, it is hard for the setting of the theater itself to be more ideal or idyllic.  You are able to see the Cherry Lane Theater on an “Around the Villages” tour offered by Sights by Sam.

Real Estate in the City

One of the great foundation myths/stories of New York is that Dutch governor Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan Island, a narrow, rocky island at the edge of the known world in 1625, for the equivalent of $26 of glass beads and clocks given to the Leni-Lenape tribe.  Some say the Native Americans won out on the deal as they had no concept of ownership or that the land was that of another tribe and happily walked away with their new goods.  Either way, it cemented the notion that real estate in New York is one of the most important parts of the city’s history and economy.  While this entry attempts to explain some of the history and trends with real estate in the city, it is by no means authoritative.

As the supply of land is finite and New York has been the preeminent city and entrepôt for the U.S. since the 1800s, having enough room to house people who want to and have to live in the city has been one of the most pressing issues in the city’s history.  Because of these factors, the price of housing in New York is among the highest in the country.  It is estimated that there are nearly 3.4 million units of housing in the city (ranging from single room apartments to mansions).  A 2016 survey conducted by the city showed that Queens had a vacancy rate in housing of around two percent while Manhattan had a four percent housing vacancy (the Bronx and Brooklyn fell between these two while Staten Island’s was not reported).  The supply of housing is controlled by various factors such as land use regulations and if a property may be in a historic area (as landmarked properties cannot be redeveloped).  The increasing gentrification of certain neighborhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens has also created pressure on housing in the city as lower income individuals have a harder time finding housing.  Additionally, the arrival of many super tall residential structures in Midtown Manhattan where many units are occupied only part time by their owners has created controversy as well.

In terms of commercial real estate, the prices of commercial real estate has mirrored greater economic trends.  The firm of Prudential has shown that real estate prices (for commercial structures)  in New York have followed greater economic trends over time (rising in boom times and falling during recessions or depressions) but have continued to inch upward.  In terms of commercial real estate, the city also has to compete with other American and global cities to provide the best amenities for businesses, resulting in the building and renovating of many commercial buildings.  Although debated hotly in academic circles, some social scientists feel that a boom of commercial skyscraper construction is the sign of an impending recession or depression.

To many around the world, New York represents not only freedom, but also a safe haven—as shown in the amount of real estate holdings by individuals or corporations based outside of the city and the country.  It has been calculated that the average price per square foot in Manhattan is around $1400—with some areas of the island reaching double that amount.  Both real estate and associated construction are also an important economic generator for the city and thousands of workers.  This is the type of information that you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Law and Order in the City

The New York Police Department (NYPD) works to uphold the law in all 300+ square miles of the city.  The NYPD has 49,500 officers (additionally there are 120 equine officers and 34 canine officers) working out of 77 precincts, 12 transit divisions, and 9 public housing division districts.  The NYPD has been portrayed in countless books, movies, and television shows.  While the department has come under fire from time to time, “New York’s Finest” help to protect the city for native and visitor alike.  Eleven other city agencies and several state and federal law enforcement agencies also have a presence in the city (including the Port Authority Police officers you will see at airports, and around Port Authority property such as the World Trade Center complex and the bus station).

In the 1600s, the Dutch organized a night watch to patrol the city.  Judgment was often fierce and brutal–with banishment a particularly favored penalty.  Law enforcement remained a very informal affair until the 1840s, when the city organized a municipal police force.  For a time, there were two police forces: the municipal force and a New York State-dominated Metropolitan police force in the 1850s.  As a result of a massive riot between the two police forces and street gangs in 1857, the municipal police were disbanded and law enforcement reformed into the NYPD.  There have been ups and downs in the department’s history: Theodore Roosevelt was police commissioner in the late 1800s.  Endemic corruption n the department was an issue of concern in the early 1930s and in the 1970s.  Starting in the 1990s, the NYPD has been lauded in its role in helping to make New York one of the safest large cities in the country.

The NYPD maintained a small but fascinating museum in Lower Manhattan that documented the history of the department and hosted several events—including an auto show consisting of old police cars and the NYPD’s Emergency Services Unit (SWAT team) vehicles.  This museum was sadly damaged during Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and is looking to reopen in the near future.  This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Federal Hall

Ninety miles down the New Jersey Turnpike from New York lies Philadelphia, the former capital of the United States and the site of Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were debated upon and agreed.  Many visitors to Philadelphia may not realize that the first government of the United States (after the American Revolution) was based out of New York City.  The seat of the government was Federal Hall.

Federal Hall stands at the confluence of Wall Street and Broad Street in Lower Manhattan, within very very easy walking distance of the New York Stock Exchange and the House of Morgan.  The structure that stands here now was built as a Custom House in 1842.  This building was designed by John Frazee in a neoclassical style.  It later became a subtreasury annex before being declared a National Historic Site in the 1930s.  Today, it contains exhibits about the National Park System in New York City and memorabilia associated with George Washington being inaugurated as president, including the Bible he used during the inauguration ceremony.

The original building for Federal Hall, however, was built in 1700 and served as the City Hall for New York.  It housed the council and the courts.  It was here that the Zenger trial of 1735 took place, which helped to establish the precedence of Freedom of the Press.  After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the United States under the Articles of Confederation met here, where they voted to approve the Northwestern Ordinance of 1787—annexing several new territories west of the Appalachian Mountains into the U.S. to become states eventually.  When the Constitution was ratified, Congress met here for only one year in 1789, where they approved the Bill of Rights and the Judiciary Act.  When Congress moved to Philadelphia the next year (in preparation to move to Washington, D.C.), the building became the City Hall of New York again.  The original structure was demolished in 1812 when the current City Hall was completed.

While not as high in the minds of many visitors as Independence Hall, Federal Hall is a place of important historic pilgrimage as many of the rights that all Americans enjoy today were secured in this important building.  You can see the statue of President George Washington and the imposing facade of Federal Hall on a Sights by Sam “Foundation of New York” tour.

Keeping the City Clean

With over eight million people in New York, keeping the city clean is a herculean task.  Every day, 10,500 tons of trash and 1760 tons of recyclables are collected for disposal or reprocessing by the city.   An additional 13,000 tons is collected from businesses or commercial buildings by private waste haulers.  The refuse is mostly exported to Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia, among other states.  With garbage disposal becoming the single largest line-item expense on the municipal budget and legislators in destination states looking to tighten the importation of refuse into their states, the city is seeking to create no landfill waste by 2030.  The results of this initiative remain to be seen.

Like many large cities around the world, New York’s problem with waste has been a constant problem through its entire history.  In the colonial era, citizens allowed pigs to roam free on the streets to help keep refuse at bay.  This did not work well as disease epidemics were rampant during the colonial era as a result of uncollected refuse and unclean conditions.  While commercial and wealthier areas hired private companies to cart garbage away, most of the streets of the city were covered in assorted filth.  Citizens of the city had been resigned to this nasty circumstance as a fact of life—especially in poorer areas like the Lower East Side.  Unified garbage collection was started when the city formed a Department of Sanitation (DSNY, founded as the Department of Street Cleaning) in the 1880s.  In 1894, George Waring was appointed commissioner.  During his tenure, the city really cleaned up as the department was reorganized along military lines and the city given a good cleaning.

The DSNY works around the clock to keep the city clean with 2230 sanitation vehicles, 450 mechanical brooms used to sweep the streets, and 7,200 workers who keep the city clean.  A deposit law in New York State also encourages people to turn in recyclables (and led to an army of “canners” collecting discarded beverage containers all over the city).  Since no neighborhood wants to exclusively host trash facilities, DSNY garages and transfer stations are interspersed throughout the city, even in more upmarket areas such as the Upper East Side and Chelsea.  As mentioned earlier, there are no landfills in the city, although ones existed at Fresh Kills in Staten Island and Dead Horse Bay in Brooklyn (two of the more apt names for landfill locations, even though “kill” is Dutch for creek).  While you will probably only see a garbage truck or two or a sanitation team on a Sights by Sam  tour, it is important to remember where your waste goes while in the city.