Category: Blog

New York Botanical Garden

In the Bronx covering 250 acres is the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). This living museum contains one million living plants. Although not on the immediate itinerary of most visitors, its holiday train show and beauty in spring and fall should be seen by visitors to the city.

The NYBG was founded in 1891. It sits on land once part of the vast Lorillard Estate, which was set aside on the freshwater Bronx River (the only freshwater river in the city limits). Wealthy New Yorkers felt that the NYBG would help to improve the city and preserve a pristine area of the city in the face of rapid expansion of the city. The collection of plants encompasses several habitats from all over the world in addition to one of the only old-growth forest groves left in the city. Many specimens are located in the large Enid Haupt Conservatory, which was completed in 1902 and gained its current name in 1978 after Mrs. Haupt gave money to save it from demolition.

The NYBG is not only for displaying plants, but also contains large botanical research facilities as well as the largest library in the U.S. specifically concerning plants and related matter. There is also a large facility on the grounds that has frozen DNA samples for research purposes. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

The High Line

Since 2009, the High Line in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan has delighted visitors and natives alike, helped to revitalize a formerly derelict area of the borough, and become one of the most innovative parks in the city. This linear park has a colorful history.

Before the arrival of the High Line, the Meatpacking District was similar to the Chicago Stockyards or the “Porkopolis” nickname of Cincinnati in that it was a major center of butchering and food processing. Major rail lines ran trains down tracks on 10th Avenue, leading to many people getting crushed by the trains (despite the presence of “Chelsea Cowboys” warning people of the trains). By the 1930s, the city decided that the tracks needed to be removed, leading to the construction of the High Line, which originally went from Spring Street to 34th Street. The track, which was so successful, caused major food processors such as Nabisco to build buildings around the tracks so they could offload freight. With the advent of more reliable trucking after World War II, the High Line declined in importance until the last train ran in 1980. While some sections were demolished, the present section was deemed too expensive for the city to remove. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, neighborhood activists successfully fought and won to have the viaduct converted into a linear park—similar to one in Paris, France. The park opened in stages in 2009, 2011, 2014, and 2015.

Open every day, the park has caused rapid development in the area with the opening of many new hotels and a spike in neighboring property values. The park has proven so successful that other cities such as Chicago and Philadelphia are eyeing similar proposals to build a High Line-style park. In 2017, Sights by Sam hopes to add a tour that includes the High Line and the Meatpacking District. This area is a must-do for any visitor to the city to see along with the Whitney Museum or while going to nearby shops.

New Years in New York

The turn of the new year is not only a national holiday, but a great day of celebration in New York. In addition to famous displays to mark the new year all over the world, New York differs from many in that there are no fireworks. Due to local ordinance in the city, no fireworks are allowed to be set off within city limits, leading to one of the most unique New Years traditions in the world.

In 1904, the New York Times located to Times Square. To mark the location, the paper had a grand celebration with fireworks to mark the arrival of 1905. This event attracted thousands, but the main place to mark the new year was still in Lower Manhattan. This changed for 1908 when the Times launched the first lightbulb-coated ball to drop down the 151’ pole atop their headquarters at One Times Square. This spectacle soon became the preferred way to ring in the new year (coupled with a fireworks ban that would force this to become the main celebration for the city after supposed problems with fireworks ringing in 1907 that nearly caused a stampede in Lower Manhattan). Over the years, six different balls have been used to ring in the new year. The sixth and newest has been in use since 2009—weighing nearly 12,000 pounds and over 12’ in diameter.

The only time there has not been a ball drop since 1908 was during World War II in 1942 and 1943. Due to blackout restrictions, no lights were allowed. Instead, crowds gathered in Times Square and prayed for the safety of U.S. and Allied soldiers fighting around the world—accompanied by Army sound trucks playing chimes. For this year, as in all years, up to 1.5 million people (along with thousands of NYPD and NY State Troopers) will ring in the new year at Times Square. This is the type of information that you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Port Authority Bus Terminal

On the west side of Midtown is one of the most important transportation centers in the city. The very aptly-named Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT) is managed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Its construction was meant to consolidate the various smaller bus terminals around the city into one unit, of which close to a dozen were believed to exist in the city limits at one point.

Constructed between 1950 and 1979, the PABT has 223 slips to allow large intercity buses to bring passengers into Manhattan. Many of these arrivals and departures are for New Jersey Transit commuter buses that bring thousands of commuters into the city from New Jersey. These commuter buses are bolstered by fleets of smaller buses (jitneys or vans) that help to bring in more people. Long distance buses from the East Coast and all over the country also call on PABT. During the morning, so many buses make their arrival into PABT, which is near the NY entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, that the buses have an exclusive lane from the New Jersey side that brings them directly to the terminal.

With the proliferation of Chinatown buses and other transportation providers operating (sometimes illegally) curbside bus pickup, the city’s Department of Transportation estimates that it would take at least four PABT-sized terminals to completely clear the streets of the city of intercity bus traffic. Although it has been talked about for some time, an immediate solution to crowding at PABT is still several years away. This is the type of information that you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Your City and New York: Baltimore

Less than 200 miles from New York lies the industrial city of Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1729, there are similarities between the Empire City and the Charm City.

Like New York, Baltimore owes its growth to its port. The Port of Baltimore is the 16th largest port in the U.S. (the Port of New York-New Jersey is 3rd). While it is still very much a working port area, Baltimore (like Brooklyn) has reclaimed much of its waterfront for recreational use, such as in the Inner Harbor and the Camden Yards stadium complex. When the Inner Harbor was a functioning port, it was one of the major ports in the country that received immigrants to this country between the late 1800s and early 1900s, rivaling Ellis Island as the point of entry for many arrivals. Immigrants would arrive in the city and be processed before settling in the region or taking the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad west or the Pennsylvania Railroad north or south. As an aside on this, several streetcars preserved at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum have colored glass panes running along the top of the cars, which attempted to help immigrants who could not speak English find their way around town.

For fans of baseball, Baltimore is the origin city for the New York Yankees (who played their first two seasons in the American League as the original Baltimore Orioles before moving up north). The city also has major significance as it was the birthplace of George Herman “Babe” Ruth, the first superstar of the game. Other similarities between the two cities are the trove of Revolutionary War and War of 1812-era sites in the city. Although New York had a grand set of harbor fortifications that were prepared to repel a British assault during the War of 1812 (Castle Clinton, Castle William, and Fort Wood in New York Harbor), they are not quite as famous as Baltimore’s Fort McHenry, which secured its place in American History forever during the Battle of Baltimore—commemorated in the Star Spangled Banner. Although the merits of my next point may be debatable, Baltimore also has a unique dining scene—not only in several enclaves such as a Little Italy, Greektown, and a bar district in the charming Fells Point neighborhood near the Inner Harbor.

There are other commonalities with both cities—including devastating great fires and protests during the Civil War. If you are from the Baltimore region and would like see sights in New York that have a connection to the Charm City, you may be able to arrange this on a customized tour with Sights by Sam.

Jefferson Market Courthouse

In addition to the NYPD and the great collection of civic buildings at Foley Square, there are many symbols of law and order in the city. One of the prettiest is the ornate Jefferson Market Courthouse in Greenwich Village.

Built in 1877 by Calvert Vaux, who designed the structures in Central Park and Prospect Park, the Jefferson Market Courthouse was built on the former site of a fire watchtower for the city. Between 1877 and 1945, this court was the location of the courthouse for the Third District of New York. Being located near Union Square, then the vice district of the city, the court tried cases in the infamous “Tenderloin” district of the city. Prominent trials such as the infamous “Trial of the Century” and the obscenity trial of Mae West in 1927 were among two of the most important cases heard before judges before its closure as a courthouse.

Through adaptive reuse (and the fact it was city property), the city rehabilitated the building into the Jefferson Market Library in 1967, the local branch of the New York Public Library for Greenwich Village. This building is the starting point of my “Around the Villages” tour and one of the highlights of any visit to New York. You can learn even more about this building by taking this tour.

Essex Street Market

Even though Americans live in an age with massive supermarkets and even online delivery of groceries, markets provide character and are part of the identity of a city or a neighborhood. This is true of the Italian Market in Philadelphia or Findlay Market in Cincinnati to give two examples. The same is true of the Essex Market in the Lower East Side of New York.

The Essex Street Market was built in 1940 as part of an urban renewal project. Before this building was built, the streets of Little Italy and the Lower East Side were packed with vendors selling items out of pushcarts. These merchants, mostly Eastern European Jews and Italian immigrants to New York, sold mostly food, but anything that could be sold out of a cart—including books, glasses, and underwear. The sheer number of pushcarts were a significant hazard to cars, trucks, and wagons on Delancey Street and made some side streets in the Lower East Side nearly impassible. Seeking to make the traffic flow better and remove a symbol of labor thought to be demeaning to immigrants, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia banned pushcarts and moved to consolidate the pushcart vendors into several markets throughout the city, including the Essex Street Market.

The market reflects the local population—selling Jewish and Italian goods in the 1940s to 1950s, Puerto Rican goods from the 1960s, and goods geared toward urban professionals that have moved into the Lower East Side since the early 2000’s. The City of New York also spent millions in the 1990s to rehab and renovate the market hall so that it may last for decades more. When in the Lower East Side, the Essex Street Market makes a fun stop for a snack or to see the types of wares on offer. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Dyker Heights Christmas Lights

New York is full of Christmas and holiday traditions. From holiday villages that pop up in all boroughs to the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, there are many traditions that make a winter in New York magical. One of the most breathtaking traditions is in a corner of the southern Brooklyn neighborhood of Dyker Heights and its amazing Christmas lights.

Served by the extreme end of the R Train in Brooklyn, Dyker Heights is known for being a traditionally Italian neighborhood that was first established in the late 1800s as a speculative real estate development. No one is sure of when the tradition of grandiose Christmas displays started, but it is believed that it first started in the 1980s. As newspapers covered the lights, more seemed to proliferate. It is not unknown for some of the residents of the neighborhood to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a display. While almost every house in the neighborhood has at least a string of lights or a wreath on the door, many houses have inflatable characters, multistory nutcrackers, and even sound-and-light displays. Even the firehouse in Dyker Heights is now a part of the tradition. While there is no formal award given for the displays, there is a very real informal competition between many of the households in the neighborhood.

The Christmas lights cover hundreds of homes in the neighborhood, but some of the most grandiose and famous ones are along an eight block area around 12th Avenue. The lights remain up from the week after Thanksgiving to the first weekend in January. The lights and accompanying displays are a delight to young and old and worth the trip to this corner of the city. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Triumph in War: Two Soldier’s Memorials at Grand Army Plaza

The Civil War was the most destructive war in American History. The conflict was commemorated in somber battlefield memorials throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, as well as in several major cities throughout the country. Several large Civil War memorials exist in Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and in Washington, DC, among several other locales. New York contains memorials to the war between the states as well— one in Manhattan and the other in Brooklyn. Ironically enough, both memorials are in Grand Army Plazas—both named after the Union Army’s veteran organization, the Grand Army of the Republic.

The Civil War Memorial in Manhattan at Grand Army Plaza is at the southeastern corner of Central Park. The main statue in the square is a golden equestrian statue of General William T. Sherman, the Civil War general who led the famous March to the Sea in Georgia. The statue was sculpted by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who is known more for designing American coins. While the statue and the plaza are not well known landmarks for this generation of visitors, the Plaza Hotel, located across the street from Grand Army Plaza, is one of the more known landmarks in this part of the city.

The other main Civil War memorial in the city is in Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. Near the entrance to Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Museum, and the main library in Brooklyn, Grand Army Plaza contains one of the largest arches in the city: the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch. This arch was built between 1889 and 1892 and designed by McKim, Mead, and White. It contains several scenes of the Civil War and the reconstruction of the Union after the Civil War.

Other Civil War memorials exist in the city, such as the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in the Upper West Side. With that said, the two Grand Army Plazas and their memorials are awe-inspiring and give testament to the lives lost in preserving our great country. Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan can be seen on a Sights by Sam tour. The plaza in Brooklyn will be a stop on a future Sights by Sam tour.

Your City and New York: Philadelphia

Since the first federal census in 1790 showed that New York was a larger city than Philadelphia, some people of the City of Brotherly Love have felt like they are in the shadow of their neighbors 90 miles to the north. Philadelphians have many reasons to be proud of their city.

Founded in 1682 by William Penn, Philadelphia would be unique among many American cities at the time for its religious tolerance and its orderly street grid (which would be replicated north of Houston Street in New York after 1811). The city is famous for being the birthplace of our country: home of Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were approved. Philadelphia is also known in this era for its most famous son, Benjamin Franklin. From the foundation of our country to today, Philadelphia would become a major industrial center, attracting people from all over the country and immigrants from all over the world.

Although Philadelphia and New York may style themselves as rivals, there is more to bring them together than meets the eye. Philadelphia is a major port at the confluence of two major rivers—as is New York. Both cities have colorful histories—especially in their politics as they were both led by powerful political machines during much of the 1800s and early 1900s. Each city also has a statement museum: the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While Philadelphia was late to the skyscraper race (an informal agreement prevented buildings higher than the city hall for over fifty years), Philly has been making up for lost time with several tall buildings of note. These include One Liberty, which was inspired by the Chrysler Building. In addition, both cities are sites of an Ivy League University: the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, yet also contain a multitude of other high quality universities. Although New York may have a bigger Chinatown than Philadelphia, Philly has a bigger Little Italy in South Philadelphia in and around the Italian Market. Both cities also share a fierce devotion to their respective sports teams.

One Philadelphian who should be beloved by modern art fans is Solomon R. Guggenheim, who worked to build his modern art masterpiece museum in New York. There are many other similarities between these two great cities. If you are from Philadelphia, you can request a special tour to see sights in New York with significance to Philly on a Sights by Sam tour.