Category: Blog

Studio Museum in Harlem

On 125th Street is the Studio Museum in Harlem, an art museum dedicated to displaying artwork completed by African Americans and people of African descent from all over the world. It sees thousands of visitors annually and anchors a stretch of 125th Street that is close to the Apollo Theater and the Hotel Theresa.

Founded in 1968, the museum was established by African American artists and residents of Harlem. The museum has an emphasis on contemporary art and has a collection of over 2,000 pieces of artwork in its permanent collection. The Studio Museum is known for its temporary exhibits that showcase everything from retrospectives on famous African American artists to displaying artwork from local students. It is also known for having an artists-in-residence program that showcases emerging artists and their work.

The Studio Museum is housed in a former bank building on 125th Street and is known for its American flag in the colors of the African American flag (black, red, and green) flying over its entrance. This museum can be seen at the end of a Sights by Sam “Upper Manhattan” tour and is the type of information that is presented on all Sights by Sam tours.

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

Connecting the boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge spans 13,700 total feet (with a main span of 4260 feet) and is one of the longest suspension bridges in the United States and in the world. The bridge is instrumental in connecting the two boroughs, forming a major transportation corridor between the mainland U.S. and Long Island, as well as leading to the development of Staten Island.

The bridge was completed in 1964 after five years of construction. It was designed by Othmar Ammann, who also designed the George Washington Bridge and the Bayonne Bridge, among others. The bridge gained its hyphenated name due to lobbying by Italian-American citizens to name the structure after famous explorer Giovanni da Verrazano, who discovered New York Harbor in 1524 and crossed through the Narrows with his ship. It sees nearly 200,000 vehicles crossing it per day and remains popular with truckers—who do not pay the toll that people traveling west on the bridge do as they leave the city via one of the Manhattan crossings into New Jersey.

The Verazzano-Narrows Bridge is indeed an engineering marvel. The towers of the bridge are not exactly parallel to each other as they had to account for the curvature of the Earth as the bridge was so long. Its construction helped lead to a population boom on Staten Island, from slightly over 220,000 in 1960 to nearly 475,000 today. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Holiday Shopping in New York

With the holiday shopping season in full swing, New York is a premier destination for many shoppers—some who plan trips just to come into the city at this time of the year to shop at many department stores and specialty shops.  New York has been at the forefront of American shopping since the 1800s. 

As a major port, New York has naturally been a center for people buying and selling goods.  In the late 1800s, a shopping district nicknamed the “Ladies Mile,” which contained several large shops, sprouted up between Union and Madison Squares.  This time period also witnessed the creation of department stores—the first being A. T.  Stewart and Company in 1848, which separated goods into different departments of the store and had fixed prices for all merchandise (eliminating haggling).  Other department stores such as B. Altman’s, Gimbel’s, Lord and Taylor, and Macy’s would also start in the following years.  As New York solidified its position as the largest city in the U.S. after 1898, many national chains would locate flagship stores in the city.  

In the modern era, shopping in person has been supplanted by online shopping and brings up images of Black Friday at malls and shopping centers across the country, but New York remains famous as a destination for consumers to buy goods.  In addition to many great shops, many of the flagship stores along Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue have Christmas and holiday displays that are annual works of art.  This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour—in addition to my Christmas and Holiday Tour, which can be booked at sightsbysam.com.

Queensboro Bridge

Built in 1909, the Queensboro Bridge (also called the 59th Street Bridge or the Ed Koch Bridge) spans the East River and connects Queens with Manhattan. The bridge was the third across the East River and designed by Gustav Lindenthal, with collaboration by Henry Hornbostel and Leffert Buck, who designed the Williamsburg Bridge. The Manhattan approach to the bridge has space under it done up in Guastavino tiling.

The Queensboro Bridge is over 3700 feet long and is distinctive as it is a cantilever bridge. It connects two formerly industrial areas—the East River frontage of Manhattan and Long Island City in Queens. The bridge also has anchorages on Roosevelt Island. Between 1930 and 1955, an elevator existed midway on the bridge to allow streetcar passengers to access Roosevelt Island (streetcars would stop midway on the bridge to pick up and drop off passengers who would then access the island this way). Like other bridges in New York, this bridge suffered from decay, but was restored between the late 1980s and 2000s. It was named after former Mayor of New York Ed Koch in 2010.

Today, over 170,000 vehicles use the nine lanes of traffic on this bridge to pass between the two boroughs daily. As there is no toll for this bridge, its traffic volume is considerable. It is believed (though unsubstantiated) that one of the first indoor baseball games took place under the Manhattan end of the bridge in the 1910s using the Queensboro Bridge as a “roof.”This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

The Little Red Lighthouse

New York is full of landmarks. There are many famous ones such as the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Unisphere, to name but a few of the most well known ones. There are also smaller landmarks that are important to many, such as the Little Red Lighthouse in Upper Manhattan.

Located in Fort Tryon Park, the Little Red Lighthouse was placed in its current location in 1921 by the U.S. Coast Guard. It had initially stood at Sandy Hook in New Jersey. After the construction of the George Washington Bridge, the lighthouse was decommissioned and slated for demolition. In 1942, the book, The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde Swift, was published about the lighthouse. In the book, the little red lighthouse feels overshadowed by the bridge, but the bridge helps out the lighthouse and reminds it that everyone has an important job. Because of the popularity of the book, children from all over the U.S. wrote letters to the Coast Guard to save the lighthouse. The lighthouse was saved in 1951 after it was given by the federal government to New York City.

The lighthouse is 40 feet tall and makes a great stop while visiting the George Washington Bridge or the Cloisters Museum in Upper Manhattan. Although the children’s book that made the lighthouse famous is not as well known among today’s kids, it is still believed by natives and visitors young and old—and is a popular picnic spot. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Your City and New York: Pittsburgh

Between 1735 and 1768, the First Earl of Chatham, William Pitt the Elder, was a prominent member of the British Parliament. He was known in his later years for arguing for leniency on behalf of the British American colonists after the French and Indian War. For his legacy, New Yorkers named Chatham Square, now in Chinatown, after him. Pennsylvanians named their second largest city, Pittsburgh, after him. The Steel City, located about six hours away from New York, has many interesting links to the Empire City.

Pittsburgh was founded at the confluence of the Ohio River, where the Allegheny and the Monongahela Rivers come together at Confluence Point. This is where Fort Pitt was established. Like the Dutch building Fort Amsterdam at the end of Manhattan, this placement gave the founders of each city command of the river and allowed for settlers to be safe from predation. Over time, Pittsburgh would become the center of steel manufacturing in the country—with a great deal of this ending up in skyscrapers in New York. The center of Pittsburgh, near the confluence, would soon be built up with skyscrapers and suspension bridges, resembling Manhattan. While Pittsburgh has suffered due to deindustrialization, it is on the upswing and becoming a great destination.

As a major manufacturing center, Pittsburgh would have great contact with New York over the years. Some of the great figures in Pittsburgh history such as Henry Frick and Andrew Carnegie would endow leading New York cultural institutions (the Frick Museum and Carnegie Hall). In terms of buildings, Pittsburgh does have many skyscrapers in its downtown, giving it a “Mini Manhattan” appearance. While this comparison may seem superficial at first, the architectural firm that built the U.S. Steel Tower in Pittsburgh, Harrison and Abramovitz, also designed significant sections of the United Nations complex and the Lincoln Center. Both cities also have great pride in their universities and hospitals. Both cities are also unique with having their own regional dialect of English.

If you are from the Pittsburgh region and want to see sights in New York that have a significant connection to Pittsburgh, please consider booking a special tour with Sights by Sam.

Harlem Hellfighters

New York City has a storied history in the history of our country’s wars. In addition to being a major manufacturing center for armaments and uniforms in past conflicts and the flashpoint for many important Revolutionary War battles, the men and women serving from the city have been pivotal to the courses of war. One of the most important and distinctive units to come from New York was the 369th Infantry Regiment, also known as the “Harlem Hellfighters.”

In 1917, the Hellfighters were formed from a New York National Guard unit to serve in Europe for the U.S. during World War I. Because of segregationist policies in the U.S. armed forces at the time, the nearly all African American unit was seconded to the French Army when they arrived in Europe. The French welcomed the new soldiers as there was no segregation in the French forces and they needed more manpower to bolster their nearly exhausted armies that had been fighting since 1914 (this is why many depictions of the Hellfighters show them wearing French-style “Adrian” helmets). From May to November of 1918, the Hellfighters served in combined Allied offensives where they served in the Second Battle of the Marne and Bellau Woods, gaining a reputation for rapidly decimating Central Powers forces in battle. They reached the Rhine River on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918. In honor of their bravery, many officers and men earned several important decorations, including Medals of Honor and Distinguished Service Crosses from the U.S., and several French Croix de Guerre medals.

Among some of the other superlatives, the Hellfighters were one of the few units for the Allies in World War I that never lost ground taken or had a soldier captured by the enemy. The unit was welcomed home as heroes, marching in a parade being cheered by New Yorkers of all races. For their heroism, the Hellfighters have a monument in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood as a testament to their bravery in battle and willingness to defend our country. The unit has been the subject of renewed interest in recent years—including its portrayal in a popular graphic novel and the renaming of Harlem River Drive in honor of the Hellfighters. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

New York Stock Exchange

New York is synonymous with the financial industry. Most major American and international banks and financial institutions have a presence in the city. Along with London and Tokyo, New York forms one of the three major financial centers of the world. A lot of the reason for this is that the city is the location of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the largest in the country.

The NYSE owes its origins to the city as a major trading center. The port of New York meant that ships laden with goods from all over the world were coming into the port and commodities from the city’s vast hinterlands were coming down the Hudson River and from Long Island into the port. After the founding of the United States, 24 traders in securities signed an agreement on May 17,1792. This agreement formed the basis of the NYSE. Over time, the NYSE expanded its scope of trade and eclipsed other American stock exchanges in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. It has met in its current location since 1865 and in its current building since 1903. The NYSE survived several dark moments through its history such as the crash of 1929 that ushered in the Great Depression, and sizable crashes in 1987 and in the first decade of the 2000s.

Today, the NYSE is open during weekdays on non-holidays between 9:30AM and 4:00PM and trades hundreds of billions of dollars worth of stocks per day. Most trading has been computerized, in contrast to the image of traders yelling and waving on the bustling floor of the exchange. The building has not been open to the public since 2001. Visitors to the city can take my “Foundation of New York” tour can see the NYSE and Wall Street.

New York Public Library

The New York Public Library (NYPL) system contains over 53 million items in its collection, making it second to only the Library of Congress in the U.S. and the largest city library system in the world. The NYPL covers the boroughs of Manhattan, Bronx, and Staten Island (both Brooklyn and Queens have independent library systems). There are 88 branch libraries in the NYPL’s coverage area—-in addition to a few research libraries.

The NYPL was founded in 1895 as the result of a merger between the Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Libraries. To house the main branch, the firm of Carrere and Hastings was commissioned to build an impressive beaux-arts structure at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street (over the decommissioned Croton Reservoir). The structure was built between 1897 and 1911, and contains 15 million items in 646,000 square feet. The NYPL recently completed a renovation that will bring it into the next century.

The star of the show at the main branch is the Rose Reading Room, which has been depicted in numerous movies. Another famous feature of the building are the two lions: Patience (south) and Fortitude (north). The two lions were named by Mayor LaGuardia after the two virtues that he felt New Yorkers would need to survive the Great Depression.

The NYPL Main Branch houses several important items such as a Gutenberg Bible, historic maps, and a historic collection of take-out menus. The main branch also has several exhibits and artworks that are available for the public to view at no charge. These exhibits are worth the time if you have a moment to see them. The NYPL main branch is also next to Bryant Park, which offers a small green oasis in one of the more hectic sections of Midtown. The Main Branch of the NYPL can be seen on a Sights by Sam tour.

Madison Square Garden

The home of the Knicks, Rangers, Liberty, and the site of countless events, Madison Square Garden (MSG) was opened in 1968 and is the oldest and busiest event center in the region. The arena, which can seat between 18,000 and 20,000, is the fourth to bear that name.

The first two incarnations of MSG sit where the New York Life Insurance Tower sit—at the northeast corner of Madison Square Park. Entrepreneur P.T. Barnum had a hand in building the first MSG, which stood from 1879 to 1890. It was demolished after it was deemed impractical (it had no roof) and replaced by a structure designed by McKim, Mead, and White, which was pattered off of the Cathedral of Seville in Spain. The Second MSG was noted for being the site of the murder of Stanford White, its designer, by Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Thaw, due to a love triangle with Thaw’s wife, Evelyn Nesbit. The resultant legal trial would be dubbed the “Trial of the Century” and lead to Thaw being committed to a mental institution. This version of MSG was abandoned in 1925 as the arena was rebuilt on the West Side on 8th Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, and in use between 1925 and 1968. This MSG was built by New York Ranger’s owner Tex Rickard and was the site of many famous boxing matches. Un-memorably, the third MSG was the site of a pro-Nazi rally in 1939 that was held by the German-American Bund.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the current MSG was built as the result of the demolition of Penn Station. Being one of the oldest arenas in the NBA and NHL, this structure has been rehabilitated and renovated several times. Due to a desire by the city to rebuild Penn Station, it is entirely possible that MSG will be relocated within the next decade—likely to near the Jacob Javits Convention Center or to property currently owned by the U.S. Postal Service. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.