A walk downtown

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I decided to take advantage of the slow work day, and rainy skies to sight see. Armed with my NYU meal plan card, I got a sandwich, a ginger ale, and I started to walk. First off was Washington Square. It's a little park about a quarter mile southwest of the dorm.


I had a half of my sandwich, and walked down to a little doggy-park still within Washington Square where people can let their dogs run free. New Yorkers have an insane amount of dogs. I see more dogs here than I ever would have guessed. One bloodhound (I think?) walked up to me at the fence, and gave me a "Bahhh-whooof!", so I took his picture, and he sauntered away.



I took off west, and got to my typical subway enterence on west 4th street.



I had originally planned to go uptown to Penn Plaza (where WABC is) and take some pictures of where I work. However, I found myself on the platform for trains heading downtown. Instead of taking the route underneath to get an uptown train, I decided to head south.

Here's the train I took:



I accidentally took the train too far south. After Nassau street, I realized the train was going a long way, and it came to me that we were under the east river, headed to Brooklyn. Again, this is something that anyone who's travelled here would know, but I'm still very new. I stepped out into Brooklyn, and it was pouring rain. Realizing that I still needed an umbrella, I grabbed a small one from a drug store, and strolled around a bit. Finally, I took the train back into Manhattan, and wandered into the Financial District.

Soon, I found myself down a street I recognized, but not because I had been there.

I was on Wall Street. On my left was the old Federal Hall, where George Washington was sworn in as the first President. Take a look at this:


Just down the street was the New York Stock Exchange. There's some pretty heavy security around the whole area, but the history of the corner is amazing. The J.P. Morgan building is there as well. Here's a couple pictures from the corner.




I then walked southeast to the east river. Mind you, this is not clean water. I pulled out the second half of my sandwich to eat here, but the smell of the water made it quite a bit less appetizing. Still, the view behind me of Manhattan, and ahead of me of Brooklyn was amazing.


I walked up the water's edge towards some piers, where I saw a couple old sail boats. One of them was The Peking, one of the last large sailing ships. It sailed from Germany in 1911, and picked up nitrates in western South America to replenish Europe's depleted soil. However, with WWI, and steam ships it became quickly obsolete, and was docked for awhile in England. I think the sign said it came to NYC in the 1970's.



After that, I headed west, back into the heart of Manhattan. Before getting on a train to take me back to my original station, I took a few photos, and this video of a street dancing group:





There's a quick taste of lower Manhattan for you!