New York - Lower Manhattan Tip

Ground Zero Museum Workshop is a good way to learn about the recovery efforts associated with the destruction of the World Trade Center. It can be a good first stop for those who are planning on seeing the former site.

The museum features a collection of 9/11 photographs, artifacts from the recovery, items worn by recovery workers, actual tools used for digging, and a 12 minute film. There are many images, some of which are very large and impactful, along with various artifacts and the stories behind them.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian is home to over a million works and documents concerning Native American peoples and their customs. Much of the collection, most of which is in storage at any given time, was acquired by George Gustav Heye. The museum is housed in the neoclassical Alexander Hamilton Customs House. Exhibits change frequently.

The National Museum of the American Indian also hosts numerous public programs including music and dance performances, films, and symposia. It works closely with Native Peoples to preserve and protect their cultures traditions and expressions.

Built in 1790, New York is the world's most important stock exchange. Located on, and closely associated with Wall Street, it has survived bear markets, bull markets, depressions, recessions, tickertape and computer crashes. The building, with its neo-Classical facade and Corinthian columns is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is often seen in photos, with a giant American flag hanging in front of the columns.

Stretching for 8 city blocks from Broadway to South Street is the world famous Wall Street. This street and the surrounding area are home to some of the most important exchanges in the world including the New York Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ, and the New York Mercantile Exchange. Also located nearby are the impressive Trinity Church and the Federal Reserve. Wall Street is a popular tourist attraction and it is common to see a large number of tourists walking around craning their necks looking up at the impressive sky scrapers.

The Custom House is one of the city's finest Beaux Arts designs, absorbing the talents of the best sculptors and artists of the early twentieth century. Notable features include the 44 Ionic columns out front, murals by Reginald Marsh decorating the marble rotunda and a portrait of Garbo at the entrance. Today the Custom House contains the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. The museum takes up the first three floors of the Custom House, while other floors house government agency offices.

The building has been featured in numerous movies and television shows.

The Barclay-Vesey Building was designed by McKenzie, Voorhes & Gmelin to house the New York Telephone Company. The design emphasized the vertical and the modern. The 52,000 square feet building occupies a full, parallelogram-shaped city block. Today, the building is admired for its bold, geometric massing, flattened, non-historical ornamentation and verticality.

Bowling Green is a triangular plot north of Battery Park. It was New York's earliest park and later became a cattle market then a bowling ground, hence its name. A statue of King George III stood here until the signing of the Declaration of Independence when it was hacked to pieces and smelted for ammunition.

The Castle Clinton National Monument was built in 1807 as a defense post and later became a theater, then an immigration center processing 7.5 million newcomers. Now, it is a monument and visitors' center for the National Park Service. The monument is also a point of departure for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

The Cunard Building has a Renaissance facade and its hall contains murals and frescoes including maps of the world and a decorated ceiling. The main floor served as a ticket office for the Cunard Passenger Ship Line.

ATTRACTION IS CLOSED.

The Downtown Athletic Club is an art deco creation from 1926, featuring a front arcade of Moorish-flavored arches and a facade of salt-glazed tiles in burnt orange and brown.

This is one of 12 Federal Reserve banks. It issues U.S. currency, and, five stories below ground, houses gold owned by the nations of the world. Completed in 1924, the bank occupies a full block and is liberally adorned with wrought-iron grillwork and inspired by the palaces of the Italian Renaissance.

The Fraunces Tavern Museum is New York's only remaining block of eighteenth-century buildings. The museum contains an exact replica of the original Fraunces Tavern, first built in 1719. Here, George Washington said farewell to his officers in 1783.

The rooms are well laid out and will be of interest to history buffs. Changing exhibits feature a variety of themes from Colonial America and the Revolutionary War, to more current events such as the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The Museum of American Finance, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, seeks to empower people to better understand risk and reward, thereby making better financial decisions. The Museum, as of January 2008, is located in the 30,000 sq. ft. historic, former headquarters of the Bank of New York at 48 Wall Street featuring permanent, interactive exhibitions on the Financial Markets, Money, Banking, Entrepreneurship and Alexander Hamilton, as well as a gallery for changing exhibits.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage celebrates the lives of those killed during the Holocaust. It chronicles the twentieth-century Jewish experience through photos, artifacts and videotaped narratives. The focus is on personal experiences as told by survivors. Their stories, and objects from their lives, help to create a meaningful experience for visitors rather than simply fact based information. There is a permanent collection, special exhibitions, and the Edmond J. Safra Hall which is a theater used for performances, films, and readings.

THIS ATTRACTION IS CLOSED PERMANENTLY.

New York Unearthed has archaeological exhibits about New York City that piece together 6,000 years of history through dioramas and artifacts. The museum is especially popular with children.

Most appropriately, the Skyscraper Museum is located in New York City where skyscrapers are a huge part of the city's history. The museum examines the various faces of skyscrapers, as "objects of design, products of technology, sites of construction, investments in real estate, and places of work and residence".Temporary exhibits feature different themes related to skyscrapers that include their history and their future, offering a unique looking at some of the world's most important buildings.

The original Trinity Church was built in 1696-7 and was the first site of King's College (Columbia University). Alexander Hamilton and Robert Fulton are buried in the church. It is one of America's oldest Anglican parishes. The church's design marks the beginning of the best period of Gothic Revival in America. The current building was consecrated in 1846 and is on the National Register of Historical Places. The churchyard is a popular spot for people watching and a pleasant place to escape the hustle and bustle of the big city. In the cemetery many famous people are buried and the oldest grave dates from 1681. The church publishes a pamphlet that guides visitors through the graves and points out historical facts.