Walking the Waterfront

New York‘s Rich Maritime Heritage Lower Manhattan Walking Tour

Many of the most interesting reminders of the city‘s rich maritime heritage are in Lower Manhattan, and a walking tour is an ideal deal way to seek them out.

South Street Seaport Museum, by far the most visible, is perhaps the best place to begin. The museum complex is made up of many parts scattered amongst attractive early 19th -century waterfront buildings that once served the sailing ship industry. The museum interprets the history of the Port of New York in permanent and changing exhibits and with a clustered fleet of historic ships docked at East River Piers 16 and 17. They include the sailing packets PEKING (accessible) and WAVERTREE; cargo schooner PIONEER offering public trips, Ambrose lightship (accessible); Gloucester fishing schooner LETTIE G. HOWARD that once brought its catch to the adjacent Fulton Fish Market; and the cute little tug W. O. DECKER,also offering public trips. A new ocean liner gallery has opened up on Water Street, and the entrance is across the way from the green Titanic Memorial Lighthouse(1913) that once stood atop the former Seaman‘s Church Institute.

Just north in the next block on Water Street, the present Seaman‘s Church Institute, an arm of the Episcopal Church, aids seafarers in trouble, offers courses in navigation and has a ground floor gallery of ship models open weekdays during normal working hours. The entire setting is further dramatized by the Brooklyn Bridge arcing across the East River to the Brooklyn Heights skyline and glass and steel skyscrapers that form an inland backdrop.

Walk up Fulton Street, named after Robert Fulton who established early 19th-century steam ferry services here and in the waters around New York, to Broadway.

The Bowling Green 4&5 Station has a series of black and white drawings printed on mounted metal mural showing an earlier Lower Manhattan.

Walking south on Broadway, at Number 25 Broadway, the former Cunard Line Building, built in 1921, was the city‘s most opulent steamship booking hall. The wonderful murals depicting Cunard‘s world in the foyer and in the main hall are no longer accessible as the most recent occupant, the US Postal service has moved out.

At Number One Broadway, now Citibank, but once the United States Lines Building, you can still see the ‘First Class‘ and ‘Cabin Class‘ lettering over two former booking hall entrances on the south side. Tourist Class (lettering long gone) was at the far corner with steps leading into the basement. Inside the main entrance on Broadway, there is a door marked "Cruises."

Across the street, the former US Custom House (1899-1907), a Beaux Arts extravaganza by architect Cass Gilbert of Woolworth Building fame, houses the Museum of the American Indian (free admission). Make straight for the Rotunda where in the height of the Depression, WPA artist Reginald Marsh, painted a series of panels showing the arrival of a transatlantic liner.

You will see, amongst others, the WASHINGTON being approached by the Sandy Hook pilot boat and a tug, the QUEEN MARY passing the Statue of Liberty and Greta Garbo being interviewed on deck, and the liner NORMANDIE being guided to her berth by half-dozen tugs and unloading a then modern motorcar through the side. Bring a strong flash because the panels are high up and not well lit.

Behind the Custom House, the two-tone green Battery Maritime Building (1909) is the city‘s sole remaining ferry terminal built in elaborate Beaux Arts style. Hoboken’s ferry terminal is similar. Once serving the South Ferry to Brooklyn and most recently the Coast Guard Ferry, it has been restored and the eastern ferry slip serves Governors Island which is open to the public Friday, Saturday and Sunday from late May to mid-October. Next door, a splendid new terminal serves the Staten Island Ferry, a free ride across Upper New York. Generally, service is every half hour, and be sure wait for one of the new ferries for the best ride and the most outdoor deck space, and avoid the SAMUEL I. NEWHOUSE and the ANDREW J. BARBERI sorely lacking in deck space.

Another boat trip from Battery Park to Ellis Island provides a wonderful window into the immigrant experience and on the next island, the base of the Statue of Liberty offers an excellent photo exhibit. Coincidentally, the round fort in Battery Park where you purchase the ferry tickets was also once the immigration depot from 1854 to 1892. Originally the East Battery and later Castle Clinton and its larger counterpart the West Battery or Castle Williams were built in the early 19th century to protect the East River entrance to New York Harbor from attack by the British.

To the right along the Battery sea wall, a sculpture dedicated to the merchant marine at war, shows one man trying to rescue another, and failing. In the background is the working, chiming clock tower at Pier A (1883), the former fireboat headquarters for Marine Company Number One, City of New York. Reconstruction work in a restaurant and visitors' center have been suspended.

The promenade at Battery Park City is a fine location for viewing cruise ships underway. One would never suspect unless you visited here fifty years ago that this stretch was once southern end Manhattan‘s commercial shipping with finger piers stretching from Pier One (United Fruit Line) to 97 (Home Lines & Swedish American Line. Apart from the cruise ship terminal on the West Side and the cruise terminal and freight facilities at Red Hook commercial shipping has moved over to more spacious Port Authority container berths in New Jersey. The miles of finger piers that once jutted into the Hudson River from the West 60‘s to the Battery have either have been torn down or recycled into mostly recreational uses such as open parks and the Chelsea Piers complex in the West 20‘s.

Start the Hudson River walk by climbing the arched platform overlooking Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park and out to the harbor then head north along the waterfront. A subsequent tour will cover the maritime sites along the West Side from Battery Park City north into Riverside Park.

Walking the Brooklyn Waterfront
Fulton Ferry State Park in the Shadows of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges

One of the newest waterfront promenades now extends, with brief interruptions, from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade via Fulton Ferry Landing just south of the Brooklyn Bridge to a brand-new park laid out between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. A new park extension opened in 2010, the first section of Brooklyn Bridge Park, just to the south of the Fulton Ferry Landing. Eventually, the park will extend south to Atlantic Avenue.

The rewards are many, from wonderful views of active East River barge and boat traffic and the always impressive Manhattan skyline to a leafy serene waterfront park for strolling, reading, throwing a Frisbee and picnicking, combined with a look into Brooklyn‘s industrial past and one of the borough‘s emerging new-style commercial and residential neighborhoods.

On the ground floors of several buildings, there are snack, café and full restaurant facilities, and if the day is fine, take a picnic to the benches and tables along East River shore.

1- Consider beginning your walk at the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and walk to the north end then continue through Columbia Heights and down through the Jehovah‘s Witnesses complex to Old Fulton Street and turn left to Fulton Ferry Landing in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge (1883). Note the helpful historical plaques on the railings and on the landing deck and linger a bit to enjoy this delightful spot.

While a ferry began operating from here in the 18^th century, it was Robert Fulton‘s steam ferry Nassau (1814) shuttling between Fulton Street Manhattan and Fulton Street Brooklyn that spurred development on the Brooklyn side. Ferry service ended in 1924, but it has now restarted with a limited New York Water Taxi schedule posted here.

Nearby buildings date from the mid-19^th century, and the most notable are the brick former Eagle Warehouse (1893); a former bank building at No. 1 Front Street (1868-69); former Marine Company 7 firehouse (1924) with a tower (depicted above) for drying fire hoses; and Bargemusic, a longstanding occasional venue for concerts.

2- View is across the East River to Lower Manhattan with a Reinauer tug and barge heading under the Brooklyn Bridge. The Woolworth Building dominates the skyline and the white Verizon Building looms behind the Manhattan tower of the Brooklyn Bridge.

3- To reach the new Fulton Ferry State Park divert slightly through the flower gardens of the River Café, a restaurant (expensive) and bar built partly on a barge, and continue for five minutes along a dreary stretch of Water Street then turn left toward the river just after the brick shell of the Empire Stores (1869). There are restroom facilities just down to the right, and inside the foyer black and white photos show the waterfront in earlier industrial days.

4 - From Fulton Ferry State Park, a Circle Line sightseeing boat is headed up the East River to circumnavigate Manhattan. The Verizon Building looms behind, and both waterside benches and a shaded picnic table are visible.

5 - The view along the path is flanked by the shadow of the Empire Stores, a post-Civil War-era warehouse complex to the left and the curving East River shoreline to the right.

6- A gutted Empire Stores building, the Watchtower Headquarters and a bit of downtown Brooklyn are seen beneath the span of the Brooklyn Bridge. The Empire Stores, once warehousing green coffee beans and tobacco, will eventually become a festival marketplace and cultural center.

7- Looking north, the Brooklyn-side Manhattan Bridge tower (1909) looms in the background to the right of a weeping willow planted in Fulton Ferry State Park.

8- Perhaps the most identifiable building is The Clock Tower (1915), originally Gair Building No. 7 at 1 Main Street. Robert Gair built an industrial empire on the manufacture of corrugated cardboard boxes, and the result was an outstanding complex of twelve early reinforced concrete buildings. The Clock Tower is now condominiums, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle, and the other former Gair buildings (mostly still labeled as such) serve both commercial and artistic but increasingly residential uses.

9 - A park playground with a maritime theme has the Brooklyn Bridge as its backdrop.

10 - The park continues under the Manhattan Bridge with subway trains rumbling loudly overhead. The view is across the East River to housing projects on the Lower East Side. The former banana unloading piers begin just to the right.

11 - The park presently ends short of some flowering weeds with Con Edison‘s Hudson Avenue generating station ahead in the distance, located just downriver from the former Brooklyn Navy Yard, now a ship repair facility and light industrial zone.

12 - This short block is named the Anchorage because it is adjacent to the Manhattan‘s Bridge‘s Brooklyn stone anchorage. The atmosphere is of a fading industrial section, and the neighborhood‘s name DUMBO or Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass is nowhere more appropriate. As you walk about, note the railroad tracks in the pavement, with some angling off towards now sealed up building entrances.

13 - The Brooklyn waterfront as it looked when break bulk shipping dominated the waterfront from below the Brooklyn Heights promenade and Brooklyn-Queen Expressway to the right and on past the Brooklyn Bridge. What eventually became Jehovah‘s Witnesses‘ headquarters dominates the skyline just short of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Gair Buildings fill the gap (now called DUMBO) between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, and some shorter piers can be seen directly on the waterfront where the Fulton Ferry State Park is now laid out. At the top right smoke is emanating from the Con Edison plant, while top center is the Williamsburg Bridge (1903) and top left are housing projects on Manhattan‘s Lower East Side.

All the piers in this photograph have had their sheds removed in preparation for the construction of Brooklyn Bridge Park, which when completed will form continuous waterfront park from the bottom of this photo along the East River shoreline to just north of the Manhattan Bridge. http://www.brooklynbridgeparknyc.org/

Subway access with convenient Brooklyn waterfront stops: A-C to High Street; F to York Street; 2-3 Clark Street; Court Street; 4-5 to Borough Hall.

Bus: B25 along Fulton Street, Cadman Plaza and Old Fulton Street, connecting with several subway lines, to Fulton Ferry Landing.

Walking/Cycling: Both the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges have pedestrian/bike paths.

(All color photos were taken by Theodore W. Scull.)
(The final black and white photo is courtesy of the Port Authority.)

A Guide to a Hudson River Park Walk from Battery Park to Riverside Park

The Hudson River waterfront between the Battery and Riverside Park is undergoing a major transformation into an increasingly attractive greenway providing both recreational and commercial activities. The following guide, to be updated as new components are added, outlines what walkers and cyclists can now enjoy along this approximately five-mile stretch of river. A leisurely walk from the tip of Lower Manhattan to 72^nd Street, pausing to take in some of the sights, will last from three to four hours. By using cross-town bus routes, the walk can be also shortened.

Bus routes M5, M15 & M20 and Subways routes 1, 4, 5, M, R, W, J/Z give access to the south end at Battery Park. These cross-town buses run from the Hudson River waterfront north of West 23rd Street eastward to link with north-south bus/subway routes: M23, M34, M42, M50, M31 (from W54th &11th) M72 (from W68th & Freedom Place, and M5 (from W72nd St. & Riverside Dr.).

Begin at Battery Park-Lower Manhattan.

To the east of Battery Park, a new glass enclosed Staten Island Ferry Terminal is now complete, replacing one originally built in the mid-1950s and fire-damaged in 1991. South Ferry subway station has lengthened platforms and improved connections between the #1 Train and the ferry. For ferry schedules, go to www.siferry.com. The U.S. Coast Guard occupies a low building at the park‘s south eastern fringe.

Battery Park itself spans 23 acres, much of it built on landfill beginning in the mid-19th century. From the sea wall, passenger ferries leave for Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.www.statuecruises.com. The ticket office and information center is housed in Castle Clinton. Built as the West Battery in 1811, it was one of five forts designed to protect New York harbor from British attack, but none ever occurred. Originally the fort was completely surrounded by water and located 200 feet from shore. The designation came from DeWitt Clinton who served as both Mayor of New York City and Governor of New York State. From 1824 to 1855, it was known as Castle Garden, an entertainment center with a roof added. To organize and safeguard the increasing number of immigrants arriving in New York, the federal government converted Castle Garden into the Immigrant Depot, and from 1855 to 1890 eight million passed through its portals, representing two-thirds of those who legally entered the U.S. When the facility, now connected to shore, became overcrowded, the depot was moved to an expanded Ellis Island. The New York Aquarium took it over from 1896 to1941 until it moved first to the Bronx then in 1957 to its present site facing the Boardwalk at Coney Island.

Castle Clinton was threatened with demolition during the construction of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, but a public outcry resulted in its designation as an historic site in 1946, by which time the upper story and roof had been demolished. In 1975, the fort reopened for its present function serving tourists bound for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Be sure to look inside at the dioramas showing how the tip of Manhattan changed over the years. Continuing along the sea wall, the poignant Merchant Marine Memorial (1991) shows the likenesses of two men on a ship, with one is trying to save a fellow crewmember from drowning. To the left of the memorial, Slip 6 is a New York Water Taxi stop. www.newyorkwatertaxi.com.

Pier A (1886) was originally built for the Department of Docks & Ferries then became a marine station for the Fire Dept. of the City of New York. The clock tower and chimes were added in 1919 as a WWI Memorial to the troops arriving home by sea. Its reconstruction into a restaurant and visitors‘ center has currently stopped.

Battery Park City and its 92 acres are built mostly on landfill from excavation for the World Trade Center and on sand from the harbor. Additional portions are constructed on a platform, and 24 acres is given over to parks and gardens. The complex combines commercial, residential and recreational uses plus road access partially designed to be an extension to the existing city street grid. The buildings represent the differing styles of several architects within a set of design guidelines.

Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park, laid out in 1996, offers flower gardens, bench seating, grassy surfaces to sit on, a viewing platform atop the brick arch, and a moderately-priced indoor/outdoor Italian restaurant (Gigino) and toilet facilities tucked in underneath. On the north side stands the Ritz Carlton Hotel & Condominium (2001), now also housing the Skyscraper Museum (2004) with its entrance at the back facing west. www.skyscraper.org. The Museum of Jewish Heritage (1997) has recently expanded its buildings into the park. www.mjhnyc.com.

Pass through a wooded section to The Esplanade, a splendid pedestrian and bicycle promenade stretching one mile from South Cove to North Cove. Note the recreated shoreline fringing South Cove. The attractive Battery Park City rental and condominium complex was largely constructed between 1986 and 1990. This new neighborhood also includes commercial enterprises to cater to residents and tourists and some varied examples of outdoor sculpture. At the north end, three towers make up the undistinguished Gateway Plaza Apartments (1982-3) 1,712 units developed by Samuel Lefrak.

The World Financial Center (1985-1987), surrounding the North Cove, was designed by architect Cesar Pelli, offering seven million square feet of commercial and public spaces in 33- to 51-story buildings topped by a pyramid, step pyramid, dome or mastaba. Principal occupants are Dow-Jones, Merrill Lynch and American Express. The Winter Garden divides the complex and has sixteen 50-foot Florida palms within its barrel-vaulted interior, roughly the size of Grand Central Terminal‘s main concourse. Restaurants, bars and stores lead off this monumental space. At the river end of the cove‘s north side stands the Mercantile Exchange (1997), the world‘s largest commodities trader, dealing in crude oil, natural gas, electricity, and precious metals. North Cove itself is home to charter and private yachts and a sailing school.

The Irish Hunger Memorial, continuing along the sea wall past the Mercantile Exchange, appears to the right. It recalls the potato famine (1845-52) and famine worldwide on a one-half acre platform of Irish landscape, with stones and plants gathered from 32 counties and a reconstruction of a ruined cottage. Behind is Embassy Suites and a 15-screen cinema complex (2000). There is a view inland via Vesey Street to St. Paul‘s Chapel (1766) and the Woolworth Building, at 792 feet, the world‘s tallest from 1913 to 1930. Architect Cass Gilbert designed it in American Gothic style for Frank.W. Woolworth, a farm boy, who started with one store and went on to open over 1,000 by his death in 1919. Missing in the large gap is the World Trade Center and its twin towers that rose 110 stories and 1350 feet. A new World Trade center complex and memorial are now rising.

New York Waterway‘sferry terminal uses a large new pontoon-style landing opposite the Mercantile Exchange. Passenger ferries operate to landings in New Jersey - the principal ones being Paulus Hook/Exchange Place (formerly Colgate), the Hoboken Terminal and Port Imperial/Weehawken. www.nywaterway.com.

Rockefeller Park at BPC‘s northwest corner offers recreation and relaxation, a children‘s playground and well-maintained bathroom facilities. The park is overlooked by apartment buildings and the northward facing Stuyvesant High School (1993), Manhattan‘s top public school with entry by admission tests.

Hudson River Park,550 acres and sections still under construction, begins its straight run here north to 59th Street offering 4.5 miles of bike and pedestrian paths paralleling State Route 9A (West Street). The linear park is part of the 32-mile Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, running around perimeter of borough and making up the south end of a planned pathway that will eventually extend northward to the Adirondacks. www.hudsonriverpark.org.

The West Side Elevated Highway (built 1931-1939) used to run above the street here, and some years after a small section collapsed in 1973, it was torn down. The area inland is Tribeca, a former manufacturing area whose designation means the Triangle Below Canal (Street).

Pier 25 & 26 are under reconstruction and are expected to open in the fall of 2010.

Pier 34 (Spring St.) leads out to the Holland Tunnel Ventilation Shaft, serving the two underwater tube tunnels (South=8,371‘ & North=8,558‘) completed in 1927 and named after Clifford M. Holland, its Engineer. The south pier is open to public, and the north one serves as an emergency egress and for maintenance.

Pier 40 (W. Houston St.) was built for Holland America Line in 1963, a steamship line that moved across the river from the 5th Street Pier in Hoboken. It‘s square, rather than traditional finger pier design, could handle passengers, trucks, break-bulk freight and the emerging container business. After shipping moved out by the mid 1970s, the facility became an indoor/outdoor parking garage for 2,300 cars. Currently there are fields for soccer, baseball, rugby & football; offices of Hudson River Park Trust; a dock for excursion boats; and a kayak and boat launching facility. A walkway, with benches, runs around the perimeter; and in the future, one half of the 1.2 million square feet must remain parkland while the other half may be commercial. Walk into the entrance hall to see the mural depicting Holland America‘s Rotterdams up through the S.S. Rotterdam of 1959. The 1933 lighthouse tender Lilac is under restoration on the north side and two small excursion boats, the Queen of Hearts and the Star of Palm Beach, are docked here too.

The West Village in now opposite inland.

Pier 45 (W. 10th St.) extends 800 feet into the Hudson with board lawns and shady areas for sitting. It is a seasonal New York Water Taxi stop for boats north to Pier 84 and south to the Battery, the East River and to Red Hook, Brooklyn on weekends. www.newyorkwatertaxi.com .

Pier 46 (Charles St.) was finished in 2003 for recreation, seating, and a perimeter walkway.

Pier 49 (Bank St.) is a pile field for wintering-over for striped bass population.

Pier 51 (Jane St.) is a maritime-themed playground, with climbing equipment & slides, and west end resembles bow of a ship; rest rooms are available on the esplanade.

Pier 52 & 53 (Gansevoort St.) is a peninsula created with landfill, and is now the site for an inactive marine transfer station, a truck parking location for the NYC Sanitation Dept. and for salt storage. NYC Fire Dept. Marine Co. #1 is also located here. At one time, there was a 13th Avenue, extending just one block. Later excavations to allow the docking of longer ships eliminated most of the avenue. In the future, there will be a sandy beach, baseball fields, batting cages, and play lawn. The Fire Dept. is to remain at Piers 53, and the Dept. of Sanitation will remain at Pier 52.

The Washington Meat Market is the burgeoning restaurant and residential district across West Street. The High Line, a pedestrian park built atop a former elevated railroad, is just one to two blocks inland. It currently is open from Gansvoort Street to 20th Street. In 2011, the north end will be extended to 30th Street.

Pier 54 (W. 13th St.) is an open access public pier for RiverFlicks and RiverRocks, MTV Concerts, Wigstock, etc., with future passive uses. It was a Cunard and later a Cunard White Star Pier, with now only a steel arch remaining on which the steamship line name is faintly visible. In April 1912, 703 Titanic survivors arrived here aboard the Cunard liner Carpathia.1503 lives were lost in that disaster. On May 1, 1915, the 31,550grt Cunarder Lusitania sailed from here with 1,959 souls on board to be torpedoed by U20 on May 7th off Old Head of Kinsale, Southern. Ireland. The liner sank in 20 minutes and 1,198 lives were lost.

Pier 56 is a pile field with a future rebuild for recreation.

Pier 57, an Art Deco former Grace Line & French Line pier before that, was most recently a municipal bus parking garage. It is hoped to develop the site for cultural and recreational activities, yacht docking and dining.

Pier 58 is a pile field.

The former New York Central West Side Freight Line, elevated in 1934, is visible one block inland. . Once running north from the St. John‘s Terminal at West Houston Street, it has been cut back to Gansevoort Street and  a section between 20th Street south to Gansvoort Street has been is currently being rebuilt into a linear park.

The Chelsea Piers, 900-foot long and built 1902-1910 with head houses designed by Warren & Wetmore (architects for Grand Central), handled longest liners of Cunard & White Star such as Mauretania, Lusitania, Aquitania, and Olympic. Titanic should have docked at Pier 60. The piers became obsolete by 1960s with containerization.

The Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex (1995) www.chelseapiers.com, occupying Pier 59 to 62 spreads over 30 acres with 1.5 million sq ft of roller rinks, ice rinks, golf driving range (Pier 59 with a perimeter walkway), 55-foot rock climbing wall, gymnastics, basketball, soccer, swimming, batting cages, 40 bowling lanes, boxing, karate and dance classes, kayaking, sports medicine center, photo studios, marina, cruise & dinner boats, restaurants, sports shops. Large black and white photo murals effectively recall the shipping activities that used to take place here.

Pier 62 (W. 22nd St.) and Pier 63  (W. 23rd St.) have been completely rebuilt for recreation with a carousel and Skate Park (helmets required).

Pier 64 Starrett-Leigh Building (brick with nine miles of banded windows) was completed in 1931 by the Starrett Corporation on the site of former Lehigh Valley RR freight terminal (later just occupying the ground floor). It served as a monumental 19-story modern warehouse-factory complex. The Lehigh Valley moved out in 1966, and it is rented to mostly art-related tenants and Martha Stewart Omnimedia. To the North are the former Central Stores (1891), 25 buildings built on 24 acres for the Terminal Warehouse Company.

Pier 66a is a restored B&O RR Car Float Transfer Bridge used between 1954 and 1973 as a freight car link to B&O Warehouse across West Street at 11th Avenue & 26th Street.

A pontoon barge pier allows docking for the lightship Frying Pan, former fireboat John J. Harvey, an Erie-Lackawanna caboose and other historic vessels.
Pier 66 (W. 26th St.) has been completely rebuilt with a kayak landing and boat house near the shore end and as a recreation pier with seating. A slowly turning paddle wheel is the centerpiece at the river end and is accompanied by a timeline of the earth‘s creation and destruction.

30th Street Heliport serves tourists for sightseeing flights. www.libertyhelicopters.com.

Pier 72 (W. 32nd St.) is a pile field.

Jacob Javits Convention Center (1986) was designed by the firm of I.M. Pei, and its 1.8m square feet accounts for nearly 2% of city‘s economy. A planned expansion extends northward.

Pier 76 (W. 36th St.) is a former United States Lines early container pier, then a car impound lot and now also a training facility for the NYPD Mounted Unit. Its future is half recreational with uses such as pavilions, fishing, and performance spaces.

Pier 78 (W. 38th St) - Most but not all NY Waterway operations have been shifted one block north to W. 39th Street. The cruises depart from here.

Pier 79 (W. 39th St), wrapped around the Lincoln Tunnel vent shaft, now serves NY Waterway Ferry. www.nywaterway.com. Service started in 1986 to Port Imperial Weehawken, then expanded to Hoboken, Lincoln Harbor, Newport (Pavonia), and Exchange Place/Paulus Hook, plus sightseeing excursions. Connecting red, white & blue buses fan out across midtown and downtown.

Lincoln Tunnel‘s center tube was completed in 1937; the north tunnel in 1945, and the south in 1957. The lengths are between 7,482 and 8,216 feet, and it is the busiest tunnel in world with 40 million vehicles a year.
The area inland was known as Hell‘s Kitchen and is now more commonly called Clinton.

Piers 81 & 83 – 81 was the Hudson Day Line pier with service up the Hudson to Bear Mountain, West point and stops to Albany, and it now serves World Yacht‘s dinner boat fleet. www.worldyacht.com. Pier 83 is for Circle Line, www.circleline.com, operating round Manhattan cruises since 1944.

Pier 84 (W. 44th St.) has reopened as a recreation pier and educational center and has public rest rooms. In season, the New York Water Taxi‘s Hudson and East River service stops here. www.newyorkwatertaxi.com. It is a wonderful viewpoint for arriving and departing cruise ships using the Cruise Ship Terminal just to the north.

Pier 86 The Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum has reopened with expanded attractions at its completely rebuilt pier.

Piers 88-90-92 is the Cruise Ship Terminal and Pier 88 and Pier 90 have been reconstructed. For sailings see www.worldshipny.com.

Pier 94 is a former Cunard Line freight pier, and it is used for trade shows under NYC Economic Development Corporation.

Pier 95 served Furness-Bermuda Line, and with former Pier 96, has now become Clinton Cove Park with a boathouse for kayaking and boat ramp, shady sitting areas and a grassy upland section.

Pier 97 served Swedish-American Line and Home Lines, and is now used for NYC Sanitation truck parking. Its future will be part of Clinton Cove Park with sports facilities, boathouse and dock.

Pier 98 & 99 – Pier 98 is for Con Edison parking and barge delivery, and Pier 99 is a sanitation pier, a waste transfer station. Inland is the former IRT Powerhouse (1904), McKim, Meade & White Architects, originally coal–fired hence the river location.

Riverside South, a housing complex, stretches from 59th to 72nd Streets and built on the former New York Central West Side Freight Yards, serving a line that ran elevated from Houston Street northward to just west of Penn Station, then sub–surface, surface, and elevated to cross Harlem River at Spuyten Duyvil and connect with the ex–New York Central Line from Grand Central. The line from here to Poughkeepsie is now Metro–North and Amtrak trains run from Penn Station further up the Hudson to Albany, north and west. Donald Trump bought much of the railroad yard land in 1983 for $95 million to establish a complex of 16 residential buildings of 15 to 49 stories housing 5,700 residences called Riverside South. The attractive riverfront park and path continues north in the shadow of the now elevated Henry Hudson Parkway.

NYC Car Float Piers once connected New York Central‘s West Shore Line railroad facilities (now Port Imperial) to the West Side Freight Yard. The collapsed pier burned in July 1977 and one gantry will be restored as part of the new riverfront park still under construction. An angled recreation pier near the north end of the new park pier extends well out into the Hudson. Where the new park between 59th and 72nd Street had been completed, the pedestrian path and bicycle paths are separated. At the south end, the narrow path is shared so watch for speeding cyclists.

Riverside Park (1873–1910) was originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (Central Park fame) and completed by Charles Vaux & Samuel Parsons. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. made changes to allow the current Henry Hudson Parkway to be completed in 1937.

A waterside path continues the length of Riverside Park, around the North River Sanitation Plant and up to the George Washington Bridge.

Walking the New Jersey Waterfront — Exchange Place, Jersey City to Hoboken

Travel Directions to Starting Point — Exchange Place, Jersey City

PATH: From the World Trade Center Site Station, take any PATH train under the river to the first stop, Exchange Place, Jersey City and rise to the street. www.panynj.gov. FERRIES: NY Waterway ferries leave from Battery Park City to Paulus Hook, Exchange Place, Jersey City, just two blocks south of the PATH Station. Ferries are not operating on weekends. 1-800-GO-FERRY. www.nywaterway.com..

This outing ties together waterfront communities that have been around for two hundred years with others that are brand new burgeoning neighborhoods still in the developing stage. Because the riverside locations had Manhattan as the raison d‘être, none was well connected to one another until now. A new street grid has been laid out where virtually no one had walked before, and the Hudson-Bergen Line Rail Line runs between Exchange Place and Bayonne to the south and between Exchange Place and Pavonia/Newport, Hoboken, Lincoln Harbor, Weehawken, Union City and North Bergen to the north. . It is worth taking the ride in both directions. Tickets are good for 90 minutes. Hudson-Bergen Line Rail - NJ Transit: (973) 762-5100; (800) 626-7433. www.njtransit.com.

Taken as a whole, the outing presents a kaleidoscope of the old and new and an intriguing look into the future. There are numerous fun places to eat or take a picnic lunch or buy one locally as there are delightful places to have one by the river.

The New Jersey waterfront immediately across from Manhattan first developed because of its proximity to the city, and because a river separated the two, there was need for transfer facilities. Exchange Place and Pavonia in Jersey City, Hoboken and Weehawken all had railroad terminals and railroad navies for freight and passengers in amongst an almost continuous line of steamship piers. Industrial sites sprouted because of nearby transportation and the huge population as a ready market across the Hudson. Working class housing got built to supply labor, and the industrial managers and owners lived in fine style in a few isolated pockets.

Beginning at the south end, just north of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty and across the Morris Canal Basin, stands the 1880s Jersey Central Terminal, a splendidly restored former combination railroad and ferry terminal that connected the Central of New Jersey, Baltimore and Ohio, and Lehigh Valley Railroads to Manhattan via the Liberty Street Ferry until April 1967. The building serves as the ticket booth for the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Ferry and for special functions and railroad fairs. The intervening waterway once formed the entrance to the Morris Canal, now a marina, but the waterway once extended across the Garden State to the Delaware River, and via other canals, to the Pennsylvania coal mines.

Exchange Place itself, where the walk begins, had a large Pennsylvania Railroad terminal that remained a secondary access to Lower Manhattan long after Penn Station, Manhattan was completed in 1910. Nothing remains to be seen. But the same is not true for the site of the Colgate Palmolive factory, as its large lighted outdoor clock that sat atop the original headquarters, sits on the ground just north of the Morris Canal Basin. This area has been variously called Paulus Hook or Exchange Place, a part of greater Jersey City that extends for several miles inland and north to Hoboken.

At the waterfront plaza just in from the recreation pier, the statue of a bayoneted soldier marked Katyn 1940 commemorates the massacre of thousands of Polish officers soldiers by the Soviets, a crime once blamed on the Germans. A Hyatt Hotel occupies the pier to the north and take the escalator up one level to have a look at the lobby, bar and restaurant at the river end with big window views north, south and across to Lower Manhattan. Washroom facilities are available next to the bar. At water level, the end of the pier is an ideal ship watching and photo spot.

To the left or south of the bayoneted soldier and two streets inland after crossing the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Line, several square blocks of 19th century row houses now qualify as an historic district. Gentrification is setting in because of its proximity to the new office complexes and to Lower Manhattan. High rise apartments look south over the Morris Canal to Liberty State Park. Walking north to Montgomery Street, you pass buildings that exhibit an earlier period of greater importance, such as the one-block long post office and the large Catholic church and school.

Returning towards the river along Montgomery to the intersection with Greene, the Flamingo Bar and Grill, is a Greek-owned throwback to the 1940s. It‘s a lively combination bar, diner counter and booth restaurant, packed at lunch time with construction and office workers. You can‘t beat the atmosphere or the price of the meals. To leave Exchange Place follow the trolley tracks north past the Harborside Center and its ferry landing. The various warehouses and industrial buildings that served the waterfront have either been pulled down, or such as Harborside, recycled into new office space. For a few years yet, there remain some hulking vestiges of the past - a handsome power plant (once serving the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad) and factory buildings - sited a few blocks inland that have not yet succumbed to the wrecking ball and may see reuse.

When the tracks turn sharply left, walk straight through the gate marked Avalon Cove, a new high- and low-rise apartment cluster facing the water. A boardwalk skirts what used to be a cargo slip and leads into Washington Boulevard and Newport Center. Pavonia, now also called Newport, to give it more caché, has completely reinvented itself. What were once vast railroad yards and cargo piers are now sites for a high-rise community of offices, chain hotels and residences, with even a hint of a resort atmosphere where marinas and restaurants occupy the waterfront.

A long pier to the right serves the Newport Marina, restaurant and café and is worth a diversion, though you must say you are going to the restaurant to gain access. Ahead you are hemmed in by an indoor shopping mall with multiplex cinema, office buildings, and chain hotels, an entirely new city built over an industrial landscape.

A recent pedestrian connection has opened along the river linking Newport/Pavonia and the Hoboken Terminal with access to the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Line, PATH, NJ Transit trains and NJT’s Bus 126 along Washington Street to Port Authority Bus Terminal.

To leave the area by transit southward, take either the PATH from Pavonia/Newport to stops back to the World Trade Center Site or in the other direction to Hoboken and the line under the river to Christopher Street and stops north along 6th Avenue to 33rd Street; or the Hudson Bergen Light Rail Line from the Newport Mall to Exchange Place and PATH or NY Waterway Ferry to Lower Manhattan.

(All photographs were taken by Theodore W. Scull.)