Moseying through Manhattan

The Big Apple, The City of Dreams, The City That Never Sleeps, Empire

Dave and Cynthia on top of the
Empire State Building

City, Gotham: no matter what you call it, New York City, and in particular Manhattan, is a great place to visit. We’ve been here several times and I’m not tired of the city yet. On this occasion we took a couple of tours and ended up on top to the Empire State Building after dark. It’s still one of the best views of New York, but we were sad that we didn’t see a giant ape or Fay Wray.








The Lenape Native Americans lived in what is now Manhattan for about 10,000 years, then the emigrants came. Giovanni da Verrazzano, in service of King Francis I of France in 1524, is the first documented

Current views of NYC, day and night

European to visit the area. He sailed into the Bay of Santa Margarita (Upper New York Bay), through The Narrows and into Upper New York Harbor. However, the area, while named, was not mapped. That was left to Henry Hudson of the Dutch East India Company who actually visited Manhattan Island and the native people living there in 1609. Finally, in 1624, New Netherland was founded and a citadel was constructed in what is now Lower Manhattan. The fabled purchase of Manhattan on May 24, 1626 was actually between Pieter Janszoon Schagen, Peter Minuit, and Dutch colonists, and the Canarsee Indians of the Lenape, although most of the island was controlled by the Weckquaesgeeks. One hundred-fifty years later, New York City played a major role in American Revolutionary War; it was one of the five capitals under the Articles of Confederation and the first capital under the Constitution of the United States. The City was also the first place that the United States Supreme Court met, it was where the United States Bill of Rights were drafted and ratified, and where the Northwest Ordinance established measures for adding new states to the Union.

With the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, NYC became the largest hub for the movement of agricultural goods in the US and thus a powerful economic center. Forty years later the prosperity of the city would be

Statue of Liberty

threatened by issues surrounding the Civil War. Immigration had boomed along with jobs produced by the industrial trade explosion and these immigrants were frightened that free Blacks would take their jobs. On top of this, immigrants were being conscripted into the Union Army, a practice they resented. This led to the New York Draft Riots of July 1863 during which about 120 participants and passersby were massacred. Once the war was over, even more people emigrated from Europe, coming through Manhattan. Because of this France gave the US the Statue of Liberty on October 28, 1886. We would do well to remember who and how this country was built. It is summed up on the plaque on the statue, the poem New Colossus; it reads,

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

         I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” 

One of the most exciting times in the history of NYC was the period between the World Wars I and World War II. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia was elected, bringing an end to Tammany Hall after 80 years of political

Left to Right: The Empire State Building, View of NYC
from the top of the Empire State Building

intrigue. In spite of the Great Depression, some of the world's tallest skyscrapers were constructed in Manhattan during the 1930s. These Art Deco masterpieces are still around and include my favorite, the Chrysler Building, as well as 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and the Empire State Building. The Empire State Building is located on the west side of Fifth Avenue between West 33rd and 34th Streets, but it had more humble beginnings. Originally part of an early 18^th century farm, the land was purchased by the Astor family; family descendants built the Waldorf–Astoria Hotel on the site in the 1890s. By the 1920s businessman John J. Raskob and former New York governor Alfred E Smith had acquired the old hotel with ideas for situating a new building on the site. After many revisions, Empire State Building was designed as an 86-story 1,250-foot building, with an airship mast on top – the perfect place for a giant ape to hang out. The building began on March 17, 1930, with an average of one floor per day completed; after interior finish work, the building opened on May 1, 1931. There are now observation platforms on the 86^th and 102^nd floors of what was to maintain the record as world's tallest building for nearly 40 years. Since the release in 1933 of the film King Kong, this cultural icon and has been in more than 250 television shows and movies. The building has been named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers and its ground-floor interior designated as a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986, it has been ranked as number one on the American Institute of Architects' List of America's Favorite Architecture.

Another one of my favorite places in NYC is Times Square. We’ve not

Left: ABC News in Times Square
Right T to B: Times Square at night, The New
Years Eve Ball waiting to drop

been there for New Year’s Eve, but we watch the ball drop every year. The square began as an area near three streams where fish and waterfowl flourished. Eventually it evolved into an area for carriage making and was named Longacre Square; it was surrounded by farming and breeding horses. The area was purchased by John Jacob Astor; the farming and horse breeding concerns soon faded, but the carriage industry remained for many years. However, with the movement of industry, entertainment came to the area. By the early 1890s the Broadway area was filled with electric lights and oodles of middle- and upper-class restaurant, café, and theater goers. In 1904 the New York Times newspaper's operations were moved into a new skyscraper on 42nd Street at Longacre Square and the area was renamed ‘Times Square’. The building is now known as One Times Square and its roof is where the Times Square Ball drop is conducted every New Year's Eve. After World War I the square became the cultural hub for theatres, music halls, and upscale hotels. In the 1920s the square was full of advertisers, with income growth from $25 million to $85 million in just ten years. It was during these years that Fritz Lang, after seeing the area, patterned his dark, industrial film, Metropolis; needless to say Lang was not a fan of Times Square. However other celebrities in the decades from 1910 through 1930 found it inspirational. Unfortunately, it was also at that time that Times Square began to decline. Crime, corruption, gambling, prostitution, saloons, brothels, burlesque halls, vaudeville stages, and ‘dime houses’ gave the area a reputation as dangerous and seedy. This reputation persisted into the early 1990s with the addition of go-go bars, sex shops, peep shows, and adult theaters. The area along 42^nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues was called ‘the “worst” [block] in town’. It’s no wonder that in the movie Midnight Cowboy, Times Square was shown as a dark, dirty, and nasty place. At the same time, the State of New York took possession of six historic theaters and appointed a non-profit organization to oversee their restoration and maintenance. Pornographic theaters were evicted by city and state officials plus they contracted with Disney, Madame Tussauds, and AMC Theatres to move onto 42nd Street. This, of course, stimulated new construction of office buildings, hotels, and tourist attractions. Along with tourists came celebrations such as ‘Mind over Madness’, a mass yoga event, that observes the summer solstice. Other changes have come to the square: in 2008 the first environmentally friendly billboard powered by wind and solar energy was activated; in 2009 Times Square was transformed into a pedestrian plaza; and in 2011 the area became smoke-free. With low crime, safe places to walk and sit, and many things to do and see, Times Square truly is a great place to visit during the day or the night.

Sculpture in the Garment District

So what did we think of Viking’s Eastern Seaboard Explorer Cruise? Read the reviews below! For information about my rating system, see Reading the Reviews.

The Ship

Four and one-half carrots

We thoroughly enjoyed the ship, the Viking Star. The public areas had comfortable seating, oodles of places to watch the water, and lots of

Left to Right: Bedroom, Bathroom

snacking areas. The cabin was great; there was plenty of room for us to move around, and relax without sitting on the bed. There was also enough room on the balcony to be comfortable, but the temperature and the weather were such that we hardly used it. While the bathroom wasn’t huge, it was quite comfortable, particularly since the floor was heated as were the towel racks. There was absolutely nothing we needed that wasn’t supplied – when I jokingly told the head of housekeeping that I really wanted only dark chocolate for the turn-down service, she wrote a note and that was exactly what I got for the rest of the trip. The rooms, and indeed the entire ship, were kept scrumptiously clean. Many times our room had been tidied by the time we got back from breakfast. Hand sanitizers were strategically located and people were actively encouraged to use them.

The Food

Four and one-half carrots

Once again the food was amazing. And I particularly liked that each morning I got the menu for the day so I could select foods to be prepared without onions or spinach. Spoiled? Yep. Breakfast was either seated or a

Chocolate clock

buffet; if we weren’t on a tour we chose to order from the menu. If we were on a tour, we ordered room service – you can’t beat that! Lunch was a buffet; we quickly learned to get there late to be able to get a comfortable seat and to be able to get to the food easily. For dinner you could choose to eat in two special restaurants, partake of the buffet, or eat in the regular restaurant. We always opted for the restaurant and to be seated at a communal table so we could have conversations with a wide variety of people. Service was excellent, as well. We only had a couple of dishes that weren’t up to a high standard. The steamed lobster had obviously been previously frozen and the soft shell crabs were not crispy. One evening we were delighted to be presented with a chocolate buffet in the ship’s living room. The centerpiece of the display was a chocolate clock that the chef said would have only taken him a couple of hours to complete if he’d had that much uninterrupted time. 

The Tours

Three carrots

The tours were, on the whole, disappointing. Having taken tours on previous Viking Cruises, these were decidedly of lower quality. The best tour we had, City Lights and Empire State Building by Evening, got a

Left to Right: Chrysler Building, day and night

rating of 4 carrots. Montreal Highlights received 2.5 carrots; Historic Quebec City, 3 carrots; La Fabuleuse Live Stage Show, 3 carrots; Panoramic Perce, 3 carrots; The Best of Halifax, 3.5 carrots; Panoramic Boston, 3 carrots; Historic Boston and Cambridge, 3.5 carrots; Manhattan Highlights, 3.5 carrots for an overall average of 3 carrots.  Since we go on trips primarily for the tours and the learning experiences, we were disenchanted with Viking’s ocean cruise offerings.

This was our first experience with a Viking Ocean Cruise. Overall, we enjoyed ourselves but not as much as we had on previous excursions; we felt the cost of most of the extra excursions was more than they were worth and that many of the included excursions were a waste of time. We will take other Viking cruises, but probably focus on the river cruises.

Left to Right: Grand Central Station, Building art, Flat Iron Building

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