Travel Biography - Week 109.

The Tale of Two Cities.

All Manhattan photos posted here are from the Broadway Hike, 1998.

Between 1997 and 1998, I visited two major cities. The two couldn't be more different, yet the principle for survival remains the same - the struggle for survival and the means for living at a given location, including stiff competition and even conflict among its inhabitants. Both have their share of aesthetics, yet they also have their share of danger. Yet, each remains suited to its environment, and I, as a visitor, was delighted to see both. 

I'm making a comparison between the Great Barrier Reef and New York City. Both are established settlements.

However, the reasons for visiting these two venues were also different. I visited the Reef simply because it was there and I had easy access to it. After my first visit to Green Island Coral Cay, I became an enthusiastic convert. By contrast, my initial reason for visiting New York City was to escape from the possibility of England winning the 1998 FIFA World Cup football. For the record, one afternoon, I was walking through Greenwich Village, and from a window of a tenement, someone was shouting loud cheers across the street. I knew what the commotion was about, so I looked up and called out, Who won the Cup?

France was his answer, after defeating Brazil by 3 goals to nil. I shouted my thanks to him, feeling relieved that it was all over, and the trophy was to remain in the host country rather than cross the Channel to England.

A view of Amsterdam Avenue from the Hostel Dorm.

Starting the Broadway Hike near 104th Street.

72nd Street subway Station (right).

Columbus Circle.

How do I think of New York City? Having grown up in London and loved it, I saw some similarities between our home capital city and New York (along with Brussels and Paris). However, since London's geological bedrock is Clay, skyscrapers didn't exist until far more recently, when their foundations penetrated far deeper into the harder rocks beneath the Clay bed. In turn, the geological foundation of New York consists of Gniess, Marble, and Schiss, all three very hard metamorphic rock beds suitable for supporting tall skyscrapers. Hence, the Flatiron Building was the first skyscraper to go up, followed by the Chrysler Tower in the 1930s, then overtaken by the Empire State Building, and eventually the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the second at the time in world height to the Sears Building in Chicago. 

This was my fourth visit to New York, after twice in 1978 and once in 1995. All three visits lasted no more than a day, although, in 1978, I stopped in New York twice on the same backpacking trip, the first time after arriving from London Gatwick, and the second stop a month later on the same day after a long bus ride from Miami Beach in Florida, before heading to the airport to fly back home. It was during this second, end-of-holiday visit that I stood on the rooftop overlook of one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

What's my opinion of New York? I liked the city very much. Although busy with traffic and urban, with many of its buildings looking blocky and lacking aesthetics, there were some natural areas without the need for a long journey to reach. Indeed, Central Park, known as the lung of the city, has its own natural beauty and is man-made. However, in the Bronx, north of Manhatten, the New York Botanical Gardens features the original forest that once covered the whole of Manhatten Island before the arrival of European settlers. However, for anyone into ancient history, New York is not the place to be. Even in London, there are remains of Roman ruins dating back to AD 47, along with the Tower of London which was completed by William the Conquerer in 1078. But even London pales in contrast with the Italian city of Siracusa with its ancient Greek ruins, and Jerusalem in Israel, dating back to Canaanite times, approximately 2,000 BC. Having visited all these sites around the world, no wonder that I feel there is something positive about independent travel!

Looking back at 8th Avenue from Colombus Circle.

Approaching Times Square.

Times Square.

Flatiron Building.

Hostel Life.

HI-AYH New York City on 103rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue was the largest hostel in the world with 624 beds in 1998. Due to the number of backpackers using it, it was almost like a small town in itself. Despite its population size, I didn't make any friends while I was staying there. Each kept himself to himself or within his group. The dormitory was fine, but what I found shocking was the member's kitchen. For the size of the hostel, the kitchen was tiny, and although it was stocked with cooking utensils, there were no cutlery, dinner plates, or cereal bowls. Although there was a large dining room adjoining the kitchen, it was, for some reason, closed and out of service. Thus I had to eat in the kitchen.

I managed to get hold of some plastic cutlery, but for the evening meal, I literally had to eat out of the frying pan, and breakfast out of a mixing bowl. Furthermore, I was one of very few, if any members, who used the kitchen for preparing and eating meals. It became obvious to me that New York wanted us all to sample their many restaurants, coffee bars, and eateries. And I visited coffee bars and eateries during the day, but stuck with self-made meals for breakfast and supper, as sticking with life on a shoestring.

New York Rapid Transit.

Throughout the nine days I spent in the city, I became more familiar with the Rapid Transit system, or the subway. The entrance to a subway station from the street is quite different from the shop-like entrance in London. In New York, the entrance is little more than a square hole in the sidewalk, with steps leading to the ticket hall underground. The subway consists of several underground railways patterned after the London Underground. But instead of each line having a name, such as the Picadilly, Northern, Central and District Lines that characterise the London system, New York lines are simply 1, 2, 3, etc, and A, B, C, etc. Hence, to get to 103rd Street from the airport, I took a train on Line A, which was a direct route between the two points. But for 42nd Street and Times Square, as well as to Battery Park, I used Lines 1 and 2, Line 1 trains were non-stop after 103rd Street to 42nd Street, while those on Line 2 stopped at all the other stations in between. One interchange station I became acquainted with was Columbus Circle on the southwestern corner of Central Park. It linked Line 2 with Lines A, C, B, and D, while the trains of Line 1 passed through fast without stopping.

As for the fares, the single price remains stable regardless of the distance covered, unlike that of Transport for London, whose fares increase with the length of distance covered. Hence, I was able to buy a small canister of tokens. Each of these was about the size and weight of a pound coin, and when I fed one into the barrier, a small sign lit with the word Go, and the gate opened. These canisters were on sale at all stations and newsagents. This does make me wonder: If the Rapid Transit system in New York was able to apply one fare for all journeys and apparently do well, why can't the Brits adopt the same idea? 

Union Square backed by the Consolidation Edison Bdg.

City Hall Building.

Memorial, Union Square.

Castle Clinton National Monument. 

Castle Clinton National Monument, Interior.

The Broadway Hike.

On one of the days I spent in New York, I wanted to try the Broadway Hike. Normally, this begins at Harlem and ends at Battery Park. But where I started was short of Harlem, at 104th Street. According to Google Maps, the hike is 7.2 miles long, but aware of the starting location, after reaching Castle Clinton National Monument, I carried on with the hike, making my way to the start of Brooklyn Bridge, and as I walked along the elevated boardwalk, I crossed the East River to Brooklyn. One of the first buildings I saw after crossing over was the Watchtower Headquarters, the source of all Jehovah's Witness governance and literature. Its huge Watchtower sign faced directly towards Manhatten, and I believe, it was lit up at night. (For the record, the Headquarters has since moved to a modernised facility in Tuxedo Park, close to the border with New Jersey.) In all, the hike, which lasted the best part of the day, was around nine miles, a tad shorter than the Bright Angel hike into the Grand Canyon.

To get to the start of the hike, I walked along 104th Street until it intersected with Broadway itself. It was there that I turned left and followed the street until I reached the Financial Centre at the southern tip of the island.

Broadway doesn't comply with the rest of the city's symmetrical grid, instead, it transverses diagonally eastwards. Hence, Columbus Circle is where Broadway intersects with 8th Avenue marking the western edge of Central Park, and 59th Street. As I was crossing the Circle, I literally felt the ground shake very slightly as a fast subway train was passing through directly under where I was walking.

Boardwalk, Brooklyn Bridge.

Montague Street, Brooklyn Heights.

Other landmarks I saw during the hike include 72nd Street subway station, so far the only station with a building instead of a hole in the sidewalk. Then I passed through Times Square - where Broadway intersects with 7th Avenue at 45th Street, although the subway station serving this area was under 42nd Street and it was called that - 42nd Street.

Further down, where Broadway crosses 5th Avenue at 23rd Street, I pass Madison Square Park which was backed by the white stonework of the Metropolitan Life Building. This was followed by the Flatiron Building, New York's first official skyscraper before its height was overtaken by the Chrysler Building. The Broadway then continued on until it crossed 14th Street, where Union Square is located. This open space was backed by another white edifice, the Cosmopolitan Edison Building. Finally, I divert off the Broadway to arrive at Castle Clinton National Monument in Battery Park, on the southern tip of Manhatten.

I turned around to head northeast to the start of the Brooklyn Bridge and crossed the East River until I arrived at Brooklyn itself, and I wandered into town. Although I said that the hike was nine miles long, that didn't include the return walk to Battery Park where I caught the evening train back to 103rd Street Station and a short walk back to the hostel.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next Week: A look at Central Park and a boat trip with great significance.