Summer 2009 New York Harbor Tours: Rolling on the River
Here’s some welcome news for New Yorkers looking to beat the summer heat.
New York Waterway, the water ferry service which played a key role in the rescue of US Airways Flight #1549 passengers from the Hudson River this past January, has once again come to the rescue of New Yorkers, forging a new partnership with The National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy to develop a series of water and walking tours focusing on New York history and its diverse cultures. The tours are informational, breezy and fun, and for $16 it’s a low-cost high-value escape from the heat and noise of the City for a couple of hours.
There are five different tours, three of them boat tours:
America: Who We Are recreates the sense of wonder immigrants must have felt as they sailed into New York Harbor. This 1-hour journey around the Hudson explores historic harbor sites and the role of immigration in shaping New York. Written and narrated by NY Times reporter Sam Roberts, the tour also features National Park Service Rangers and NY Times reporters Joseph Berger and David Gonzalez talking about their own experiences covering the immigration beat today. From your perch on the river you will see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the Brooklyn Bridge, Governors Island, Ground Zero and the Battery. As a bonus, at the end of the trip you’ll receive a free commemorative guide and harbor map with photos by NY Times photographer Fred Conrad.
America's Frontline is a glance back in time to the harbor's military past. This lively 90-minute presentation features National Park Service Rangers, veterans and historians conveying the enormity of the massive British invasion in 1776, the lethal defenses that protected the City in past centuries, and the flotilla that evacuated Lower Manhattan on 9/11 in 2001.
Gateway to America is a sweeping 1-hour narrative, narrated by the actress Kathleen Turner and featuring the National Park Service Rangers, which explores the ways that geography, defense, immigration and commerce have shaped the history and the future of New York.
The two Walking Tours, which are free and highly recommended, are George Washington's New York and The New Amsterdam Trail.
You can take a walk in George Washington's footsteps and discover New York's dramatic colonial history. This 90-minute walking tour is funded by The History Channel and the Alliance for Downtown New York, and begins on the harbor front at Castle Clinton and concludes on Wall Street at Federal Hall, the site where George Washington was inaugurated as president.
The New Amsterdam Trail, a new 90-minute audio walking tour of important sites in 17th-century Lower Manhattan, commemorates the 400th anniversary of explorer Henry Hudson's voyage for the Dutch to New York and the future settlement of New Amsterdam. Leading the way on this journey will be prominent historians and scholars, and through their insight you’ll see visit the site of Fort Amsterdam, the first permanent fortification on the island; the outline of the Stadt Huys, the Dutch first seat of government; and you’ll go off the grid to explore the winding streets that still retain their Dutch names.
Both these walking tours are self-guided, at-your-own-pace tours plotted in a free downloadable map and brochure, and both start at Battery Park and end at Federal Hall, so it’s possible for groups of friends to take different walking tours and still start and end up at the same place.
Tickets for the boat tours can be purchased at 800/533-3779 (New York Waterway) or at the terminal at Castle Clinton in Battery Park. Adults are $16, Seniors $14, pre-12 $12 and kids under 3 ride free. The tours depart from Slip 5 at the Battery Maritime Building at 11:30am, 1pm, 2:30pm, 4pm. From June 29 through September 30, 2009; tours leave at 1pm and 4pm, and for the month of October at 1pm only.
The quickest and most convenient way to get to Battery Park and the Staten Island Ferry terminal is by taking the #1 Broadway local train down to Bowling Green, the same stop as the Staten Island Ferry, and look for the original ferry Terminal building (the Battery Maritime Building) to the left of and half a block below the new Staten Island Ferry terminal.
p.s.Don't forget to check the National Park Service website for special events on the harbor throughout the summer.
And in a summer family special for those New Yorkers across the pond who want to spend a day in the city: kids under 12 can ride free on several of the NY Waterway commuter ferries between New Jersey and Manhattan’s West 39th Street through Labor Day. The free trips are available on ferries from Port Imperial in Weehawken, Edgewater Ferry Landing and Hoboken’s 14th Street Terminal. All children must be accompanied by an adult, with a maximum of two children per adult or four children with two adults. NY Waterway also offers reduced parking at Port Imperial, $7 all day for ferry riders who park before 10am.
