People always visit New York and ask me what they should see. I can usually come up with some ideas for everyone, but I’m not really able to provide a comprehensive set of suggestions. However, this weekend at Brooklyn Flea I bought a tour pamphlet, so now people can refer to this blog post.
You can take the “uptown residential tour” which will take you to Grant’s Tomb where you can see “the New George Washington Bridge, with its longest span in the world.” For those keeping track, the bridge hasn’t been “new” since it was dedicated in 1931 and Grant’s Tomb (shown below) is surrounded by a canopy of fully grown trees:
After that, you can head downtown and, amongst other things, watch the shipping in the New York harbour. (The last commercial dock in Manhattan closed in 1987)
But perhaps you want something a little more prurient. Why not take the De Luxe After Dark Tour? You’ll go to Chinatown, Greenwich Village, the Bower and the Lower East Side. The Bowery “is a characteristic and historic spot with its endless procession of human wrecks of all ages and from all walks of life.” “The Ghetto” a.k.a. the Lower East Side is “the melting pot where foreigners from all over the world first come into touch with American life.”
If you’re really crazy, you could take the De Luxe Combination Tour: it throws in Harlem. You’ll visit its “conglomeration of night clubs, cabarets, spiritual meetings, jazz and superstition.” Bonus points: on the way back, you’ll “return through the Upper East Side German and Bavarian sections, with its sidewalk cafes, beer gardens and waiters in native Bavarian costumes.”
Ah, to have seen the old New York…