"Everybody says 'Good Morning' in Harlem because it's true! And that's lovely."- Marcia Gay Harden

The emptiest I've ever
seen Grand Central 

Today was a day where I woke up very early, it was my first time doing a walking tour in quite a while! (I feel like I haven't done very many in the last little while) and I started by day off by eating, playing a bit with the puppy dog and then I headed out.

I looked at google maps and it told me to take the shuttle from Grand Central to Times Square but because it was one of those places where I'd have to swipe my card, I didn't want to pay twice to take the metro (considering it is about a 5 minute walk) and I walked out and walked over there myself.

Unfortunately, I took the wrong train...(Well the right one kind of) because the train I was actually looking for was the express, but I took the local, which stopped everywhere at like every stop. Thank god, I was able to get off the
train and get on another one which was express up the Harlem. 

When I got off the train, I actually ran into the exact person I needed, who was taking the tour with me! Talk about good timing. 

The mural outside the hospital 

We started off the tour in front of the Harlem public library across the street from the hospital. 

We walked around just a few blocks, but in those few blocks, we learned a lot. 

The first thing was saw was the gigantic mural on the hospital, it was one of Sammy David Jr. He was born in Harlem and one of the first ever Black men to perform solo. 

We kept walking and stopped by a beautiful church where we learned about
the differences between Negro Spiritual and Gospel music. 

New York had a campaign
to plant 1 million trees

Gospel music is music that is sung in churches to spread the word of the Lord, whereas Negro Spiritual music was a sneaky underground way to warn runaway slaves. It was all part of the underground railroad. 

Now back during this time, it was illegal for two slaves to speak without white Illegal to congregate or worship without a white person around - the white slave owners were afraid of an uprising or death. All the lyrics in the music would be laced with meaning. The songs could mean anything from a meeting tonight or as soon as full moon.The song "Wade in the water" was a warning. The song meant that the other slaves knew of someone's arrival in the underground
railroad and that there were dogs chasing their scent. So to get rid of the scent, they had to "wade" in the water by the river bank. 

One of the beautiful
churches in Harlem,

We reached a corner where there used to be the renaissance ball room, which used to be a really cool ball room, but was torn down a few years ago and is now being built as "affordable housing." 

Where is affordable housing you may ask?

It is two people making "$84,000" and above. Yes. $84G. How ridiculous is that? They take the medium income of what people in New York State makes. 

Yeah,

"Affordable Housing"
and what used
to be a ballroom.

New York has a lot of poor and homeless people, but they have a heck of a lot of rich people too. 

Don't worry though - 10% of the building will be for the poor - those making $45 grand or less a year. People wonder why there are so many homeless people.

Harlem wasn't always like this though, a scary, shady, dark area. Back in the 1700s, Hamilton actually lived in Harlem, and it was a place for the rich! That's why the sidewalks were so wide! Franklin Roosevelt even purchased everything north and East of Central park. The wealthy would go to Harlem like it was their Hamptons, there were sunny summer homes with huge sidewalks. Stanford White, the person who designed the arch in Washington were no cars or electricity). However, because Harlem was actually too expensive for a while, many homes were vacant for quite a while.

One of Historically
black schools

Square Park, loved beaux art and French Renaissance, so he designed many of the buildings in Harlem to look just as beautiful and big. People would actually ride uptown in a horse and buggy about three hours to get to Harlem (since there

In 1892, Ellis Island opened up as a federal immigration system and thus started the clash of East and West immigrants. The wealthy would go downtown for an opera or a ballet and the poor would be there, asking for money. 

So the wealthy went uptown. 

Of course, running away, this will solve all the problems and the poor will disappear right?

Anyway. 

Graffiti to bring
awareness to breast
cancer

To ensure the abolition of slavery in all of the U.S., Lincoln pushed for passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Congress passed it by the necessary two-thirds vote on January 31, 1865, and it was ratified by the states on December 6, 1865. Now, every baby could learn to read and white, including black babies. When they came of age, they'd go to a Historically Black Colleges and University and went on to become doctors, lawyers or engineers. Now that they had money, they started moving up to Harlem and buying up the real estate. Unfortunately, the mortgage doubled...but these black groups paid it in cash. 

One of the streets, "Strives Road" was meant to teach the importance of recycling the black dollar. When you needed a dentist, you went to a black dentist. When you needed an Obgyn, you went to a black Obgyn. The money stayed in the community, it never went out and they thrived. One of the best examples of this was "Black Wall Street" during the early 20
th century. That is until the Tulsa race riot of 1921, in which white residents massacred black residents and, in just a few hours, razed the neighbourhood. You can look at Www.beforetheydied.com to learn about some of the people killed.

Great indie book store

We took a bit of a break at a coffee shop and I went into my bag and found a bag of jerky (yes, welcome to Wendy) and talked to the lady for a little bit. It's interesting, I found out from her that if I ever want to be a tour guide, I have to be able to pass a state exam and be licensed. Something I've never heard of before, but I think it's a good idea so that a bunch of weird random people do not come about and try to lead tourists astray. It makes me feel better.

We passed by these apartment buildings and we learned the story of Robert Smalls.

Now, back in the day, black people were not allowed to fight in wars - let alone black slaves. 

So Smalls was one of eight slaves on a portion of a steamer's crew. During a stopover along the South Carolina coast, the three white crewmen failed to follow the procedure to remain on board at all times and decided to leave the slaves on the boat and dock on land. 

Our tour guide outside
Bille Holiday's bar

Smalls took his wife, some slaves and the boat. He piloted it past five confederate ships, Smalls flew all the correct flags requesting safe passage through Confederate waters. Entering Union territory, Smalls surrendered Planter to the Union’s USS Onward. Smalls also gave Union forces Confederate signal codes and maps showing underwater mine placement. The value of the ship and its cargo was $30,000. Later, Smalls met with Pres. Abraham Lincoln. The pilot told Lincoln that black soldiers “will be better fighters than whites” because the blacks will be “fighting for their freedom.

He became the Union navy’s first black ship captain in 1863, ultimately fighting in 17 battles. Smalls returned to Beaufort after the war and entered politics, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives for four years and, later, the South Carolina state senate.

Apartments for the Black soldiers

It was interesting as these houses held the 269 regiment. They built these houses because they did not want the black soldiers living with the white soldiers. 

Unfortunately, the black soldiers were also very badly trained. Because they were not trusted with
guns, they trained with broomsticks and mop handles. However, they were so successful that they actually did not lose when they fought the Germans. They were called "hell fighters." 

These veterans were not invited to the veterans parade so they ended up doing their own parade. 

We even got to go
through a really cool
fire station

The YMCA in the area is also super cool. During the Spring break, because of the issue of children drowning, the YMCA will teach kids how to swim. The line is insane. It is also Bill Clinton's designated gym! 

We also passed by a small jazz bar (a real jazz bar) where Billie Holiday. After auditioning as a dancer, without even looking up, they said "next" and then she asked if she could sing. She did and at the end of the tune she got 150$ in tips for a job that paid $18 a week. This was in Swing Street, during the Harlem renaissance. 

The hotel

There were restaurants and bars here where you could find a lot of music. But they had to be careful because they were scared of cops, so at one of the clubs, people were to knock three times and then cough a specific way. The cough changed every night so they had to know if they wanted to get in. 

We walked by a food place called "Sylvia's" which is known as the best comfort place in New York to grab food. Comfort food is not from the West indies, Africa, or anywhere else. It is from America. It is slavery food. And as a slave, you took home only the undesirable foods, so the gizzards, the thighs, grits, whatever. 

We walked by some more places, and we stopped in a Square where we saw the Waldorf Astoria of Harlem, which was called Ebb place, it was the place for parties and everything. It was, as the young people say, lit up. 

Apollo Theatre

We ended the tour by going to the Apollo theatre which was originally a burlesque house but is now a theatre, where Ella Fitzgerald got her start and first started skiddled daddled."
doing the "

After the tour, my friend and I went over to Sylvia's where we grabbed some real comfort food. I ordered the chicken and waffles with a nice homemade beer while she grabbed some catfish and grits. 

Both were delicious. Oh my god, they were done beautifully and well. Fried to a golden crisp without the soggy-ness and the waffles were delicious. Crunchy, soft, fluffy and they let me douse it in syrup *heaven,*

We started walking back over to the metro and visited a sexual education fair

The best place. 

where people were trying to promote safe sex. They were handing out a lot of condoms and other stuff... It was interesting to see. I was actually really happy that they even had an event like that there, it meant that the community knew and recognized that there was this issue going on and was trying to promote the prevention of both teen pregnancy and the spread of STIs. 

Afterwards, we headed over to this really cute bookstore that is run by volunteers and donations. This is one of the very few small independent stores that are truly independent because of what they believe in rather than it being the most trendy or popular thing there. I really respected them for that. I donated some money for a sticker and then was on my way.

SO GOOD, FRIED CHICKEN AND
WAFFLES

We headed into the metro where we entered into the train to go down to Williamsburg. Here we were just walking down the street when all of a sudden, we were given these free cookie/baguette sticks which were AMAZING. They were from the same company that gave me the box of cookies before. Before anyone says anything about how I always get free food all the time (I'm not denying this at all) I have to say, this company is promoting hard, spreading cheer and giving stuff out to people so that they can enjoy it. Michel et Augustin really believe in the idea of word of mouth and spreading the joy through people just simply enjoying and telling their friends.

Beautiful market

This is a company I can get behind. They have an open house on the first Thursday of every month so
I'm going to try my best to go and check it out and give them my support! 

We headed over to the Williamburg Bridge, where there was an Artists' market and a place where they were show casing all the art and differently foods that people in Brooklyn made and it was super cool! A lot of the artwork was beautiful and I really enjoyed
sampling all the foods around there!

HOW CUTE
ARE THESE
BOXES?!

When we finished up, we walked over to the grocery store where we grabbed some drinks and some food to hang out with later that evening. We headed back to her place in Williamsburg which has an amazing and beautiful view! 

We headed up to her rooftop to relax (I got to chill in the hammock and then again on the chairs by the edge) and read a book. When another friend came by to hang out, we all sat around and enjoyed the atmosphere and the fun! 

We were joined by another person and then we decided to grab some Chinese food take out, which was DELICIOUS and came in these tiny and cute little boxes and ate on the rooftop, talked and enjoyed each other's company.

All in all a good, enjoyable night.

“Let the park live in you until it sings you a song.” ― Zack Love

The fountain

The weather was a bit murkey this morning. Lots and lots of rain.

And of course, I had a walking tour lined up. A few of my friends who I had invited bailed on me so I had to go on the tour by myself, but it was okay! Totally worth it.

It was a four-hour walking tour through Central park and we didn't even hit up half the park.

Insane.

Balto the dog and
this is what Shist
rock looks like, has
layers and layers of
rock

We started off in the square in front of the Plaza hotel and only about 8 people showed up for the walking tour - to be fair though, the weather did not look promising. It was very dark and I definitely felt some spitting when I walked by.

As we were standing in front of the plaza square, we were told a bit about the history of the square. The Plaza Hotel was actually named after the square and the gigantic beautiful fountain in front of the square. It is called the Pulitzer Fountain. Right behind it was the Vanderbilt mansion.As I found out, Pulitzer did not like Vanderbilt and Pulitzer made the statue, modelled after Audrey Munson, face away from the Vanderbilt mansion, so that the butt was always facing towards the mansion.

The bridge is beautiful

How charming. We started off by learning that all of Central Park - it's all 'fake.' Fake in the way that

it is not natural at all, everything in the park was strategically placed and put down in a specific way and order - none of it is "natural" grown. But I kind of like it like that, it looks great.

These tiles have names
of people and how much
they've donated!

So history of Central Park. Originally the city wanted to make some sort of public space for people to enjoy and relax in, so the city didn't choose people to 

design Central Park - at least not initially - the city actually launched a contest for designers to design the park. In the end, they chose the design from Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Now their work was split into two - whereas Olmsted designed more of the greenery, Vaux designed the foundation and the buildings.

Now this may seem like a rip off for Olmsted who had to design the entire 843 acres full of trees, parks, etc., but if you think about it, Vaux and Olmsted couldn't agree on what kind of bridge they wanted so every single bridge in Central Park is completely different. Yeah. Trees take a lot of work - but so do structures.

THERE WAS A SEA
LION IN THE ZOO

As we kept walking, the weather only got nicer and nicer, to the point where the sun came out and I got sun burned... again. 

I learned that Central Park is not a cheap place to upkeep. As I mentioned before, it's about $1 million a week, $52 million a year and a single tree costs about $1000 a week to upkeep. Although the website said it was $65 million. Now this park is owned by NYC, however, most of the funding from the park does not come from here, instead, the Central Park Conservancy actually provides 75% of the Park's annual operating budget. This money comes from donations, gifts, and when people buy things like benches.

The cute little watch
tower with the figurines
that dance in a circle

You can actually buy a bench in Central park and name if after whoever if you want to - but you'd have to pay quite a bit. It is from this generosity that the park is able to maintain itself.

Now for those of you who think this is insane - yes it is- account must be taken in to think about the fact that there are literally thousands of people who go in and maintain the park, throw out the garbage, put in the flowers, etc. It's going to cost a pretty penny.

Rent chess and checker boards

The park is open every single day from 6am to 1am and it goes all the way from 59th street to 110 street. 

We walked by the New York City Zoo, which is something the people of New York really wanted and it was originally free - until the upkeep got too high. They have lots of animals there and it was quite cute with so many kids running around on Memorial day. 

The Mall, so beautiful!

There was a clock tower up top with animals that went around when it hit a certain time. In the summer time, the animals and the music that plays with them is done electronically, but in the winter time, it is done manually - so sometimes in the

winter, it won't go off. 

This whole (South East) corner  of the zoo is actually really the Children's corner because of all the zoos, playgrounds and other fun things for them. 

Right by the
Bethusda fountain

Now Central park is very upper Manhattan, and during the 1800s and 1900s, most people lived in downtown Manhattan, so getting all the way up to Central park was a full day activity. People wouldn't just go in and then leave after 10 minutes, they would go there and stay for quite a while. 

Everything becomes
a tourist gift shop

So there needed to be a place where they had drinks, snacks, etc. For the children, they always believed that kids need milk. So they created this building that served milk for kids. Eventually, later on, it started serving beer for the adults, but it got shut down (too many drunks I guess) and is now a tourist/gift shop (I mean what else would you turn old buildings and structures into?). 

There is a very quaint building along the way where you can actually rent out checkers or chess boards or some sort of game board so that you can play with a friend! How cool is that?!

Alice in Wonderland Statue

We walked over to the only really straight road in Central Park, the Mall where it looked like a beautiful courtyard to walk down. Back in the day, New York was a place to be seen and this street was a great place to be seen. So after church on Sundays, people would go on their "Sunday walk" where their drivers would drop them off on one side of the Mall and while these people walked down in their beautiful attire, dresses, etc., the drivers would drive in a semi-circle and meet them on the other side, That would be their walk.

The fountain and the Angel of Water,
the only statue in the park commissioned

In the Mall, there were statutes facing either side - as I found out, every single statute in the Park has been donated by someone or another and in the Mall, it's actually called the Literary Walk, because of the amount of artists and writers there. The only one-off is Christopher Colombus being is there. There has only ever been one that was commissioned by the Park.

Concert area, behind
is where the GMA
Friday concerts are

We walked down the Mall and ended off by Concert area of Central Park, Rumsey Playfield, where, originally, the only concerts that were allowed were classical

ones - very hoitey-toitey. Now a days, there are many concerts in the park, including many free ones on Friday mornings hosted by Good Morning America.

We kept walking until we reached the Bethesda Fountain and Terrace, and let me just say, walking through and under the stairwell to get there is a wonderful experience. It is so beautiful and the ceilings are well decorated.

While our group was there, there was another group singing and holy crap were

Strawberry fields!

they good. The acoustics are wonderful in there and usually it isn't just a random group of nobodies singing - it's usually a professional group or one that is very experienced singing. Today we heard a beautiful choice.

We finally got to the one statute in the park that was commissioned, the Angel of the Waters, which was dedicated in 1842 and the fountain dedicated in 1873.

Imagine memorial 

We walked past two more statutes, the Statue of Alice in Wonderland and the Statute of Hans Christian Andersen, both of which are meant to be for kids to climb and play around - they're meant to be fun.

We next walked by the Loeb Boathouse, which is this beautiful boathouse in the middle of Central Park where you can actually rent out boats and paddle boats and just pretty much go. It's a beautiful boathouse and can actually be rented out for Weddings (The literal wedding, not the reception, you go, you get married, you leave. Seriously). 

We walked down all the way until we reached Strawberry fields which was dedicated to, of course,

The bridge has an amazing view.

John Lennon. Strawberry fields is a designated quiet space, so no loud music, parties, BBQs or anything like that. About 120 countries actually contributed in some way shape or form to the garden. 

When we got to the part where it was dedicated to John Lennon, I gotta say it was pretty nice, there were people singing songs, playing guitar and the Imagine stone was beautifully decorated.

Meant to be a "getaway"

We walked across the Bow Bridge, which has the most amazing view of the Park, every other view is overrated. You could see the boat and the lake perfectly.

Afterwards, we headed down the Ramble for a bit and it was quite a nice way to just keep walking and just get completely lost in the beauty of the nature of it all. It looked quite natural and pretty to walk down.

We walked by something that looked extremely out of place, it was an Obeliesk in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and I was so confused. Turns out, this was taken to New York and it took dozens of days to drag it from the bottle end of the city all the way to Central Park! They had very carefully pulled it up with horses and in the 1880s, Egyptology was all the rage among the upper classes. Although this structure was from (estimated) 1450 BC, they called it "Cleopatra's Needle" becuase of their strong association with Cleopatra. 

Belvedere Castle,
which is also where
they do the weather
forcast!

As we were walking, I noticed a gigantic beautiful castle looking structure and as I found out, it was the Belvedere castle, which is open for everyone to go up and see! From there, you have a great view of the park, the top of the trees, the nature and the turtles. I could even see the Delacore theatre, which is where they do Shakespeare in the park! 

Speaking of Shakespeare, we walked through the Shakespeare garden, which was made up of flowers, flora and fauna that were mentioned by Shakespeare in his books. Let me just tell you - Shakespeare mentioned a heck of a lot of flowers.

While walking, I didn't even notice until the tour guide pointed it out, but there are numbers on every pole in Central park to show you where in the park you are (so you can't get lost). 

Shakespeare park!

All in all, I had a great tour and learned a lot, and it was completely meant to be - the sun came out and I got to enjoy the beautiful weather in the park! I even made friends with a local in the park who told me some more fun facts about New York.

I headed home and spent the rest of the day trying my best to update everyone on my adventures on this blog (I am so behind, I am so sorry). 

"I love New York City. Everyone is busy with their own lives - and no one is interested in some Hollywood celebrity walking past in downtown Manhattan." James Van Der Beek

There were literary quotes on  my way
to Bryant park

Today was a day to sleep in. After such a high-intensity day before, getting burned and a bit of sun stroke. I decided to take it easy. So my body decided taking it easy meant waking up at 9 instead of 8. Woo. Thank you body. I turned on my phone and tried to check to see if I had a walking tour that day but it turned out I didn't - I booked my tour for the wrong week. #TheSmoothest.

Lucky for me, it was memorial day weekend so there were a lot of tours going on! I booked a tour for the 2pm Mid-Manhattan tour since it was just around the block from me and headed out after writing a bit on the blog.

Looks like coals
on fire

When I got there, it was HOT out. The weather was hot and humid and there weren't that many people on the tour - which was nice because it meant it was a bit more intimate and I could ask some questions. The only real downside was that because I had already taken the Grand Central Station Tour, I already knew a lot of the information that the guy was telling us.

We started off the tour by talking a bit about the history of New York (which I ignored a bit haha). I found out that Times Square was actually named after the New York times! To lure the big company there, it was promised that a building would be renamed after them.

Really cool borrowing book 

Nowadays, the New York Times building no longer belongs to them, but belongs to Walgreens. There is actually so much advertising and the company makes so much money off these ads that Walgreens doesn't even rent out the building. It's pretty much empty inside. Plus people who would work in the building - I'm sure they'd be depressed, what with being unable to see outside. Ever. Thanks to the windows being so covered up.

This is where the
ball drops!

It's actually interesting because I was told that the same company that protects buildings from ads,
also requires the buildings in Times Square to have ads! Ironic.

In the building that actually drops the ball every New Years, I found out why! The idea was taken from Western Union, who had a ball that would drop at noon to synchronize all the watches in the company. The idea was taken and the ball drops every year at midnight to synchronize the lives of many and to live in Harmony. Woo.

Why is this in the middle
of Times Square?

We walked over to Bryant Park and were told that the park was named after New York Evening Post editor and abolitionist, William Bryant who always advocated positively a park like Central Park. So he got this park named after him. During the summer, there are free plays and movies on! Great way to spend an evening. Even when I went during the day, they had this cool outdoor library where people could sit outside and borrow books, newspapers and magazines and read them as they please.

The Empire State building, as we were told, is nicknamed the "Lighthouse of Manhattan" as it is a bright light that you can see everywhere! Almost a way to guide your way. 

The statues of the Gods!

As we passed by the beautiful New York Library (which I still have yet to go), I was told that it was built on two reservoirs that were originally meant to provide the city with clean drinking water (which was a big deal back in the day). La Guardia, the New York mayor during the great depression, nicknamed the two lions in front "patience" and "fortitude," two traits that New Yorkers needed during the depression. 

What a clever man, no wonder he got an airport named after him.

Beautiful building
that was built by a
horrible person

We passed by Grand Central Station and I found out that the building beside it will be TORN DOWN so that ANOTHER skyscraper can be built. You'll never be able to see light in Grand Central again... 

Grand Central actually used to be electric railways and a train depot - not a station. And in the front of the building, there is a carving of three figures, Mercury, Minerva and Hercules - God of finance, wisdom and strength, respectively. The person who designed it did all the work in France as they did not want New York to taint their views. 

Can you guess what country I'm in...

As we kept walking around, we found out that Madison street is actually named after the 4th president of the United States! And as we approached the end of our tour, we found out that the Rockefeller centre used to be called radio city. All the flags, which are usually the 192 UN country flags, were replaced by American flags for Memorial day.

As I finished up my tour, I headed out to go back home and rest up for a bit. I ended up watching part of an episode of Buffy the Vampire slayer (which I want to start watching because apparently it's amazing). I only watched about half before I had to head out and

Atlas! Carrying the
universe.

meet with my friend to go to the bar to watch Game of Thrones! Yes, that is a thing and yes, it is awesome. 

We hung out at the park for a little while and talked about life and careers and stuff like that before about 7pm when we decided to head over to the bar (Professor Thom's) and try to get seats for the show. When we got there, it was already packed and the only seats we could get were ones by the bar, which was A-OK because we could still see all the screens.

We sat there for a bit, talked and I tried so hard to explain baseball to him - he was from Brazil/Italy so he didn't really get it. 

Let me just tell you, it ain't easy to explain. I guess it's simple for me since I grew up playing softball but when you try to explain to another person... It gets hard.

GoT at the bar!

I finally gave up and the bar played the previous week's episode of Game of Thrones and man, was the bar FULL. There were so many people! I grabbed a burger and some sweet potato fries and
watched.

When actual GoT came on, it was pretty damn cool. The whole bar went silent and when I looked behind me, there were dozens of people crowded and standing around the bar craning their necks to watch the show. 

It was just amazing being there, hearing people burst into applause, make comments, cheer, awe, just such a great atmosphere, it was like being at a big Game of Thrones screening party. 

At the end of the night, we walked for a bit and then said our final good byes. 

• 
  

  
  

"Brooklyn, it's a great town, a great city. It's New York." - Patrick Ewing

The Cathedral of
Commerce

Today started off pretty damn early (well for a weekend). I had to wake up so that I could get up and leave for about 9am to get to my walking tour at 10am. Now some people may ask why I don't take the subway (As I found out later on Sunday a bunch of lines don't actually run on the weekends so that's one reason) but my main reason is that I want to know this city. I want to walk around, I want to see the building, I want to get to know the area and explore.

The NY skyline, will change in the next
15 years. 

Not bragging - stating a fact, I have quite a good internal compass and sense of direction. I almost always know where I am and where North faces (to those youngin's with them Zphones and samdsungs and whatever, that's more important and reliable than your google maps). I find that going around, seeing things and looking at the city will help me know it and understand it better than if I was under it. Plus it was a beautiful day (so beautiful that I would later get a sunburn).

They called it Pearl
Street because it is
where Oysters came up

I met up my tour group today at 10am to do the tour of Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO. I actually had the same tour guide as I did last week so I was quite happy and excited - I knew that he knew his stuff and was well trained.

City hall! It has an orange flag outside
because of the Dutch! Also the back
was quite ugly because they assumed that
people would never move behind the building

We started off with a bit of the history of the city (which I get a brief of every single time I go on a tour) which I drowned out a
bit but snapped back into attention when our tour guide started talking to us again! We started off by learning a bit about the Woolworth Building, which for a very long time was the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere until the Chrysler building was built! It was also known as the Cathedral of Commerce because of it's neo-Gothic style. 

Beautiful wavy building.
First few floors are actually
public school!

It was pretty cool because it was also one of the first times that people could actually walk around and pick and chose clothing to buy. Before, they would ask the reception desk for a specific article of clothing and size from them and
that was when they'd buy it. Now, people could see these clothing articles and walk around the store with it. It made them more likely to buy it as they would walk around the store with the clothing, almost as though they owned it. Those clever tricksters. 

They had love locks..
but some people
put in love headphones.

As we were going over the bridge, we stopped (which was brutal because it was SO SUNNY out) and talked about the people who had built the Brooklyn bridge. Initially, the bridge was to be engineered by Chief of Engineering, John A. Roebling. However, just a few weeks in, he passed away from what was originally an amputation that would later turn into tetanus and death.

Beautiful plaque for the Roeblings

When he passed away, his son, Washington Roebling took over the bridge. Unfortunately, this Roebling developed caisson disease, which affected him so badly that he became bed-ridden. He had to give his wife, Emily Roebling the plans for the bridge. Emily Roebling ended up going above and beyond. She went took over all the duties and become the first ever woman field engineer. She took over duties like day-to-day supervision and project management. She dealt with politicians, engineers and all the work that was associated with the bridge - all to the point where people actually thought she was behind the bridge's design. When the bridge opened up, she was the first person to cross it by carriage. She ended up studying and excelling in engineering and math. 

Halfway across the bridge

The memorial building in Brooklyn
with people hanging outside. 

We looked at some other buildings that were on the horizon and spotted the beautiful One World Trade Center (some people call it the Freedom Tower but it is not officially called that for fear of retaliation and fear that it may become a target) and I found out that it is exactly 1776 feet tall. Important because that was the year of independence for the United States.

This is the corner where Clinton has
the headquarters for her elections

It's interesting because before, the Chrysler building and 40 Wall Street used to battle to see who was tallest (So I told you about how the Chrysler building, after 40 Wall Street was built, had secretly built a needle in their basement and 3 days after 40 Wall Street was declared the tallest building, Chrysler put up the needle). Both sides argued about the issue of structural integrity and whether or not it counted as the tallest building if the tallest point did not count towards anything.

In Brooklyn Heights! :) 

After the Empire state Building was put up, the argument was over. Unfortunately, the Empire State building has had several suicide attempts. One in particular, was interesting. Because the building is so far up and kind of isolated with very few tall buildings around it, it creates a massive wind tunnel. One such woman tried to attempt suicide and as she jumped off, she was pushed back into the building by the wind. New York wasn't done with her yet.

This was owned by the
Roeblings. but it was
torn down by the
Jehovah's Witness...
which is where they
started wanting to save
historical monuments

It's interesting because the classic New York skyline will change soon. In the next 14 years, New York is expected to gain 30 new skyscrapers. On top of that, they're planning on building one in Brooklyn as well.

As we walked over the bridge, the tour guide mentioned Governor's Island which was originally called "nut island" because of all of the nuts there. Apparently it is also a very swampy and gross area to be around.

This was originally named after army
men, however, the Queen was mad and
renamed all the streets. No one knows
what they were originally named before.

While walking across the bridge, we were told that some IDIOT decided to run across the bridge and scream that the bridge was falling because it was shaking a bit (it's a suspension bridge what do you expect?). People stampeded, some were seriously injured and at least 12 died in this stampede and for a while, people refused to get back on the bridge. It wasn't until P. T. Barnum decided to lead a parade of 21 elephants over the Brooklyn bridge to prove the stability of it. Man, how cool must that have been? 

Beecher

We talk a bit more about the area around us and learned the name "Robert Moses" who was a very integral part of New York city (As I found out, Brooklyn merged with NYC in 1899). He designed many buildings, planned 150 parks, many bridges as well as the roads and highways. He really wanted New York to become a car city but, as we all found out... He couldn't actually drive himself. He was very against subways and public transit, which is ironic, because with the way New York is built, there is just simply too much gridlock! New York's grid system may seem smart to many as it is very easy to
know exactly where you are and how to get back home, but with the grid system, even though only 18% of New Yorkers own a vehicle, the traffic is HORRIBLE. There are simply not enough alleyways to actually have cars go out and so when a street is closed down, it is terrible congestion. Not to mention the roads are simply not big enough. 

Plaque for Jackie
Robinson

As we walked around the Brooklyn heights side, I found out that every Little bit suspicious here... presidential candidate has some sort of tie with New York. Clinton lived in NYC for 90 days, making her eligible to run for governor, Trump was born in Queens and Sanders was born in Brooklyn! Clinton's electoral headquarters is actually in Brooklyn, on the corner of Clinton and Tillery street.

We walked by this huge statue and here we saw this amazing man named Beecher. Beecher was an abolitionist and his church was almost like the Grand Central of the Underground railway. He helped hundreds of slaves escape and for that he is someone to be proud of. He was also extremely progressive, stating that said evolution and Bible could Co-exist. Back in the 19th century. 

One of the first fire
departments to respond to
9/11. The 8 stars are for the
8 firefighters they lost.

We walked back down and found a plaque where the old Brooklyn dodgers used to play - more specifically, the team that Jackie Robinson used to play with. They were called the dodgers because they dodged trolleys back in the day. Some may argue that this is where the Civil rights movement started, when they realized that blacks could play baseball. 

These railways were active
only just a few years ago!

We then found out about the battle of Long Island between the British and George Washington (Who only had one natural tooth by the time he was president). On one foggy night, on Brooklyn, while the Americans were pushed all the way to the edge of the island, the British were camping out, waiting for the fog to lift. Washington, knowing that if they lost that night they may lose the war, lit fires and covers everything in cloth (books, horse hooves) and sneaks
across to Manhattan. Had they been captured, the war would have been over. 

In Trader Joe's

On our way down, we saw a difference in the housing, there were many houses without stoops, which seemed so odd to me because everyone had stoops. The reason for this was because if there was a stoop, then garbage would not fly into
your door. 

As we were walking, the tour guide explained why it was called "DUMBO" - Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. They're starting to call the area under Harlem "SoHa" for South Harlem.

This city man.

All in all, it was a pretty great walking tour. Seriously recommend Free Tours by Foot if you are ever visiting New York.

Up on the rooftop <3

I headed over to Trader Joe's afterwards to buy some groceries (honestly just chips and dip don't judge me) and then walked back to the subway to head back home. It was honestly so hot and sweltering outside I almost felt like I was going to pass out. Protip: always wear sunscreen. I failed to do that and got mighty sunburnt. It was horrible.I went home and rested for a little bit before I headed out again later that night. It was my french friend's birthday that night and she wanted to have a nice party on her rooftop. 

And so we did. 

The Empire state under
the Brooklyn Bridge!

She brought us food (she made salads, hummus, guacamole, etc), drinks and a bunch of french people - it was pretty cool. I had a great time just sitting on her roof top and I had a deal with all my french friends, they would speak to me in English and I would speak to them in French. That way everyone remembered and everyone benefitted by being able to understand each other. 

Taxi'd back home after a safe and fun night!