The Brooklyn Bridge
stretches 6016 feet (1834 m) over the East River from Manhattan to
Brooklyn and was the first steel-wire suspension bridge in the world.
Construction began in 1869. The bridge was completed fourteen years
later and was opened for use on May 24, 1883.
View of Manhattan from the Esplanade in
Brooklyn Heights
NB: Klik på billedet for forstørrelse / Click on photos to
enlarge
Downtown
View of Downtown from the harbour
- with the Woolworth Building in the middle and the World Financial
Center on the right
View of Downtown from the harbour
Left: The Statue of Liberty
Right: Downtown and the South Street
Seaport with its tall sailing ships - viewed from the East River
The World Financial Center
The
World Financial Center. The Winter Garden is seen in the centre
Ground Zero.
The
World Financial Center. The Woolworth Building is seen behind the Winter
Garden
The World Financial
Center is a group of four towers, completed in 1988 as a centerpiece
for the new Battery Park City, built on the Hudson River landfill next
to the World Trade Center. The towers have steplike Art Deco style
set-backs. The facades are of granite and glass, the size of individual
windows increasing with each set-back, changing the facades gradually
from predominantly stone-clad to a curtain wall. The towers are
distinguishable by their post-modern, differently shaped copper roofs.
A prominent Lower Manhattan landmark and the centerpiece of the World
Financial Center complex, the Winter Garden was severely damaged
following the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in the September
11th, 2001 attacks. The 10-story marble and glass Winter Garden atrium
has reopened to the public following an intensive restoration effort. It
is the first major building damaged in the September 11 attack to be
completely restored.
Ground Zero:
In 2004 the cornerstone
was laid
for the new Freedom Tower, designed
by Studio Daniel Libeskind
to be the world's tallest skyscraper, which will stand where the World
Trade Center once stood.The
skyscraper is expected to be 1,776 feet
(541 m)
tall, so designed to mark the year of American
independence. Initial occupancy is scheduled for 2008.
View of Downtown and the Financial
District from the harbour
East
Coast Memorial -
and 17 State Street behind
Federal Hall in Wall Street with a bronze
statue of
George Washington on its front steps
The East
Coast Memorial, 1963, is located at the southern end of
Battery Park. This memorial honors the 4,601 missing American
servicemen who lost their lives in the Atlantic Ocean while
engaged in combat during World War II. A monumental bronze
eagle, set on a pedestal of polished black granite, grips a
laurel wreath over a wave - signifying the act of mourning at
the watery grave.
The 17 State Street, 1988.
The plan of the building is in the shape of a quarter of a
circle and the most striking portion of the facade, the curving
wall of bluish glass, faces south, distinguishably different
from the 1970s buildings that have so far dominated the
immediate surroundings of the South Ferry.
http://www.wirednewyork.com/17state.htm
Federal
Hall: This Greek Revival building in Wall Street is called
Federal Hall (National
Memorial) even though the building has never served as Federal
Hall. But the site marks one of the city's most historic
locations. The original structure on the site was built as New
York's City Hall in 1700.
When the Constitution was ratified in 1788, New
York was the national capital and City Hall
was renamed Federal Hall when it
became the first Capitol of the United States in 1789.
The First Congress met in the new Federal Hall,
and wrote the Bill of Rights, and George Washington was
inaugurated here as President on April 30, 1789. When the
capital moved to Philadelphia in 1790, the building again housed
city government until 1812, at which time Federal Hall was
demolished. The building was
replaced by the current
Greek Revival
structure, the first United States
Customs House, in
1842. In 1862 Customs moved to 55 Wall Street and
the building became the U. S. Sub-Treasury. The bronze statue of
George Washington on its front steps marks the site where he was
inaugurated as US President in the former structure.
The Greek Revival Style (1820-50) was thought to embody
the concept of Democracy.
The Woolworth Building
The
neo-Gothic Woolworth Building was built in 1911-1913 for
the Woolworth retail chain company.
Rising from a 27-storey base, with limestone and granite lower
floors, the steel frame of the tower is clad in terra-cotta,
glazed white to make it look like white limestone, and capped
with an elaborate set-back Gothic top, with the spire rising to
the height of 241.5 m.
It was to be the tallest building in the world for 17 years.
City Hall,
behind the trees of City Hall Park. The Municipal Building towers above it.
City Hall (1803-1811), located in City
Hall Park, has been the seat of New York City government since
1812. The exterior facade is French Renaissance Revival, and the
interior American-Georgian style. Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S.
Grant were laid in state here, attracting enormous crowds to pay
their respects.
The Municipal Building was built in 1909-1915 as the joint
administration offices for the Greater New York, created after
the annexation of Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island
(Richmond) to Manhattan in 1898. The consolidation of the five
boroughs into Greater New York in 1898 created the need for an
impressive and suitably-sized headquarters for the city
government. The building design used the Roman, Italian
Renaissance and Classical styles. The 25-story block is
surmounted by a central "wedding-cake" tower of spires,
colonnades, obelisks and the sculpture "Civic Fame."
This building impressed Josef Stalin so much that the Moscow
University main building (1949-1953) was later based on it - as
well as, in general, the whole grandiose public building style
in the Soviet Union.
East Village, the Lower East Side, Chinatown
Chinatown
East Village
Orchard Street,
the Lower East Side.
The
Lower East Side is New York's historic Jewish neighborhood which was
once the world's largest Jewish community. It was here that the New York
garment industry began. Today it is a favorite bargain beat (especially
along Orchard Street on a Sunday afternoon).
SoHo
Above and right: The
Haughwout Building, 1857. See more below
Cast-iron buildings
(1840-80)
In 1848 James
Bogardus built the first cast-iron building façade in what is now
Tribeca. The technique soon became widespread as a fast, “fireproof,”
economical way to build elegant European-style buildings that imitated
more expensive stone precursors. In an age before electricity, cast-iron
allowed for large windows that admitted more light. Some buildings also
used cast-iron for interior columns in order to create large interior
spaces, for glass sidewalk vaults and stairways, and occasionally for an
iron framework that was a precursor of today’s steel skyscrapers. The
buildings were constructed by mixing and matching columns and door and
window frames selected from a catalog. The elements were manufactured at
a nearby foundry by casting iron into molds, and transported to the
construction site, where they were quickly bolted together into a
finished structure. Sometimes the cast iron was combined with brick or
stone. The iron was painted in dusky colors (never white, which was too
expensive). Details were highlighted in a contrasting color.
Originally built as light manufacturing spaces, warehouses, and
department stores, many cast-iron buildings became artists’ studios in
the 1960s as artists moved into the lightfilled lofts. The artist
residents were followed by the trend-setting galleries, and soon by
boutiques. These drew tourists and in the 80s real estate prices
climbed. Many artists, galleries, and stores fled to Chelsea, Long
Island City, parts of Brooklyn, and Hoboken, NJ. http://www.bigapplegreeter.org/images/MN_SOHO_Feb03.pdf - dead
link
Cast-iron buildings in the italianate style often have a formal symmetry
accentuated by pronounced mouldings and decorative details. The
commercial buildings resemble Italian palaces and tend to be rectangular
buildings of several, spacious stories well suited to their original
purposes as work spaces. The facades usually have the following
features: A flat or low-pitched roof, elaborate cornices, windows
rounded at the top, columns or pilasters flanking, or separating,
windows, balustrades, vertical rows of windows and horizontal belt
courses giving the building a very regular, compartmentalized look.
New York's SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District has 26 blocks jammed with
cast-iron facades, many in the Italianate manner. The single richest
section is Greene Street between Houston and Canal streets. Stroll along
here and take in building after building of sculptural facades. The most
celebrated building in SoHo is the Haughwout Building (John P.
Gaynor, 1857), at the corner of Broadway and Broome streets, a New York
version of a Venetian palace. The handsome facade with cast iron on two
sides has a window arrangement, two small, Corinthian columns supporting
an arch over each window, based directly on a 15th-century, Italian
design.
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/STYLES/STY-Italianate.htm
In imitation of New
York habits Anne and I enjoy our lunch in a sidewalk cafe in SoHo, the
air barely above freezing point
NB: Klik på billedet for forstørrelse / Click on photos to
enlarge
New
York City Subway
&
Brooklyn Heights
Subway mural
Firehouse Engine 205,
Brooklyn Heights
Quiet streets in Brooklyn Heights
NB: Klik på billedet for forstørrelse / Click on photos to
enlarge
Washington, DC
A Taiwanese demonstration in front of
the Capitol
The National
World War II Memorial, 2004. In the background: The Washington Monument
and the Capitol
Anne in front of the White House
The Vietnam Veterans
Memorial (1982)
The Three Soldiers
The Three Soldiers
The monument was designed by Maya Ying Lin of Athens, Ohio, who at the
time was a 21-year-old student at Yale University. Lin's design is a
V-shaped memorial made of polished black granite. The 250-foot long
walls are ten feet tall at their apex and gradually slope down to ground
level.
Maya Ying Linn conceived her design as creating a park within a park --
a quiet protected place unto itself, yet harmonious with the site. To
achieve this effect she chose polished black granite for the walls. Its
mirrorlike surface reflects the surrounding trees, lawns, monuments, and
the people looking for names. The memorial's walls point to the
Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. The 58,191 names are
inscribed in chronological order of the date of the casualty, showing
the war as a series of individual human sacrifices and giving each name
a special place in history. "The names would become the memorial," Lin
said.
The completed memorial has achieved what Lin and Hart hoped that it
would and more. Rubbings are taken of the names by loved ones. Every day
family members and friends leave momentos, and tokens of remembrance at
the memorial making them as much of a legacy of the Vietnam years as the
memorial itself.
http://www.tourofdc.org/monuments/VVM/
The Three Soldiers
(also known as The Three Servicemen) is a bronze statue on the
Washington, DC Mall commemorating the Vietnam War. The grouping consists
of three young men, armed and dressed appropriate to the Vietnam War
era. It was designed to complement the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, by
adding a more traditional component. The statue, unveiled in 1984, was
designed by Frederick Hart, who placed third in the original
competition.
Hart's description:
"The portrayal of the figures is consistent with history. They wear
the uniform and carry the equipment of war; they are young. The
contrast between the innocence of their youth and the weapons of war
underscores the poignancy of their sacrifice. There is about them
the physical contact and sense of unity that bespeaks the bonds of
love and sacrifice that is the nature of men at war. And yet they
are each alone. Their strength and their vulnerability are both
evident. Their true heroism lies in these bonds of loyalty in the
face of their aloneness and their vulnerability."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Soldiers
