2012.06 New York: The Statue of Liberty
This trip to the United States was officially a business trip, but of course I still had to squeeze out a little time before and after the meetings to see New York. The problem was that New York is huge, and I was staying in Princeton. The usable time was sliced up by trains, jet lag, and work; without a route planned in advance, I could easily spend the whole day on transportation and queues.
Naturally, I had been too busy before departure to do proper research. Business trips always seem to turn out like this; the same thing happened before Singapore ~.~'" The fastest solution was to meet a colleague studying in the U.S. for lunch and sketch out a practical New York route while eating.
A New York plan squeezed into a business trip
The original plan was ambitious. Sunday morning: Statue of Liberty. Sunday afternoon: Lower Manhattan, Wall Street, and the World Financial Center. Sunday evening: Century 21 Department Store for shopping. Friday afternoon: the Empire State Building. Friday evening: The Phantom of the Opera if I could get tickets, or the Metropolitan Museum if I could not. Saturday morning: Central Park. Saturday noon: the Metropolitan Museum. Saturday afternoon: the Upper East Side around 72nd Street, especially for anyone who liked Friends ^.^
It was a practical plan, but I was not staying in New York. Watching a show on Friday night and then rushing back to Princeton would have been too late, so The Phantom of the Opera was moved to Saturday afternoon, and I gave up the later Central Park and Upper East Side stops T.T
That turned out to be a very good decision. The Phantom part is already in Part 1. This post goes back to Sunday: taking the train from Princeton into New York, then heading toward Lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, and Battery Park.
Riding in from Princeton, with a ticket price that made Taiwan look good
Princeton Junction Station was the starting point for the day. Princeton is a classic college town with a lovely environment, but that will be covered in the next post, so I will skip it for now.
The train from Princeton to New York takes about an hour, which felt roughly like going from Taipei to Hsinchu. What really woke me up was the ticket price: USD$29.5 round trip, about NT$900 at the time T.T
A Taiwan Railways Tze-Chiang round trip from Taipei to Hsinchu was only about NT$360. After visiting the U.S., I felt even more grateful for Taiwan. More of this "love Taiwan" comparison belongs in Part 5: Impressions of America.
Later I found that if the destination was Lower Manhattan, it was possible to transfer at Newark, New Jersey, and take PATH directly to the World Trade Center. That was my 2012 travel experience; anyone actually planning the same route now should check current transit information.
Coming out at the World Trade Center reconstruction site
As soon as I came out of the station, I saw the World Trade Center site under reconstruction. For someone who was only trying to sneak a little sightseeing into a business trip, it gave the day a surprisingly heavy New York opening.
In earlier years, the Twin Towers were apparently an eyesore to some New Yorkers, a little like how Parisians used to dislike the Eiffel Tower. After 9/11, though, people felt a deep sense of loss, as if something was missing, so the decision was made to build the World Trade Center back again ~.~'"
This was also the kind of area where I could easily misidentify landmarks while walking. I thought the church in front of me was Trinity Church from National Treasure, so I happily went in for a look. It turned out to be St. Paul's Chapel.
St. Paul's Chapel sits in Lower Manhattan, right beside the World Trade Center and only a few blocks from Wall Street. When I reached the real Trinity Church, a service was in progress. By the time I came back from Liberty Island in the afternoon, it was already closed T.T
Along a route mixing old churches and financial streets, New York street life still kept jumping back into view. For example, these official vehicles that seemed to have absolute right of way, including fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances. I would like to see who dared block them, or try giving one the finger.. ha~
From the Wall Street bull toward Battery Park
Walking toward Battery Park, where the Statue of Liberty tickets were sold, the first famous thing I saw was the Charging Bull of Wall Street!!
Tourists were all competing for photos with it. Some people say touching its horns brings wealth. Others say you should touch its balls.
It looked like more people preferred the second option ~.~'"
After that I reached the beginning of Broadway. This area had an interesting feel: financial district and old buildings on one side, tourist-route rhythm on the other, with people, signs, queues, and the Statue of Liberty slowly appearing in the distance.
There she was, up ahead.
To visit Liberty Island, I first had to buy a ticket at Castle Clinton in Battery Park. The round building was originally a fort protecting New York Harbor; for me that day, it felt more like the gathering point before the queue.
The ticket was USD$17 in 2012, which felt very reasonable. That is only the experience from that year, not current ticket advice.
After buying the ticket, I saw several squirrels on the grass in the park and took a quick photo of one ^.^
While waiting for security, I turned back and took another photo of the World Trade Center site. Luck was not bad that day: after half an hour under the sun, I made it through ~.~'"
Ellis Island and different angles of the Statue of Liberty
Once the boat left Manhattan, the city suddenly became the background. That was one of the most interesting parts of the day. One moment I was in the crowds around Wall Street and Battery Park; the next, I was looking back at Lower Manhattan from the water.
Ellis Island was the immigration gateway for many European immigrants entering Manhattan in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was not a sight I had carefully researched before departure; it was something I connected to New York's immigration history only while moving between the ferry and the islands.
Then it was time to look at the Statue of Liberty from different angles ^.^
The version I wrote down at the time was this: after the French Revolution, a group of French liberals built two statues of liberty to mock Napoleon's continued monarchism, then gave one of them to the United States. When the Americans received such a huge statue, they had two problems: where to put it, and where to find the money to build a pedestal for it.
Later, a newspaper publisher came up with the idea of fundraising by printing donors' names in the paper. The money was raised quickly, and a proper pedestal was built for the statue. This is the story version I heard or kept in my travel notes back then, so I am preserving it here as part of the trip memory.
The inside of the Statue of Liberty was under maintenance that day, so it was not open. I could only wander around the island briefly and head back ~.~'"
On the return trip, Lower Manhattan became a whole skyline across the water. The route itself was not complicated, but from the train, the World Trade Center, Wall Street, and Battery Park to Liberty Island, this "just passing through" side trip ended up feeling fairly substantial.
In the evening, I went to Century 21 to buy a few small gifts to fool the kids back home....
It was only my second day in the U.S., and the jet lag had not settled yet, so I went back early to sleep. After that, I still had to survive a full week of meetings.
Wait, I came here for meetings. You knew that, right? ~.~'"
I was really only sightseeing on the side XD
Related Posts
2012.06 United States Business Trip Side Story - Part 1 The Phantom of the Opera
2012.06 United States Business Trip Side Story - Part 2 New York: The Statue of Liberty
2012.06 United States Business Trip Side Story - Part 3 New York: Empire State Building
2012.06 United States Business Trip Side Story - Part 4 Princeton
2012.06 United States Business Trip Side Story - Part 5 Impressions of America
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Originally published: 2012-06-22 Revised: 2026-07-15 View the original Blogger post
