This was my second trip to New York. Last time it was in 2018 when I came to Boston on a business trip. With my parents in town, you couldn’t stop at just the Big Apple. So, I included Niagara Falls into the itinerary as well. It was a nice 5 days’ trip. We flew from Seattle to New York. After a couple of days in New York, we drove to Niagara Falls. Then instead of driving back to New York, I drove to Chicago along the coast of Lake Erie and then took the flight back to Seattle from Chicago. The credit for this trip goes to Raj. Raj and I were hiking to Franklin Falls one weekend in March when he told me about he visiting NYC and Niagara with his family who were flying from India directly to NYC. I jumped on this idea and proposed to join him. And this trip came to fruition.

A quick history of New York

For thousands of years the area around New York had been inhabited by Lenape people before Europeans reached there in the 16th century. The first to arrive here was an Italian explorer Giavanni de Verrazano in 1524. He was employed by French king to find Northwest Passage. Northwest Passage is a sea route that connects Atlantic and Pacific oceans through Canadian Arctic Archipelago.  When he stumbled upon this bay area, he named it New Angouleme (Nouvelle-Angouleme in French).

In 1609, an English explorer Henry Hudson sailed up the Hudson River in search of the same northwest passage but didn’t find it. However, he found an abundance of beavers whose fur sold like hot cakes in European market. Dutch established a fur trading camp in lower Manhattan area. A year later, they started the construction of Fort Amsterdam which led to the entire area being called New Amsterdam. Dutch crushed many local oppositions due to its military superiority and took control of the area. Native Americans who resided at this place were alien to the concept of “owning the land”. Dutch “bought” this land from the natives for $24 (yes, I haven’t skipped any zeros) and gradually pushed all of them out of this land. Due to lack of labor force in this growing city, Dutch merchants imported cheap African slaves in huge numbers, so much so that they contributed 20% of entire population in late 1600s.

Anglo-Dutch war passed the control of the city in the hands of English in 1675 who renamed it New York in honor of Duke of York in England (oh by the way, York is a land-locked city and has nothing to do with water, unlike Amsterdam). What started as a fur trading outpost grew itself into a full trans-shipment hub. When Stamp act was introduced by British empire to fund the costly French and Indian wars, it irked the revolutionaries and led to the American war of independence. But surprisingly, New York remained a British loyalist throughout the war. It was military and operation center for the British. There was a huge influx of refugees in New York. More than 32000 of them were evacuated to Britain or British controlled colonies in 1783.

For a brief period of time New York became the capital of USA (even though the largest city of that time was Philadelphia). George Washington was inaugurated as president and Bill of Rights was drafted and ratified here. But in 1790 the capital was moved to Philadelphia. Construction of Erie Canal in 1825, which connected Hudson River to the Great Lakes, provided access to Atlantic trade routes. This opened the door to the city’s success as it was the transit hub for mid-west USA. Huge influx of immigrants started as it was now possible for them to find jobs not just in New York but also in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland – all connected through waterways.

This unique combination of risk-taking immigrants and solid supply-chain through waterways made New York an industrial hub where raw materials were imported and finished goods shipped across the country and continents. Additionally, British decided not to trade with revolutionary cities like Philadelphia and Boston. So, the one they fell back to was New York City (NYC). Just in a decade it surpassed Philadelphia as the most populous city in the USA, a title it holds to date.

I learnt a lot of this from this video – History of New York City – YouTube.

Why is New York City called Big Apple?

First off, it has nothing to do with the fruit apple. The term “Big Apple” was popularized by J. Fritz Gerald who wrote about horse racing in New York Morning. He referred to NYC as the “Big Apple” because all horsemen wanted to win the race here and earn big money. Gradually, this reference started appearing in articles written by other columnists as well. In 1971, this nick name was officially adopted by New York Conventions & Visitors Bureau to promote tourism.

Statue of liberty, May 19^th 2024

The hotels in New York had exorbitant prices, so we had booked a hotel in New Jersey. We drove to Exchange Place in Jersey City where we parked the car. Using subway is the best way to roam around New York. It cost me $30 for a full day parking at Exchange Place. From there we took Path train to World Trade Center (WTC). Westfield WTC is a, underground shopping mall which was opened in 2016. It replaced a similar underground mall that was destroyed in 9/11 terrorist attack. We spent about half an hour at the south pool.

After clicking and few pictures, we walked to the Battery Park from where we had booked a ferry to see Statue of Liberty. Note that the only authorized provider of tickets for statue of liberty and Ellis Island is Statue City Cruises and it can be purchased from here – New York City Statue Tickets & Tour Experiences | City Experiences. You can find more information here – Fees & Passes – Statue Of Liberty National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov). The Statue of Liberty is on Liberty Island. The nearby Ellis Island is also included in the ticket which used to be the official entry point for immigrants entering into NYC.

Officially known as “Liberty Enlightening the World”, the statue is a 93 meters high monument situated on Liberty Island near NYC. The statue was designed by French sculptor Frederick Auguste Bartholdi in collaboration with Gustave Eiffel (the chief engineer of Eiffel Tower). It is a statue of roman goddess of liberty, Libertas, who holds a torch in her right-hand symbolizing enlightenment and a tablet in her left hand on which is inscribed the July 4^th, 1776. A broken chain and shackle lie at her feet as she walks forward commemorating abolition of slavery following American civil war. The crown of Libertas has 25 windows referred to the gemstones found in the USA. It also has 7 rays that refer to the seven continents and oceans. It is made of pounded copper sheets over steel framework. Of 93 meters, 47 meters is the height of pedestal while 46 meters is the height of the statue itself. The original color of the statue was reddish brown, but over period of time it changed to green due to wind, rain and pollution.

The idea of statue was proposed by French historian Edouard Laboulaye in 1865 to commemorate upcoming centennial of American declaration of independence and abolition of slavery. He proposed that people of France fund the statue and people of US provide the site and build the pedestal. The statue began to be made in France in 1870 but it was not completed until 1884 and arrived in US in 1885. Bartholdi completed the head and the torch-bearing arm which was displayed at centennial expositions. The statue was built in France and shipped overseas in crates and assembled on completed pedestal.

It was declared UNESCO world heritage site in 1984.

Wall Street and Times Square, May 19^th 2024

We finished our lunch at café on Liberty Island before heading back to NYC. It was already 5 PM by then. We walked to Wall Street to see Charging Bull. When I visited this place in April 2018, there was a bronze statue of Fearless Girl standing right in front of Charging Bull depicting the women empowerment. Fearless Girl was commissioned by State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) to advertise for an index fund that invested in gender-diverse companies that had high percentage of women among its senior leadership. This statue was moved from there in Nov 2018 following the complaints and placed in front of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

From there we went to Time Square. The place didn’t match the taste of my parents so after clicking a few pictures there, we took the subway back to WTC and Exchange Place.

Niagara Falls, May 20^th 2024

We checked out of our New Jersey hotel early in the morning and drove towards Niagara Falls. We had booked Maid of the mist boat ride. By the time we reached there, it was 5 PM and managed to get the second last boat ride of the day. We were aboard by 5.30 PM. As we encountered American falls, I mistook it as Niagara Falls. So, I was a bit disappointed. But as the boat went forward, Shalini pointed me to look ahead as a torrential mist slapped our face. That’s when I squinted at another majestic waterfall we were sailing towards. The mist from the waterfall was so dense and force so powerful that I couldn’t even see the other end of the fall. Our timing was perfect as we got to see a perfect rainbow up close. It was 30 minutes of absolute joy and amazement. The very fact that my mom was interested in doing it again even though it costed $25 per person told me how much she enjoyed it (we didn’t do it second time though due to logistical challenges).

Niagara Falls is a combination of 3 waterfalls – American falls, Bridal veil falls and Horseshoe falls. American and Bridal Veil Falls lies in US while Horseshoe Falls staddles the boundary of US and Canada. The largest of them, Horseshoe Falls, is about 60m high and 800m wide. American Falls and Bridal Veil falls are separated by Luna Island, while the Horseshoe Falls and Bridal Veil Falls are separated by Goat Island. Both Luna and Goats Islands are part of New York. The water of Niagara Falls comes from the Niagara River. Lake Erie narrows into Niagara River which flows with great force at Niagara Falls and empties into Lake Ontario which eventually merges in Atlantic Ocean. The vibrant green color of Niagara water is due to dissolved salts and very finely ground rock generated due to erosive force of Niagara River.

After the boat ride, we walked to Terrapin point from where you can see the majesty of Horseshoe Falls up close. We clicked a lot of pictures there before leaving the place around 9 PM.

Next day we drove from Niagara Falls towards Toledo, Ohio where we took a halt on 21st night. On our way, the major highlights for me were Dunkirk Harbor (New York), Presque Isle State Park (Pennsylvania) and Cuyahoga Valley National Park (Ohio). We drove towards Chicago on 22nd. We had thought of stopping at Millenium Park at Chicago for a couple of hours before our flight in the evening, but we got caught in heavy traffic and had to skip it. Last few hours were quite adventurous as we had a narrow escape. Chicago airport is right in the heart of the city and back-to-home rush in the evening can easily cause unplanned delays. Thankfully, we managed to reach the airport just on time.

Overall, it was a nice trip. My parents enjoyed a lot. For me, maid of the mist was the clear winner.