At the end of our rushed day in NYC on April 9, we finally had an opportunity to relax. After walking the short distance down 42nd Street to Pier 83 on the Hudson River, we exchanged our vouchers for tickets and then stopped off at the adjacent P.D. O'Hurley's restaurant to enjoy a light supper. Then we got in line at Circle Lines, boarded the boat, and waited for our Harbor Lights cruise around Manhattan.
Our tour guide told us that the January '09 incredibly soft crash landing on the Hudson River of US Airways Flight 1549, with Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger at the controls, occurred very close to our starting point. As a matter of fact, no one there, including the guide, had heard any sound indicating the landing (which was out of sight around the corner) until they heard approaching sirens. The firefighters and related disaster teams boarded the Circle Lines boats (including the one we were riding), went to the plane and rescued its passengers. So that injected an interesting bit of recent history into our tour.
We first went south on the Hudson River, with New Jersey to our right and the Manhattan skyline to our left. The guide pointed to the World Trade Center construction site, where a new, much taller building than the original WTCs is currently being erected where the North Tower stood. On the original South Tower site, a memorial will be built to all of those who perished in the abominable terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.
The Statue of Liberty came up on our right, and naturally many of the passengers got up to take pictures. We took a few, but the boat didn't really get close enough to do the Statue justice. Circle Lines does provide a separate tour specifically designed for those who want to visit the Statue of Liberty, but we opted instead for the Harbor Lights tour with our City Pass.
Going around the southern tip of Manhattan, we saw Battery Park again on the left (we rode by it the previous afternoon on top of a Grayline bus) and Governor's Island on the right. The guide pointed to a ferry boat, informing us that it was the Staten Island Ferry and, believe it or not, it was still FREE to ride it!
Around the east side of Manhattan up the East River, our guide pointed out that no one is known to have ever successfully swum across the swift, strong currents of the East River all the way between Manhattan and Brooklyn. He identified the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges connecting the two boroughs. We passed an extremely long section of large apartment dwellings, built around 70 years ago on a tract that Peter Stuyvesant once had his farm on. And as the boat turned around to make its return in the opposite direction, we noted the United Nations buildings.
For most of the tour, I stayed seated indoors, where it was warm and there were big windows everywhere to look out at the sights. But going back, I decided to step outside onto the deck, where it was pretty chilly and windy. Whoa! What a different experience! I thoroughly enjoyed standing there as the lit up Manhattan skyline (or Brooklyn's, depending on where I was facing) dazzled me. Quite an unforgettable experience, something I would recommend to anyone interested in visiting this area.
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