West Street (West Side Highway) between Canal and Canal

Canal Street actually splits about a block before reaching the West Side Highway, so that there is a block where the two cross streets are Canal and Canal. I find that amusing for some reason. 

Canal Park is in this spot, a small triangular plot with some trees and benches and not much else. It's nice, though. 

Most of the trees were pretty bare, with it being February and all.

 But there actually were some red berries.

I don't know what kind of berries they were but I assume they shouldn't be eaten. Don't eat strange berries, kids.

At 10pm everyone has to clear out. Actually there was no one else there when I stopped by:

It's good to know: if you want a Manhattan park to yourself, all you have to do is come here on a cold, overcast February day when it's unpleasant to be outside for too long, especially near the water where it's windy. Enjoy!

On the ground was a stone with some information:

Some of it might be hard to read in the photo, but at the top it says, "Established as public space in Dongan Charter by King James II 1686." 

The Dongan Charter established Albany, New York as its own city. The governor of New York Province was Thomas Dongan. I couldn't find online mentions of the Charter making this area a public space, but I'll take the stone inscription's word for it. 

Here's some of the original Charter:
              



I guess that could really be a picture of any old document, but apparently it is some of the Dongan Charter. 

Just in front of Canal Park, on the same island between all the traffic, is this little fellow:

Four of its sides have historical illustrations in the form of detailed, raised etchings that seem like they were made in a technologically advanced sort of way. You know, like with lasers and computers and stuff.

(I guess a bird didn't like that one too much.)

I wish there was still a flower market there. Maybe there is during the warmer months. I'll try to follow up on that.

I had no idea this little park went back so far. Pretty cool. 

A few blocks east on Canal Street is the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, which opened in 1927 and goes under the Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey. 


In fact, the Manhattan-bound lanes of the tunnel actually go directly under Canal Park. Another interesting thing I learned is that these buildings below are two of four ventilation structures that take carbon monoxide out of the tunnel:

(When I was looking at the building above I thought it might be a cell phone tower, but I think the ventilation thing is much more interesting.)

Thomas Edison believed that ventilating a tunnel with so much traffic would not be possible, but the engineer Ole Singstad figured out a way to do it. I must admit, if Edison said a project couldn't be done, I would pack up my things and head home. Way to go, Ole Singstad.


It is admittedly not very quiet around Canal Park, being surrounded by a highway and tunnel traffic.

But it's nice that it's right next to the water. Even in Manhattan there is a draw to finding the island's edges to be closer to the water, as Herman Melville wrote more eloquently than I ever could. 

 Please stay on this side of the railing, kid. We don't want a "Superman II" situation on our hands.


Here's a blurry seagull:

There were a bunch of seagulls in the area. Do seagulls not migrate in the winter? Maybe that was a dumb question. 

I believe there are chairs and benches in between these trees during the warmer months, but I guess the city removes them in the winter because no normal person would want to sit out there now. I was sitting on a nearby short wall while I took this photo, by the way. 

I guess someone figured, 'If I could just take these signs off, then I could remove all the furniture I want.' Or maybe they just said 'screw it' and stole the furniture. Hey, maybe that's actually why there's no furniture there now. This could be turned into a mystery novel. A very, very trivial mystery novel. 

Speaking of mysteries, I wasn't sure what this nearby building was:

Maybe it was a cousin of the fashion company DKNY? It turns out that DSNY is the Sanitation Department. The flags were at half-staff, perhaps for the recent death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Here's some other buildings nearby along the West Side Highway:

Call me old-fashioned, but I don't like the modern, mostly-glass look of many newer buildings. I don't know how old that red building in the middle is, but I wish newer buildings were more like that, with a more earthy look to them.

I do like these purple and green tiles:

And the blue basketball court:

That about wraps it up from Tribeca. Have I mentioned before that Tribeca stands for Triangle Below Canal? Well, it does. So I guess that technically makes this block just above Tribeca. Hmm.


One last note: At the top of the website on the right, I added an option to follow this blog through e-mail. If you like the blog, please submit your e-mail address there and verify through the e-mail it will send you. Then you'll be notified every time I write a new post. Thanks, and thanks for reading. 

Pier 16 at South Street Seaport

 
This block is very far downtown, even by downtown standards. The street intersection next to Pier 16 is South Street and John Street. Between South Street and the pier is the overpass for the FDR Drive, which is the highway on the east side of Manhattan.

In my previous post I talked about not complaining anymore about scaffolding or construction, or even mentioning them, but for the South Street Seaport it does need to be briefly mentioned that it is under a big construction project that is planning to remake much of the area. I'm not complaining, that's just the reality of visiting the seaport these days.

Okay, maybe I'll complain a little about the cranes interfering with the view from Pier 16 of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge, but that's the only complaint. And messing up a view is not the biggest deal, after all.

At least parts of the bridges can still be seen well.

The Brooklyn Bridge is certainly majestic, but I always felt that the Manhattan Bridge was very underrated. It's also a nice bridge to walk across, less of a tourist experience than the Brooklyn Bridge.

Here's the East River and Brooklyn on the other side:

Here's a seagull I saw:

If I had a pet seagull I would name him Jim. Or Phyllis if it was a lady seagull. Seagulls probably don't make good pets, though.

 That's a big ol' mound of gray snow that was nearby.

One of the ships docked at the pier is the Peking:

It was made in Hamburg in 1911 and used for bringing trade materials to and from South America.

The pier was pretty empty when I visited. Despite that, there was a food vendor and a couple of tourist stands near the intersection with South Street:

It gets more crowded during the warmer months, and I bet it'll get super crowded when all the renovations are complete. Maybe the new look for the area will be nice, though. I don't know how many years away that is, but I look forward to checking it out.

That's all for this post. Here's one more photo: