We set off around 9am to take the Staten Island Ferry. It is a free ride. All of us kind of split into smaller grps, me, ZD, Wenhui & Eugene travelled tog for this day. Soo Whee & Ron went on the Ellis Island Ferry where they get nearer to the Statue of Liberty and their ride cost a fee. Then Mark & Wenbin went somewhere else.. Haha I'm not sure.
The ferry ride took approx an hr to get to Staten Island & back & including the waiting time. It was pretty fun. The statue of Liberty doesn't seem that tall/big, esp when you viewed it from the ferry.. It was a gift of friendship from France to the US and is a universal symbol of freedom and democracy. Anw, it is an icon for NY so the main purpose of this ride is just to see it.
Near to Battery Park & the ferry terminal is the The icon is the Raging Bull. After which, we set off to Brooklyn Bridge, which was built to connect the island of Manhattan to Brooklyn. If I rem correctly at the time of its completion in 1883 it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. There, you can also see the nearby Manhattan Bridge. We didn't walk the whole bridge, i was hungry for lunch so we just walked half of the bridge..
After lunch, we headed to the Empire State Building where we paid 18 bucks to go up to the top of the bldg to see the skyline of NYC. It was the world's tallest building when it was completed. It was so crowded, I think we queued for almost an hr just to take the elevator up to the top. But the wait & the $ was worth it. The view from the top was impressive. Look at the pics. You can also see Statue of Liberty from there. We also passed by the New York Public Library which was so pretty! Too bad it was closed, so we could only take pics of its exterior.
As night falls, we went to Grand Central terminal (aka one of the stops of subway), the terminal's main hall has a cathedral-like ceiling, very different from the rest of the stops of the subway. The Chrysler Building is in the vincinity. The Chrysler Building is architecturally interesting- sculptures of cars are carved into the brickwork. Walter Chrysler commissioned its construction in honor of his success in the automobile industry. After dinner, we headed back to our hostel. There was enough sightseeing in 1 day. Also, we had to wake up early the next day to catch our flight from JFK to Buffalo. Our flight was sheduled at 9:30am.
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