On Tuesday, I went into the city with my Mom to scope out NYU as part of our continuing college exploration programme. After our tour finished, I decided to head downtown to visit some NYC areas I'd meant to see for a while.

My first stop was Federal Hall, the building on Wall Street where George Washington was inaugurated as our first president. I got some great shots of the architecture, which was influenced by both Greek and Roman governmental buildings.
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Outside is this statue of George Washington, looking out on the NYSE building. I thought that there was some kind of meaning in the way that the statue looks upon the giant American flag.
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This one is called "Two Way Street"

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As I walked along Broadway, I got some interesting shots of the buildings. This, I believe, is the Bank of New York Building's facade.
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This is the facade of the old Cunard Building, a nice surprise for me!
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And this is one of the arches from the old International Mercantile Marine Co. building, another steamship line headquarters.
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My next stop was Castle Clinton, at the southern tip of Manhattan. This was originally a fort to protect the city in the early 1800s. Later, it served as an immigration depot pre-Ellis Island, and then a zoo and aquarium. Today, it's the "visitor's centre" for the NYC National Parks and the departure point for the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. Though not much of the site focused on the Castle's history, I got some interesting angles and juxtapositions.

I like how this one contrasts the old Castle Clinton to the new glass and steel of NYC.
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And I really like this one of a sort of window/emplacement thing.
[img]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/161/433764931_ef741bd1dd.jpg?v=0[/img]

I did see the SoL, of course, but I left my telephoto home for weight reasons, so I didn't get any shots. When it's not tourista season here in the city, I'm going to take the ferry out to the SoL/Ellis Island, something I haven't done in years.

Here's the part you've all been waiting for!

My last stop was the South Street Seaport, home to the Lightship Ambrose and Titanic Memorial Lighthouse. Today, for some reason, the ships were closed, but that was fine with me, since I had to spend the money I'd brought to get inside on taxi fare to hurry down to NYU. I could, however, still photograph the ships freely.

This is the Ambrose, which was once considered the "official" beginning/end to transatlantic crossings and the entrance to New York.
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I call this one, "Stacked Up."
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This is "Tied to the City", showing those skyscrapers behind the rigging of the Peking, the last wind-powered merchant vessel.
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And this is the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse, built as, well, a Titanic Memorial. Today, it stands a few blocks inland of the ships on the water. I also have a nice animation that I'll throw together of about three seconds of "city life" in front of the lighthouse.
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If you want to see some other photos that I didn't include, or anything else I've taken, please do visit my Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/seagirtlight/.

Don't know that I'm included in "Here's the part you've all been waiting for!" Greg, but nice shots and narrative. History's never boring.

Sandy

Greg, Nice shots of the City!!! Its been awhile since I been there, so it great to see a few photos.

Nice shot of the Ambrose.

Very interesting shots.

Great pics Greg. Are you by chance either an architect or an engineer or want to be someday? You have a distinct knack of capturing things that a normal eye wouldn't see.....love the perspective in your photos!

yep ... I agree Bob. I like the "differnt" angles too!
Great shots Greg! Thanks for posting them!

You got some neat shots, Greg. Very imaginative. "Tied to the City" is priceless.
You do have a good eye for this so keep it up, and please keep sharing with us.

Thanks!

Judy

Thanks for the comments! Much appreciated. I'm working on getting more of my stuff up on Flickr, so even if I don't post it here on the CF, if you check my Flickr page, there's a lot of shots there, too.

I actually wanted to be an architect in middle school. That was until I realised that unless I wanted to build extremely unsafe buildings, I needed mastery of math.

I have no mastery of math.

But I still kind of dream of designing prarie-style and art deco buildings...

Great work, Greg. You DO have a good eye for composition and you've mastered the mechanics of photography as well.

Whatever you end up doing as a vocation, I imagine photography will either be part of it or your avocation.

Excellent job, Greg. Keep it up!