The Pond

A spacious green lawn that was originally home to a herd of sheep, which grazed in the meadow and tended to in their nearby pen - a Victorian style building which today is the Tavern on the Green restaurant (see Eat below).

On a triangular city block between Broadway, Park Row and Chambers Street sits City Hall, a gorgeous gleaming white building completed in 1812, which still hosts the mayor's office and the New York City Council chambers. The building itself is fenced off and only accessible by tour, but there is a lovely park surrounding the building, with plenty of shady trees and a pleasant fountain just to the south of the building. Just north of City Hall and on the same block is the 40.71337-74.005552 Tweed Courthouse, a gorgeous government structure and the legacy of Tammany Hall boss William M. Tweed, who used the courthouse project to embezzle large sums of money from the city budget and was convicted in a courtroom in this building.

The historic heart of the Financial District and the home of the New York Stock Exchange, Wall Street is a metonym for American big business, stock trading and the entire financial industry, although most New York financial firms are no longer headquartered on the street itself, but housed nearby in new offices, and some have moved to Jersey City. A narrow street running downhill from Broadway to the East River, Wall Street was named for the wall that was built here in 1652 to keep Manhattan's indigenous peoples out of the growing Dutch settlement. The wall was demolished by the British in 1699. By the late 18th century, traders and speculators would gather under a buttonwood tree at the foot of Wall Street to trade informally - this was the origin of the New York Stock Exchange that was established in 1817.

This beach is a pleasant place to relax. The water is safe enough to swim in, but it's not the best you can get (you'd get a better deal down the Jersey Shore or on Long Island). The boardwalk, one of the longest in the United States, is great for running or biking.

A sort of mini forest, described by its designer as a "wild garden," the Ramble is sculpted out of a wooded hillside, with winding paths, rocky outcrops, secluded glades, and a tumbling stream. If one travels through the ramble when the trees are full, it is easy to lose sight of the city's skyscrapers; it's as if you're no longer in Manhattan. The Ramble is also an excellent place to bird watch, with over 250 species of birds that stop here on their migration.

A picturesque brick building that actually predates the park. It was built in 1851 to serve as a munitions supply depot for the New York State National Guard, and was designed to look like a medieval fortress, with battlements overlooking the area. Today the building holds a refreshment stand and a small art gallery with rotating/seasonal exhibits.

Built in 1765, this is the oldest house on Manhattan Island. It served as George Washington's headquarters in 1776. Now a museum set on a 1.5-acre park, it features a decorative-arts collection representing the colonial and Revolutionary War periods. Washington's office is among the 12 restored rooms.

A riverfront park providing pleasant views of New Jersey and sometimes breezes off the river. Summer brings al fresco movies and music to the park.

Inwood Hill Park contains the last tracts of virgin forest in Manhattan. Many arrowheads and other artifacts of the former Native American occupants of Manhattan Island have been found in this park.

One of the Seven Sisters colleges, and is affiliated with Columbia University.

Most well known as the Model Boat Pond, visitors can often see a racing regatta between members of the Model Yacht Club, or rent a model boat from a boathouse and cafe on the pond. Just to the north of the pond is the Alice in Wonderland sculpture depicting the Tea Party scene, and on the west side of the pond is the Hans Christian Andersen sculpture, which shows the writer seated on a bench reading a book to his Ugly Duckling character.

Housed in a 560,000-square-foot, Beaux-Arts building, the Brooklyn is the 2nd largest art museum in New York City and one of the largest in the USA. Its world-renowned permanent collections include more than one million objects, from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art, and represent a wide range of cultures. It is a 30-minute subway ride from Midtown Manhattan, and has its own subway station (renovated in 2019-20), the museum is part of a complex of 19th-century parks and gardens that also includes Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Prospect Park Zoo. On the first Saturday of each month, the museum is open until 11PM with free admission and special events.

A small museum dedicated to finance and the markets, with exhibits that change periodically. Closed to find a new location as of Mar 2024.

None of Central Park is actual virgin forest, but this is the closest any part of the park gets to feeling like genuine forest. It is beautiful and cool in hot weather. However, like a real forest, it is a mosquito habitat, so make sure to use insect repellent before walking through this part of the park.

An Episcopalian (Anglican) church and parish was first established on this site in 1697 under charter by King William III. The present Neo-Gothic Revival church building (the third incarnation) dates from 1846 and remains a significant landmark within Downtown. The original burial ground at Trinity Church includes the graves and memorials of many historic figures, including Alexander Hamilton, William Bradford, Robert Fulton, and Albert Gallatin.

Containing artifacts spanning 4,000 years of art and Jewish culture, with a collection of 26,000 objects – paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, ceremonial objects and broadcast media. The museum also hosts the annual SummerNights concert series and the annual New York Jewish Film Festival.