On a hot and hazy day in New York City last week I decided to cool off a little by taking a Zephyr Seaport Liberty Cruise of New York Harbor. The Zephyr Yacht features comfortable seating both inside and out and a knowledgeable tour guide provides live commentary throughout the cruise. It departs from South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan. My husband works in one of these downtown buildings, so waved "hello" to him as I waited online to buy my ticket.
I hope you can come along with me for the hour long cruise as there is so much I'd like to show you! (all photos can be enlarged by clicking on them once and then again when they open)
Let's hurry on board and get a seat on top so we can see all the sights.
As we depart South Street Seaport we get a good view from the port (left) side of the yacht of the Brooklyn Bridge which crosses the East River and connects the borough of Brooklyn, where I live, to the borough of Manhattan.
On the starboard (right) side of the yacht we see the red Pier 17 seaport building getting smaller as we move along the river towards the harbor. As you can see the sky was full of humid haze and clouds but we are getting a nice breeze on top of the yacht.
The seaport and Brooklyn Bridge fade into the distance.
We are now in the harbor and we can see the Verrazano Narrows Bridge that connects Brooklyn to the borough of Staten Island from the port side of the yacht. If you remember my blogs posts about the American Revolutionary War Battle of Brooklyn it was in the Narrows where the British warships all congregated, and where their army came to shore. It is a very busy entrance from New York Bay into New York Harbor.
From the starboard side we see the buildings of Battery Park City.
Now we are passing the World Financial Center. The glass Winter Garden pavilion can be seen in the middle and behind that the Freedom Tower being constructed at the former World Trade Center site at ground zero.
Another boat ride that I could have taken today is the Shark Speedboat. My husband and I took this boat ride once and it was lots of fun, as they play music and go really fast! I like the red color of this one!
The Zephyr cruises up the Hudson River as far as the northern end of Battery Park City so that we could see the Empire State building.
A close up of the Empire State building.
The Zephyr yacht turns and we begin to cruise back towards the harbor.
On our starboard side we pass some office buildings of Jersey City, in New Jersey.
Next we see the red brick building of Ellis Island National Park. The Statue Cruises Ferry that brings visitors to the island from Battery Park or Liberty State park in New Jersey, can be seen docked on the left. I highly recommend a visit to Ellis island as part of a visit to the Statue of Liberty. The ferry ticket usually includes passage to both islands. Opened on January 1, 1892, Ellis Island became the nation's premier federal immigration station. In operation until 1954, the station processed over 12 million immigrant steamship passengers. The building has been beautifully restored after 30 years of abandonment and opened as a museum on September 10, 1990.
We slowly sail past the beautiful Statue of Liberty. Of course I took many photos of her, and if you look at my prior post you'll see quite a few of Lady Liberty.
We turn back towards lower Manhattan and seem to be following a Statue Cruises ship. Just look at the haze surrounding the city! I think the temperature was in the high nineties and the humidity was almost the same. This July was the hottest on record for NYC!
A Staten Island Ferry is passing us on the port side. New York Harbor is a busy place, full of boat traffic.
A round trip ride on the Staten Island ferry is NYC's best bargain as it is free!
We now pass an old fort being renovated on Governors Island. Notice the vintage cannon on top of the building. Governors Island was once a military base and home to the US Army and Coast Guard. Today, the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation oversees 150 acres of the Island, while the National Park Service manages the balance, the 22-acre Governors Island National Monument which includes two 1812-era forts. An interesting history timeline of the island can be seen on this link.
We cruise back into the East River.
If you look closely you can see the tree tops of the Elevated Acre I once blogged about. It's a wonderful little "secret garden." A helicopter just took off from New York Helicopter. The narrow building with the red roof is the NYC Police Museum which I blogged about on this post.
If you look closely between the buildings in this photo you can see the spire of Trinity Church which is located near Wall Street.
We return back to the pier at South Street Seaport and I can see a crowd has formed waiting to board the next cruise. I hope you enjoyed the ride!
