The pleasures of the harbor

In the thick of the city, among the mountainous skyscrapers and valleys of avenues, it's easy to forget that New York is, in fact, an island flanked by two major rivers with its southernmost tip hemmed in by one of the most important ports on the East Coast.  

At the turn of the century, New York Harbor swelled with ocean liners and tugboats, sails and masts and steam, with ships unloading and loading their stock, with mariners and merchants, fish markets and maritime pubs. It was a chaotic hub of commerce that played a crucial role in the development of New York City.

Looking out onto the ocean from Battery Park feels as if you're standing at the edge of the world. There's a sense of openness and airiness that cannot be felt in any other part of the city, where high-rises and skyscrapers obstruct most views of the horizon as mountains would. Initially, the park served as an artillery battery, hence its name, and would eventually become America's first receiving center for immigrants.

Cut across eastward to the Brooklyn Bridge, and stop to admire the changing views of the bridge. Follow Beekman Street east to the river and you will find yourself just north of the Fulton Fish Market, which except for a few violent hours at dawn is shuttered and somnolent. It leaves its odor, though. As you stand in the square of Fulton Street, your head lightly enveloped in the smell of fish from the east and coffee from the west, you might try to imagine the scene a century ago: the now-filled square then a slip crowded with every kind of vessel, carrying every kind of cargo from every known port. 

A good place to finish this walk might be the Seaman's Church Institute at Coentis Slip where sailors arriving from the Atlantic would congregate for prayer in its floating chapel barges anchored in lower Manhattan.  The lobby is decorated with mastheads taken from well-traveled ships.  If you need a rest and an inexpensive bite to eat, go down to its cafeteria. Don't be put off by the sign which limits it to the use of seaman and their friends. Anyone who comes in is a friend.