Even Old New York was once New Amsterdam

It has been unseasonably warm here the last few days. It really doesn't feel like January, a feeling echoed throughout the streets of Manhattan. For a change, those wearing shorts don't seem freakish for showing their pasty winter skin, yet those still insisting in keeping with the winter getup - it is, after it is January - do seem a bit out of place. Now if we could only make the sun stay up longer... it's usually night by 5 p.m. or so. It's been the hardest thing to get used to. That and the fact that New Jersey residents can't drive. No wonder that the NJ state government doesn't trust their citizens to pump their own gas... but that's a different story.

To celebrate the fact that the thermometer broke 50 today (don't believe me, I have photographic proof), I decided (what else?) to go for a walk. It was a lazy day for me and I really couldn't think where I wanted to walk, so I just free-formed it as I went along, eventually deciding to explore Broadway downtown. All the way downtown.

My starting point was Washington Square, where I stopped for a Masala Dosa for lunch from a street vendor (more on this in a future food post). From there I walked a few blocks to Broadway and headed south on what is either the state or the country's longest street - I'm going to have to so some fact checking and get back with you on this one.

Walking downtown on Broadway is an interesting experience, because you get to a point where you no longer see buildings in front of you, just open space - something you don't see in Manhattan all that often. The other unique thing about Broadway in the general area of the Financial District is that it is very old New York. Sure whatever happens on a daily basis on Wall Street affects the world in many levels, but did you know that the street was named after the city wall? Apparently the Dutch built it to shield New Amsterdam from its original inhabitants. Perhaps thinking they may come to their senses and renege on the deal to sell the island for a small assortment of beads and coins. Anyway, the location of Wall Street is more or less the northern boundary of the old city back, way back in the day.

Something I found fascinating is the fact that the streets get very narrow, some barely wide enough for a car, some not even that wide. While it's probably one of the most recognizable icons of the modern New York and dare I say the country, the Financial District still holds some very vivid traces of a very bygone era.

I walked to the Staten Island Ferry and contemplating getting on, after all it's free for pedestrians, but decided to keep on walking. Since Broadway ends at the water, I turned right and walked up South Street all the way to the South Street Seaport, a kind of touristy, mallsy kind of operation with good views of Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Bridge, but beyond that it's pretty much uneventful. There are a few restaurants on the pier with outside seating but most of the patrons were eating off of paper plates. Need I say more?

Total miles: 7 or so