All Aboard the Circle Line

The Circle Line has been sharing New York City's skyline and its history with passengers since 1945. And let me tell you, that skyline has changed a lot since I arrived in the City fresh out of law school in 1986. 

We boarded at Pier 83 and within minutes were in front of the long-defunct Pier 54 with its storied history. Pier 54 was where the survivors of the Titanic disembarked back in 1912. It was also the embarcation point for the ill-fated Lusitania. Today, the site is home to Little Island, a park and event venue that is definitely worth a visit. Last year I saw "Robeson" there, and I will never forget Davon Tines bass-baritone voice booming out into the night. But back to the tour. 

With Oscar and Lady Liberty

One of the highlights of these tours is getting close enough to the Statue of Liberty to have your picture taken with Lady Liberty behind you. And so we did. As you may remember from your history lessons, the statue was given to the United States in 1885 not by France the country but by the French people. The sculpture was designed by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, with an assist on the framework from Gustave Eiffel. 

The sculpture is made of 31 tons of copper sheets that were hammered over the frame in Bartholdi's studio. She was then disassembled into 350 pieces and shipped to the United States in 214 crates. Reassembling her must have been like a massive Lego project. 

The Statue was a generous gift, of course, but she came without the pedestal on which she stands. Approximately $250,000 ($8.5MM today) had to be raised for the Statue's perch. More than $100,000 of that amount was obtained through an early crowdsourcing campaign mounted by Joseph Pulitzer in his The New York World newspaper. The vast majority of donations  -- each of which was noted in the paper -- were under $1.00. For more on this bit of Lady Liberty's history, click here. 

Emma Lazarus' poem "The New Colossus" was also a part of these fundraising efforts. Two years prior to Pulitzer's campaign, the Pedestal Fund Art Loan exhibition was held, and "The New Colossus" was included in the exhibit. The proceeds from the event were donated towards the purchase price of the plinth. Visitors today can read the poem's welcoming words to immigrants on a plaque inside the Statue. And now on to a couple of the more recent additions to the skyline. 

The Copper

The "dancing towers" of The American Copper Buildings ("The Copper") are a luxury apartment complex located on 1st Avenue between E. 35th and E. 36th Streets. The skybridge is home to some of the amenities residents can enjoy, including a 75' lap pool. (Don't worry, there's a rooftop pool too if you're more interested in lounging.) The building gets its name from the fact that the exterior was finished with copper plates. Over time, the patina of the building, like that of the Statue of Liberty, will change from reddish-brown to green. 

And what about that bend in the building on the left, which is seven stories higher than its companion structure? Apparently it's only a 7 degree angle, with the lean not being discernible to residents. While slightly off point, this is unlike the experience of residents at 111 W. 57th Street, the thinnest supertall building in the world. The building is so thin -- how thin is it? -- that it can sway up to three feet in a strong wind. No, thank you. Click here to see that structure.

Via 57 West

I'll leave you with an image of another striking apartment building where yuppies (is that still a term?) began living in 2016. The tetrahedron-shaped building is a "courtscraper," a hybrid structure that features both 709 apartments and a 22,000 square foot European courtyard block. For an overhead image of the complex, click here. It would be nice to have this private green space outside your door. 

This is just a tiny portion of what we saw and learned during our tour up and down the Hudson. (Sadly, the tide was too high to allow full circumnavigation of Manhattan without getting stuck under a bridge.) If you find yourself in the City on a beautiful day, the Circle Line is a great outing. Sure, it's touristy. But who cares? It's a unique way to see the skyline of The City That Never Sleeps and learn some tidbits about its history. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

For a bit more on the City's skyline, click here to see its evolution over the last century. And for some pictures of some funkily shaped buildings either proposed or under construction, click here.