A local family's guide to New York City: FERRY RIDE DOWN THE EAST RIVER FROM 90TH STREET FERRY LANDING TO PIER 11/WALL STREET

View of the financial district from the ferry

There's a very busy heliport right next to the Wall Street stop

Best place to start your NYC Ferry ride down the East River: take a ferry from East 90th Street along the East River, it offers a spectacular and alternate perspective of iconic buildings and new construction projects as well as a view the activity (ferries, tugs, water planes, helicopters, barges, speed boats) and industry of New York Harbor. It's a busy place, you'll have your hair tossed, cobwebs cleared and it's a great day out.

The East River and inlet starts at the southern
tip of Manhattan island and separates it and the Bronx
from Brooklyn and Queens.

Best time to visit: Spring, Summer and Fall
Length of trip: Put aside 4-6 hours. Satisfies everyone’s interests
Distance: Walk from subway to the ferry terminal on 90th Street about 1/2 a mile
Suitable for: All age groups
Other Comment:
Nearby eating: Snacks on board
Subway: Q train to 86th Street and 2nd (about 10 minute walk to
Planning Ahead: Worth doing some google searches before you go- Rosevelt Island, Citicorp, United Nations Headquarters, 626 First Avenue a new residential building, the Brooklyn Bridge and the new Frank Gehry Beekman Tower just south of the Brooklyn Bridge. Link: NYC Ferry Service Routes and Schedules

NYC Ferry website route map

START: Keep a sharp eye out for signs for the New York Ferry at East 90th Street and East End Avenue. The ferry is not well marked because of construction - it is hard to find - there are signs. Check out the NYC Ferry website above for tickets and how to access the landing at 90th Street. You will be taking the Soundview route. See link above.

GET OFF AT: Pier 11/ Wall Street

The East River was once referred to as the city's "digestive system" and is considered by many New Yorkers as a toxic body of water. Here are some facts about it:

It stretches 16 miles from the Battery Park to the Long Island sound.

The East River is an inlet, not a river.

It is a vital thoroughfare since passes along the shores of Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx and opens up into the Long Island Sound from where ships can move into the open sea.

It has played a central role in the growth of this city from the Industrial Revolution onwards.

Each day 1.6 million commuters cross over to Manhattan from Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx

Commuters travel by way of 10 bridges, or

15 train, subway and highway tunnels below its waters.

Burrowed beneath its bed is myriad of tunnels transporting gas, waste and containing wiring.

It holds 8 out of the City's 14 wastewater (sewage) treatment plants dotted along its shores - raw sewage, sometimes referred to as NYCs 3rd river, is transported back and forth on ships.

There are also at least 20 solid waste transfer or treatment plants along its banks

It is a watery highway for transporting garbage, sewage sludge, tourists, cargo, boaters and commuters.

Docked barges hold prisoners, swimming pools, museums, restaurant and farms.

The river has at least 8 islands that have been home to prisons (including Rikers Island, considered the worlds largest penal colony) hospitals, asylums, burial grounds and orphanages.

Over the past 15 years the waterfronts of Brooklyn and Queens have been transformed from industrial dockland to residential use and parkland. A green/cycle path has been developed along the length of the east side of Manhattan. In summer fishermen cast for striped bass and flounder and some New Yorkers even brave the water.

NYC 4 Boroughs: Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and The Bronx border the east river

North from the ferry station on 90th Street:

is Wards Island (the larger one) that connects on to Randall's Island farther north. These islands have a long history of being used as quarantine areas where the sick, orphaned, poor or insane were banished to. To this day New York City maintains prisons and insane asylums here.Another small dot of land closer to the Bronx know as North Brother Island is where the infamous Mary Mallon - Typhoid Mary, was banished to. Mary was a typhoid carrier - that is she carried the bacteria but was not affected by it. She was also a cook who initially unwittingly infected the people she cooked for. It is estimated that a total of 51 people were infected from her kitchen skills during her working career. At that time no one was sure what was causing the spread of Typhoid, however health inspectors were on the trail of the disease and in one case it led to Mary. After a number of years, as the Smithsonian magazine reported, she was tracked down: "One March day in 1907, a man appeared at the Park Avenue brownstone where 37-year old Mary Mallon worked as a cook. He demanded a little bit of her blood, urine and fece. "It did not take Mary long to react to this suggestion" the man later wrote of the encounter. "She seized a carving fork and advance in my direction."

The 91street garbage transfer station: NYC has a population of 8.5 million . The Department of Sanitation New York collects more than 10,500 tons of refuse and 1,760 tons of recyclables a day. Only a quarter of the city's garbage is collected by DSNY the remaining is managed by private business which long had an association with organized crime. Spending on garbage disposal is in the region of $2.5 billion a year. 80% of the City garbage is picked up and carted to transfer stations where it is place on barges to start a long journey to export it to landfills, some as far away as China. 20% is sent to be recycled in Brooklyn.

Garbage Barge

432 Park Avenue is the tall slender residential tower shown in the photograph below. It is a controversial new feature of the New York skyline and stands out like no other building. It was briefly the tallest building in Manhattan (before the Freedom Tower spike out paced it) and has been heavily criticized as being a building for the ultra-wealthy. The penthouse was recently sold for $60 million. 5 more slender towers have been added to the skyline since this picture.

List of tallest apartment buildings in NYC

Left hand side 432 Park Avenue (tall slender building) Citicorp building with sloping roof

United Nations Building

United Nations Headquarters:Construction started in 1949 and was finished in 1952. It was designed by an international team of 11 architects including Le Corbusier and Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer. The final plans have been accredited mostly to Le Corbusier but any say that Oscar Niemeyer was the original creative mind behind the structure. According to the writer Jean Louis Cohen who wrote "Corbusier Le Grand", Le Corbusier remained insistent that it was his design.

Uthant Island:is one of the smaller islands in the city. It is man made with a quirky history. Uthant Island lies across from the United Nations building.

626 First Avenue the Copper Buildings is a new luxury residential development. The copper coated outside will eventually turn green and the bridge contains a swimming pool. According to the head engineer working on the project, due to the buildings quirky tilt, the fire department showed up one day having received a report that the building was falling.

Con Ed Steam Power Plant

Con Edison steam generating plant lies south of the Empire State Building

The Con Edison steam system has been supplying steam for more than 1,500 buildings since 1882. The steam is a bi product in the production of electricity and is transported to buildings through pipes that run from the bottom of Manhattan to 96th Street on the west side and 89th Street on the East side. The United Nations, the Metropolitan Museum and a myriad of other iconic institutions use the steam for cooking heating, cooling and sterilizing . Steam offers a cleaner alternative to boilers and without this steam system buildings currently served by Con Ed steam would all have chimneys.

Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town

Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town south of Con Edison: Robert Moses was born on December 18, 1888 and became one of the most influential city planners in New York City. His legacy is controversial since his projects were on a grand scale and led to large areas of the city being demolished. He was responsible for planning housing for returning soldiers. The idea was to provide affordable housing and create a welcoming small town feeling within the city. The plans for Stuyvesant town started in 1942 and the project was completed in 1945 and stretches from 14th to 23rd Streets and from 1st Avenue all the way over to Avenue C. Though the complex looks dense and urban only 25% of the area is occupied by buildings the remainder is green space between building. All in all there are 11,250 apartments providing housing for roughly 60,000 people.

Lower East Side of Manhattan - this neighborhood starts just before the Williamsburg Bridge and ends before the Manhattan Bridge (the last bridge before the Brooklyn Bridge). During the 1850's the Lower East Side was one of the first stopping point for immigrants from Germany, Eastern Europe, China, Puerto Rico, Italy and Ireland. By 1910 over 2.3 million people lived in its tenement houses. A newcomer to the city had little privacy and shared very small spaces with as many as ten people. As families moved up in the world, they moved out. It became a neighborhood in decline until 25 years ago when developers swooped in renovating, demolishing and constructing. The Lower East Side began to have a new blend of residents. The old traditional jewish population go to bed early, rise early and open their doors for business and the young and hip, stay up late and on weekends can be seen moving around in the late morning.

Brooklyn Navy Yard - on the Brooklyn side of the river before the Brooklyn bridge was first commissioned by President John Adams in 1801 in 1937 the yard was designated as a center for the construction of battle ships and aircraft carriers. It became most active during World War 11 when it was open 24 hours a day 7 days a week and employed 70,000 workers. It was just one of many ship yards in New York Harbor at the time. The Navy closed down the yard in 1966 and sold the land to New York City. Over the last 30 years the buildings have been renovated transformed into a center for small manufacturing and houses over 200 businesses and employs 5,000 people. The complex includes Steiner Studios one of the biggest studios outside of California and also Brooklyn Grange Farm uses the roof of one of the buildings as acreage and grows over 50,000 lbs of produce annually on roughly 1 1/2 acres of rooftop.

Brooklyn Bridge with view in the distance of the Freedom Tower and Frank Gehry Beekman Tower

The Brooklyn Bridge - is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States and was the world's first steel wire suspension bridge. Prior to its construction ferries were used by commuters. It was completed in 1883 and was originally designed by John Augustus Roebling, a German immigrant. Building foundations for the bridge proved to be the biggest challenge especially considering that construction had to take place under water. To get around this, giant closed wooden boxes were sunk to the river bed and filled with compressed air to eliminate river water. Laborers would enter the wooden box called a "cassion" and work in dry conditions but short of oxygen. Many suffered from the bends as they came back up to fresh air too fast.

John Roebling died shortly after work started. He contracted a Tetanus infection after an on-site accident and his foot had to be amputated. His son, Washington Roebling took over but shortly after, experienced the bends twice and became paralyzed. The work took 11 years and was completed by his wife Emily Warren Roebling.

It is said that when the bridge opened 20,000 curious New Yorkers came out to see it. Crowds climbed down the steps to walk on it but were nervous about its stability. When a female visitor fell there was general panic and a stampede ensued killing 12 people and seriously inuring 34. It was only after P T Barnum Circus led a parade of 21 Elephants across the bridge that confidence was restored.

Frank Gehry Beekman Tower - this a recent addition to the downtown skyline and a creation of Frank Gehry. He considered the view the building would have and wanted its residents to have a feeling of being suspended mid-air - so he designed a modified versions of bay windows as a feature. Construction was completed in 2011, the building consists of 72 floors and includes a school. As the development of Hudson Yards continues on the west side - Frank Gehry may be involved with phase II of this project.

Frank Gehry Beekman Tower