Westover Visit Part 3: George Washington Tour

The last day that Layne and Kris were here we did a self-guided walking tour of sites that were related to George Washington. It was a very interesting tour, and although I had seen a few of the sites before, I learned much more about them.

The tour starts off in Battery Park, which is on the southern most tip of Manhattan Island. It is near the ferry for the Statue of Liberty. The park was full of blooming spring trees and was very pretty. Here are a couple views of it looking back towards the city. In the bottom center of the first one you can see a tiny ball. That is the World Trade Center memorial.

There is a replica of a fort in Battery Park called Castle Clinton. This fort housed cannon that was used to fire at British ships in the harbor. I didn't get a picture of the fort, but I did snap one of the portion of the original wall that is left.

From Battery Park we walked a short few blocks to Bowling Green Park. This is the oldest public park in New York as it was built in 1733. The British erected a statue of King George the III in the center of this park. The fence is the original fence and you can tell because the points are all uneven and of different thicknesses. There were cast iron crowns attached to the top of each fence post. After the Declaration of Independence was read, a group of American patriots called the Sons of Liberty sawed the crowns off of the fence and pulled the statue down. They melted the crowns and the statue down to make musket balls to shoot back at the British. I thought that was hilarious! Sounds like something we Americans would do.

The next stop was a few blocks away at the corner of Pearl and Broad Streets. It is Fraunces Tavern which was a meeting place for the Sons of Liberty. The tavern owner would allow British officers to meet there as well and he would listen to their plans as he served them. Later he would relay any information he learned to the Sons of Liberty.

The next stop on the tour was Stone street. This street is one of the first streets that was paved with stone in New York. The cobblestones are still the original ones. The street is blocked off from traffic and lined with street cafe's. Just east of stone street is the spot where George Washington retreated with his army across the East river in the dead of night without the British realizing it.

This picture is just a view of the city around the same area. I love, love, love the narrow streets lined with tall buildings. The feeling of this part of the city is awesome.

We went to Federal Hall next. This is where George Washington took his oath of office and became the first President of the United States. To read about this event while standing in the same spot that it happened was amazing. It gave me chills.

I didn't know this the last two times we were here, but inside Federal Hall is a museum. We were able to go inside and look around. It is a beautiful building with a large rounded room. Giant columns run around the entire room.

The domed ceiling also is gorgeous with a circular window in the top.

This was the coolest thing... they have facsimiles of the Bill of Rights and Washington's Inaugural Address on loan from the National Archives in Washington D.C. This was one of the open vaults where they are displayed. The vault once held actual gold and silver coins when this building was the treasury.

Visiting this place has wet my appetite to go to Washington D.C. and see the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and tour the memorials that they have there.

Washington's Inaugural Address was pretty neat. You could see his signature at the bottom of it. The handwriting is so cool, full of flourishes. I tried to take close up pictures of the writing, but it is so light that it didn't show up very well.

This is a replica of George Washington's desk.

This is a portion of the original banister that George Washington stood by as he took the oath of office.

This is the stone that he stood on while taking the oath. The inscription says, "Standing on this stone in the balcony of Federal Hall April 30, 1789 George Washington took the oath as the first President of the United States of America." Very cool.

This is a view look out of Federal Hall towards the New York Stock Exchange.

Just over from Federal Hall is Trinity Church. George Washington proposed that it along with other buildings in the city be burned down after they evacuated the city to keep it from falling into British hands. He idea was rejected, but later a fire broke out anyways and the church was destroyed.

Robert Fulton (who developed the first steamboats and submarines) and Alexander Hamilton are buried in the cemetery at Trinity Church.

The next and last stop was St. Paul's Chapel. George Washington went to church here during the two years that New York City was the U.S. capital. He came here to pray on his inauguration day.

This is a picture of George Washington's original pew. I'm not sure what the chair was though.