Sunday August 9, 2009
Core of the Big Apple
By LIM AI LEE
Two tours provide an unique perspective on one of the world’s most popular cities, New York
WITH a mighty splash! our bus rolls into the water. Instead of screams of terror, however, there are squeals, followed by delighted laughter as water splashes the passengers.
We are on an NYC Ducks Tour, which uses an ingenious half-bus, half-boat to provide an “amphibious” tour of New York City and the Hudson River.
It’s a bus! No, it’s boat! No, it’s both! This is NYC Ducks Tour’s ingenious vehicle that offers an ‘amphibious’ tour of New York City. – LIM AI LEE / The Star The tour is part of the city’s 400th anniversary programme and celebrates the historic voyage of Captain Henry Hudson, an English explorer who laid the foundation for Western colonisation of the region when he sailed up the Hudson River in 1609.
The aqua bus is designed to evoke the memory of the captain’s famous ship, the Half Moon. The hull, filled with a salt-water resistant marine foam, is designed to rise above choppy waters.
Our tour doesn’t start on water, though; we begin in Times Square in Broadway, climbing a ladder to get to our seats.
High above it all
The elevated bus offers a fantastic view of the square dubbed the Crossroads of the World and the inner city as it navigates its way through heavy morning traffic. The crawl turns out to be a blessing, though, as we could spend more time drinking in the sights as well as taking pictures.
With an almighty splash! the Duck enters the Hudson River for the watery part of the tour. – Photos from NYC Ducks Tour Everywhere we turn, bright, colourful billboards, neon signs, and theatre marquees greet us.
Looking ahead and up, we see Manhattan’s most famous buildings, like the old New York Times Tower, the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center as well as more recently built, futuristic skyscrapers.
Looking down from the bus is fun too, what with the bustling street action and the ubiquitous yellow cabs honking and determinedly inching their way through the jams.
It’s a great way to get to know the city, as our chatty and knowledgeable tour guide points out interesting places and buildings and gives a lively account of their history.
The Gateway to America tour gives you, among other unique sights, a close-up look at the graceful Brooklyn Bridge. – NY Waterway The Duck rides past the legendary lions of the New York Public Library, scenic Bryant Park where cable channel HBO is holding its Summer Film Festival, and the quaint Meatpacking District where, alongside still operational meatpacking plants, fashion designers, writers, architects, and artists have created a famous destination for design, architecture, and fashion.
River-eye view
Soon, we arrive at the edge of the Hudson River, and the bus drives into a small enclosure that doubles as the Ducks Theatre for an unusual history lesson on how the river and region was discovered by Hudson and how he founded the city.
There is darkness for a moment before giant screens appear before and beside us. We rock and splash on the Atlantic Ocean in a simulated recreation of Hudson’s journey that comes complete with the sights and sounds of rumbling thunder, rushing wind, and crashing waves.
Then, we are ready for the real thing: an explorer’s eye view of New York City from the Hudson River. But we see something that Hudson never did: the magnificent skyscrapers of Manhattan, one of the city’s five boroughs (the others being Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island).
Our “bus” also sails round the harbour for a close-up view of the Sea, Air and Space Museum housed on the World War II aircraft carrier, the USS Intrepid.
After the cruise, we return to dry land and make our way to Times Square where we “disembark” from our aqua bus.
The Duck takes in the Sea-Air-Space Museum on board the USS Intrepid that’s docked permanently in New York City Harbor. All in all, it is 75 minutes of fun and facts about historical and modern day New York.
Listening to history
While the Duck Tour is a fun way to see New York, NY Waterway’s newly launched Gateway to America Tour delves more deeply into the history and brings 400 years of New York Harbor’s extraordinary history to life.
The boat tour offers a spectacular view of the Manhattan skyline and of Brooklyn Bridge, Ellis Island (famous in the 20th century for being the disembarkation point for thousands of immigrants), Governors Island, the Statue of Liberty, and Verrazano Bridge.
The tour’s accompanying audio track begins with an introduction by David Rockefeller Jr, whose grandfather, renowned philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr, was instrumental in helping to preserve green spaces by buying private land and donating it to the US National Park Service.
Narrated by actress Kathleen Turner, the audio tour explores the ways in which commerce, defence, geography, and immigration have shaped the history, and continues to mould the future, of New York City and its harbour.
The stories on the audio track include several about the five military forts that protected the city from invasion, now cherished historic icons, and of the harbour’s role as a gateway to America for generations of immigrants.
Passengers hear sound, special effects, and original music that bring to life the drama of the thriving commercial port.
People’s parks
Marie Salerno, president of the Harbor Conservancy, says that Gateway to America is the National Park Service’s only tour that ties together all five themes of the national parks that ring NY harbour: the birth of the nation, commerce, immigration, harbour ecology, and military defence.
“The itinerary weaves together the harbour’s history, from its first settlement by Native Americans to the tragic events of 9/11 (the 2001 terror attacks), with insight on the unique geographical and environmental features that made the harbour the most valuable commercial asset of a growing nation through four centuries,” Salerno explains.
“Each year, millions of local residents and tourists are awestruck when they discover the natural, cultural, and recreational treasures in New York Harbor. They are even more surprised when they learn these sites are national parks,” says Maria Burks, Commissioner of the National Parks of New York Harbor.
“The national parks are the people’s parks, as are the treasures within them. This boat tour helps visitors to understand why these historic sites are truly worthy of national park designation and protection.”
The tour is the first of its kind in New York City to present commentary by National Park Service Rangers.
Also providing interesting insights and engaging remarks are notables like Daniel Libeskind, who emigrated to New York from communist Poland as a teenager and became one of the world’s leading architects; Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough; Columbia University professor, historian, and Encyclopedia of New York editor, Kenneth T. Jackson; and world-class swimmer Nancy Steadman Martin.
> NYC Ducks Tour is run by NY Waterway and Gray Line New York Sightseeing, and will operate until Oct 31; for highlights, go to coachusa.com/nycducks. For highlights of the Gateway to America tour, go to nyharborparks.org/visit/tour-gateway-to-america.html.
Lim Ai Lee is The Star’s North America Bureau Editor, based in New York.
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