Tag: monuments

Statue of Liberty & Ground Zero Workshop

Monday was our day to visit both the Statue of Liberty and the Ground Zero Museum Workshop , two very different experiences but both iconic and unforgettable in their own ways.

The park service provides a fascinating audio tour around the island, starting with a moving account of how the narrator’s Grandma sailed to the United States as a child of six, scared and unsure of what was happening until she was lifted up and shown the ‘pretty lady’ welcoming her to her new home.

It hadn’t really occurred to me exactly what the sight of ‘The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World’ (as it’s full title was) had come to mean but listening to the different stories it comes across that she is much more than just a statue to so many people, especially to the 12 million immigrants who came through Ellis Island from 1886 to 1954.

To get to the Statue of Liberty you need to buy tickets in advance for the boat trip over to the island plus access to the pedestal of the statue or the crown of Lady Liberty, depending on availability. Unfortunately we were too late to buy anything other then the basic island access but, on arriving in the queue for the boat, we found we were lucky enough to have been given a free upgrade to a ‘pedestal pass’, meaning we got to climb 156 steps up to the top of the base of the statue as well as walk around the island.

The structure and origin of the statue is fascinating, the suggestion is that the statue was a ‘dig’ at France who had promised liberty through the revolution but not delivered, by creating a monument to liberty for the US instead. It was designed by the same engineer who went on to create the Eiffel Tower, using very similar construction techniques and transported from France to the US in hundreds of numbered pieces, like an extremely heavy jigsaw puzzle to be rebuilt on American soil by immigrant labour.

We have yet another day where Scott managed to stay out of any photos, but we promise he was with us! The three of us spent around 3 hours walking around Liberty Island before realising we had less than an hour to get to the Ground Zero Workshop meaning unfortunately we had to miss out our stop at Ellis Island and the immigration centre.

After a slightly hectic cab ride, we made it to the Ground Zero Museum and Workshop. The mission statement of the Museum is “To raise awareness of the heroic efforts of the Ground Zero Recovery workers through the exhibition of Gary Marlon Suson’s photographic collection”. Suson was the only photographer allowed into Ground Zero after the mayor of New York banned all photography at the site 3 weeks after the tragedy occurred. He worked without pay for months to document every facet of the recovery process with the only stipulation being that no photographs would contain the remains of victims or be publicised without consent. Profits go to the charities supported by the museum including collections for recovery workers medical bills and support for children who lost parents in the attack.

Each ‘tour’ of the one room exhibition starts with a 20 minute video describing the events of the 11th September 2001 and contains over 100 photos and artefacts from the day and the subsequent recovery and clear up, each with a narrated description by Suson. The result is an extremely moving record of the pain and commitment from current (and retired) members of the New York Police and Fire Departments who dug for the remains of civilians and their colleagues for over nine months.

It was interspersed with moments of lightness, such as the thousands of mysterious cans of german beer that kept being uncovered in the rubble: It turned out that they were from the original construction workers who would drink beer with their lunch and then hide the empties in the beams that they were constructing.

It’s a difficult experience to describe, suffice to say, if you get a chance to visit or to see the collection, I’d highly recommend it.

Later that evening, Jon and I got the chance to eat a gorgeous meal at The View , a rotating restaurant on the 48th floor, overlooking Times Square. It was a fabulous end to an amazing day – huge thanks go to Craig for organising it for us xxx.

 

Washington D.C. by Segway

 

I was really looking forward to yesterday. Partly because we were going to be in Washington D.C . but mainly because I’d always wanted to ride a Segway .

The day started badly. It was chucking it down with rain as we drove into D.C. and there was an hour long traffic jam. If we actually made it there on time, which seemed unlikely, then we were sure the tour was going to be cancelled due to the rain. However, we were only a couple of minutes late and they don’t cancel due to rain so we quickly grabbed a couple of ponchos and jumped on our Segways.

We’ve tried quite a few new modes of transport this holiday; quad bikes, boats, even a jetpack! But I can honestly say that none of them feel as natural as a Segway. There were about 10 people in our group and they were all trained up in about 2 minutes.

They really are fantastic machines because you just lean in the direction you want to go and if you want to slow down you just lean back. You can’t go too fast and you can’t fall off it because it won’t let you.

I should probably talk about the sights we saw on the way, although they felt secondary to whizzing about on the Segway. We saw the White House , Lincoln Memorial , Washington Monument and the Korean War Veterans Memorial . All of them were very impressive actually. The Washington Monument is currently closed because of the earthquake last month (they’re still checking it to make sure it’s safe) and the reflecting pool (You know the big one Forrest Gump ran down?) is currently being restored so has no water in it, but the Lincoln memorial was very impressive (see photos) and the Korean War Veterans Memorial seemed very fitting and very original.

As fun as it was seeing those and The White House though, the star of the show yesterday was the Segways.

I can’t wait to have another go on one.

 

 

Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorials

Our plan was to drive from Chicago to Yellowstone over 4 days, staying in Fairmont, Rapid City, Buffalo and then Cody on the way. Once we got on the road though, we realised that they were a lot more empty than we thought and that we may as well drive into the night to get to Yellowstone faster.

So, we drove 900 miles on Thursday (14 hours!) and made it all the way to Rapid City on the first night, then nearly 500 miles yesterday via Mount Rushmore straight to Cody, which means we get an extra night in Cody and an extra night in Yellowstone!

Anyway, just outside Radid City we stopped at Mount Rushmore , which was fairly impressive and makes for some good cheesy photos.

Much more interesting however was the Crazy Horse Memorial being built 20 miles down the road in the middle of Black Hills National Forest . It was commissioned in 1948 by the Lakota Indians to serve as a permanent memorial to Crazy Horse . It was originally being sculpted by one man, Korczak Ziółkowski , until he died in 1982 and his sons and daughters took over. It’s a long way from being finished, they’ve only made it as far as his face and arm so far but it’ll get there eventually.

Whilst Mount Rushmore is a government funded memorial, built quickly as a tourist attraction to bring people to South Dakota, the Crazy Horse memorial is a labour of love, which has real meaning for the tribes still living in Black Hills. It’s also going to be 6 times as big as Mount Rushmore.

We then had an incredible trip to Cody, right through the middle of Bighorn National Forest (scene of the Battle of Little Bighorn), driving straight across part of the Rocky Mountain Range . I’ve tried to capture some of the landscapes as we drove up the steep mountain path overlooking the prairies but somehow it doesn’t really translate in 2D. I’ll try to do better in Yellowstone.