New York, Day 3: Lower East Side Tenement Museum and High Line

This morning, T. and I walked across the Manhattan Bridge.  It has a very different feel than the Brooklyn Bridge.  I would describe this photo as a People’s History of the Manhattan Bridge, Annotated:

Because of the trains, a lot of the walk was very loud, but some of the graffiti we saw was clever or funny or both.  And as we got close to the far end, there was a delightful smell of Chinese food.

But first we visited the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.  It did all the things that Ellis Island didn’t do.  (Photos are not allowed, so it’s all description…)  Some of the building spaces have been preserved just as they were when the building was condemned in the 1930s.  In some places, some of the layers of wallpaper have been peeled back to show how many, many layers there are, giving a sense of both the weight of all those families and their history and a sense of immediacy to each individual story.  Our first tour was the Irish Outsiders tour, centering on the experience of a family that moved in to the then-predominantly-German neighborhood.  An apartment has been restored with period furnishings and our educator (the museum’s word; I would go for docent or tour guide) showed us photos, artifacts, and other materials to flesh out our sense of what life for the family would have been like just after the Civil War.

T. and I had a break before our next tour, so we scooted out for amazing Chinese dumplings for lunch at Vanessa’s.

Our second tour was called Under One Roof and it traced the history of three families who lived in the same building during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, respectively.  The Epsteins, los Velez, and the Wongs came from different places with different struggles, but all are American.  The mothers in each family worked in the garment industry to help provide good lives for their children, facing the kind of child care and home care issues that wealthier women didn’t start to confront until later.  The families had to navigate language barriers and prejudicial attitudes.  And all of them sought better lives through hard work and perseverance.

Then we walked another couple of miles to the High Line park.  I took this photo because I liked the juxtaposition of the buildings, but you can see the beginning of the High Line toward the back.

It was an interesting walk along the park.  I think it would be lovelier later in the spring when more plants are leafed out or blooming.  Being me, I did find some crocuses to photograph:

I also liked this bit of wall, showing what happens when bricks turn to crime:

I estimate we walked at least seven miles.  We ate a wonderful and large dinner at the Empire Diner and caught at Lyft back to the hotel to rest up for tomorrow.