Brooklyn Bridge and Broadway

Working in New York feels like a good dream. Every morning I take the #2 express train across the city from my apartment building at Herald Square to Chambers Street – a station in the heart of the Financial District in Lower Manhattan. During my 20 minute commute I pass by innumerable bagel shops and pretzel stands, and usually stop somewhere along the way for a quick breakfast. It’s not bad leaving work at 6:00 and being at the Brooklyn Bridge at 6:15 to take a walk or, better yet, to meet friends in the Theatre District to catch one of the top shows on Broadway.

Arriving Monday night meant I had to unpack Tuesday night after work, and Wednesday night I was so overcome with jet lag that I crashed at 6:30 after work and didn’t wake up until 10:30. Thursday night I was ready to see the city. A fifteen-minute walk across Lower Manhattan took me to the Brooklyn Bridge; one of many unmistakable icons of New York City. It had been cloudy earlier in the day, but the weather cleared up just in time for me to enjoy the classic 19th century architecture of the bridge, and the classic New York City crowds made up of tourists from around the world, local New Yorkers walking or biking across the bridge for a little fresh air, and even a couple of Jewish boys from Brooklyn. At the end of the bridge opposite Manhattan is a park on the East River appropriately named, ‘Brooklyn Bridge Park’. The park offers views across the river to the city, and the impressive bridge dominates the skyline. A handful of people sat along the riverfront, chatting and snapping pictures as the sun lowered behind a jungle of skyscrapers.

Seeing the Brooklyn Bridge is a pretty good use of time for one evening after work, but I still had plenty more time before I had to head in for the night. I visited Times Square last November when I was here in New York, but the place is so energetic and exciting that it deserves more than just one visit. It doesn’t hurt that the world’s most famous city square is only a five minute walk from my apartment either. I wandered beneath the raging lights for an hour or so – gazing around and looking entirely like a tourist and nothing like a local New Yorker. My walk back home took me past some incredible views of the Empire State Building lit up at night; views that I’m sure I’ll enjoy throughout the summer, as the Empire State Building is literally next door to my apartment building.

One of the things I’m most excited about for the summer is seeing a new Broadway show every week I’m out here. With twelve weeks I can see the twelve best Broadway shows, and I started Friday night with the Tony award winning show for ‘Best Musical’ in 2008, “In the Heights”. To me the most distinctive aspect of In the Heights is the setting. For most Broadway shows visitors leave the streets of New York to enter a mystical land created by multi-million dollar props and wildly extravagant costumes. After walking into Richard Rogers Theatre on 46th Street I left the streets of New York to enter… the streets of New York. In the Heights was created by a 22-year-old veteran of the Upper Manhattan neighborhood Washington Heights, and exemplifies street life in New York as seen through his eyes. The various residents of the Heights share their life experiences throughout the show, including Abuela (Grandmother) Claudia’s immigration from Cuba during the 1940’s, Nina’s rise out of the barrio to attend Stanford – then her subsequent fall after leaving school, Daniela the salon owner who perpetuates a deluge of neighborhood gossip while styling hair, and Usnavi the shop keeper who was named after the first ship his father saw upon arriving in America (which actually read, “US Navy”). In true Washington Heights form the entire show is performed in original freestyle rap and hip-hop music – giving it a refreshing twist that sets it worlds apart from the other productions on Broadway.

Later in the summer I’ll get to know the intimate, smaller neighborhoods of New York, but for now I feel obligated to experience the iconic tourist attractions for which the city is famous. Nothing could be more iconic than the Statue of Liberty, and I made that my first priority yesterday morning. After waiting in a line that twisted past hot dog stands and music performers several hundred yards through Battery Park, I finally boarded a ferry headed for Liberty Island. I visited the Statue of Liberty when I came to New York on a family trip in 3rd grade, and amazingly enough I even remember the visit, but it’s been so long that it was high time to get a fresh impression of the national wonder. Sometime before the end of the summer I’ll visit again and see the museum and interior of the statue, but for today I just circled around it and took pictures. It was great to see the statue up close. Seeing it in magazines or on TV is one thing, but there’s something about walking around it and seeing it from every angle that brings it to life. I stopped at Ellis Island before heading back to Manhattan and enjoyed the museum there (which happened to be many times larger than I expected it would be), then took the train home to rest up a bit before leaving for the night.

One of the most exciting things to me about moving away for a while is getting to know a slew of new people. The local singles wards in New York arranged to rent a ferry Saturday night and I spent three hours floating down the Hudson River enjoying amazing views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty lit up at night. About 300 Manhattan singles kept me company, and as I got to know a few people at the back of the boat a DJ blasted music to a delirious dancing hoard at the front in classic Utah-stake-dance fashion. I never would have thought to take a ferry along the river to see the city at night, but it really was amazing and I’m sure I’ll look back on it as one of my favorite experiences of the summer. Afterwards I met up with a friend of mine from BYU that I happened to bump into out here and had dinner at a local diner with a handful of others from the ferry.

Altogether I’ve been in New York five days so far and I think I’ve had a pretty good introduction. Between visiting the Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island, working in the Financial District during the day and seeing a Broadway show at night, and assimilating myself into the local single LDS culture, I think I’ve made pretty good ground. So far I still consider myself a tourist on a big field-trip to New York, but hopefully by the end of the summer I’ll have experienced the city well enough to look back on it all and legitimately be able to say, “I lived in New York”.