| We camped in Jersey City down by the marina. The light rail station was just next door with trains going to Hoboken. We did travel on it once. |  |
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The marina holds mostly small craft but there are a few 'gin palaces'. This
is the 142ft super-yacht 'Incentive'. Built in Wisconsin in 2004 by
Palmer Johnson, it sleeps 10 and has a crew of 7. |
| This is a lift boat 'NorthStar
Vision' used to support drilling operations. It has 95ft legs and a 10 ton
crane and can drill two 10in holes. It is powered by two 400hp John Deere
engines driving a 40kW generator. |  |
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The ferry terminal for the boats to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty
are now in the old Jersey Central railroad station. There are no trains now
but lots of trees grow between the platforms. It is more like an arboretum. |
| This is Jersey City on
the west bank of the Hudson. Manhattan is on the east bank. |  |
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We just caught the ferry in time. This is the train station which would have
carried many of the immigrants who had been processed in Ellis Island off to
the rest of America. |
| The southern tip of
Manhattan with the replacement tower for the Twin Towers destroyed in
9/11 rising from the ashes. |  |
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The bridge across the bay from Staten Island to Brooklyn. |
| We stopped at Ellis
Island which was where immigrants to America were processed around the turn
of the century. |  |
 | When the immigrants first arrived they would have deposited their
luggage here in the Luggage Hall. |
| I think our guide had had
way too much caffeine he was so animated. Despite his appearance he is a
native of Manhattan. He was very knowledgeable. |  |
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The hall on the first floor is very impressive but must have been
overwhelming to the frightened immigrants, most of whom came from eastern
Europe at this time. |
| A ship's manifest which
contained details of the passengers. The immigrants had to know what this
said because if they got it wrong perhaps they weren't who they said they
were. |  |
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The calm outside is very different to the bedlam that would have echoed in
the hall. |
| Outside there is a wall
with the names of many of the immigrants. It looks out over the skyline of
Manhattan, as we do. |  |
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The Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately we cannot go up it because it is closed
for renovation until the end of the month. |
| One of several ships
waiting in the bay. Perhaps they will leave on the next high tide. |  |
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This is one of the premier icons of America and there were certainly enough
visitors. We could understand very few of them. |
| The rivers are very busy
with this tugboat moving a barge loaded with stone. |  |
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The WTC tower nearing completion. We do wonder how they are going to get the
cranes down since the building has a tapered shape towards the top. |
| The Manhattan skyline.
Many of the buildings were built in the 1930s but there are many newer ones
there as well. |  |
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There is a constant drone of helicopters in the air which is actually quite
obtrusive. I suspect this is a police machine. It is a 1982 Aerospatiale
AS355F1. |
| Sailing is very popular
with a number of schools in the area. This is quite an impressive schooner. |  |
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Most of the freight comes in on the New Jersey side. This may even be part
of Newark. |
| The Manhattan skyscrapers
look very attractive in the late afternoon sun. The orange on the far right
is the Staten Island ferry at its terminal. |  |
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A wider shot. This is the classic New York skyline. New York is a
conglomeration of five boroughs, Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, The Bronx and
Staten Island. |
| The Staten Island ferry
carries up to 4500 passengers across the bay taking about 25 minutes. It
runs every half hour and is free. It carries around 21million passengers
annually. |  |
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Another form of transport is the water taxi although this is rather more
expensive. |
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