Click immediately below to visit the new site:: WTC progress

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Manhattan Unlocked Historical and Architectural Walking Tours

Discover hidden-in-plain-sight history and decode the streetscapes of Manhattan on our multi-faceted walking tours where history and architecture meld. Manhattan Unlocked answers the question every New Yorker has asked, "why is this building next to that building, and that building next to this building?" We take that question to its logical conclusion and let the built environment--the city itself--tell its own story!

We realized there's more to the million-and-one things to be seen on the surface of the city today. Manhattan Unlocked takes into account ancient geography and historic transit, in addition to commerce, architecture, immigration and everything else, to explain the city's growth and development. In fact, New York City can only be understood from an all-of-history, holistic point of view.

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Manhattan Unlocked is both a blog and a walking tour company. All tours begin and end at different locations in Manhattan.

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Midtown Manhattan Art and Architecture Walking Tour

Midtown West, Times Square, Rockefeller Center & Park Avenue

Holdouts! Based on the Book by Alpern & Durst

Midtown East, Grand Central & Rockefeller Center

Recreate the Most Requested Walking Tour of 1840s New York

Astor Place, NoHo, SoHo, Chinatown & the Civic Center (Foley Square)

Tenement Housing and Immigrant Life: A Lower East Side Story

Foley Square, Chinatown & The Lower East Side

Explore the Ruins of a Forgotten City in the Middle of Manhattan

Madison Square, Nomad, the Flatiron District & Chelsea

Click Here to See Tours

Friday, November 26, 2010

WTC progress

Just a quick post and a few pictures to show the progress at the WTC site, the soon to be Reflecting Absence memorial in the footprints of the towers. They tested the waterfalls a few weeks ago.

I haven't gotten choked up about September 11 in a long time, but the size of the memorial is staggering when you see it for the first time. It was difficult to view, but I guess it's supposed to be.

That's part of the footprint of the South Tower, I think that's a generator and lights being hoisted up.

The South Tower footprint/Reflecting Absence being born...

The view from the Winter Garden. I've been at this spot maybe a dozen times since September 11 and for years the feeling was like you were looking at a construction site. With the memorials in view now, the feeling here is starting to change.