Lower Manhattan is very different than the rest of the Island. It doesn’t have the bright lights and huge tourist traps of Midtown, or the wide streets and old money of Uptown. It doesn’t even have the grid system that the rest of Manhattan uses to organize itself. Instead of the perpendicular numbered streets and avenues, we have streets that intersect at weird angles with names that don’t really make sense. The distance from 47th to 55th? Easy. The distance from Water to Church? Yeah, your guess is as good as mine.
The population is different down here, as well. The numbers go up as the work day begins, and by 8 p.m., the streets are empty. It’s probably the only part of The City That Never Sleeps with an early bedtime.
But after living in the Financial District for about six months, I’ve found a love for the often overlooked part of New York City. I’ve found a home in the midday rush and the quiet evening hours. I adore the way I can walk to Battery Park and follow the curve of this incredible island all the way to South Street Seaport. I feel more at ease around the fountain in City Hall Park than the rocks in Central Park. I love Lower Manhattan.
It took me a while to get to this point, to be honest. I spent a few months resenting the long subway rides to literally anywhere else in the city. It was difficult to answer my friends from home who asked how close I was to Times Square/Rockefeller Place/The Upper East Side. “Uh… pretty far,” was actually kind of an understatement. At first, it was kind of irritating to be so far from everything that was so quintessentially NYC.
But over time, I realized just how lucky I was to live so far downtown. I live minutes from the Wall Street Bull. The Brooklyn Bridge is directly next to my school. The view from my window is the World Trade Tower. When I get lost, I can look up at the sky for the World Trade Tower and know exactly where I am and how to get home. Do you know how incredible it is to have the tallest building in the United States as your map home? There is not a day that goes by that I look at that building without my heart fluttering.
It took me a while to understand that Lower Manhattan is, in fact, quintessentially NYC. It might not have the bright lights or celebrities of the rest of the city, but it has the people and the energy, and those are the most incredible parts of this town. People from all different boroughs/towns/states/countries come downtown every single day. People walk quickly here to get to the places they need to go, to live out their Manhattanite lives. Business people in suits, students in sweatpants, bloggers in whatever-is-hot — they’re all here in the middle of the day before they disperse to their various evening destinations around the city.
And it’s okay that everything closes earlier here than anywhere else. It doesn’t bother me that the streets are empty at 10 p.m. every night. It’s a great feeling to be alone on a New York City street at night, and know that you’re safe and you’re at home.
