It amaze me to think that walking in Battery Park centuries ago, one would walk on water. Land was moved from one part of the island to create another, it seems the island is a big piece of plasticine. Furthermore, there actually are excavations in NYC. When thinking about excavations one thinks about an ancient city with a heavy history like Cairo or Athens. Nevertheless, Manhttan has its own history that has been covered by centuries of change and construction. Visiting Castle Clinton, is like visiting. You finally realize the evident past of NY, a past in which buildings were made of stones. The same is true for monuments, we have few monuments in NY to remind us of its past. The city seems to be an instantaneous place, she seems to be born everyday anew. The not-so-imposing monument with the beaver steal on it recalls our Dutch past. The few buildings left down-town with the design of their facade imitating 17th century Dutch facades are also there to discreetly recall this forgotten past.
Trinity Church might be our monument to the past. Even if it is not the original building that we see today we still get a sense of a rich historical past. If you know that Hamilton was buried on its grounds, you would look at it as a sanctuary of NY’s history. Additionally, it faces one of oldest streets of NY: Wall Street. This street is the emblem of the high and lows of capitalism. To see if the economy is doing well one has only to take a look at Wall Street. The mood of the street would tell you the mood of the economy.