NYC 10/21/18 Part 3, Sunday afternoon at Washington Square

After a quick fresh up and drop off of our bits of purchases, we hopped back on the subway 

I highly recommend filling up a Metro card for unlimited rides for 7 days for $32 even if you're only there for half that. Each single use purchase is $3 each, plus time at the vending machine to purchase each time. We used it 14 times in 4 days, swipe and straight through the turnstiles.

So we found ourselves at Washington Square Diner for a late lunch. Grilled cheese with mozarella & tomatoes, fries, and lemon meringue pie for dessert. 

The primary reason for this excursion was to visit The Strand Bookstore and see Washington Square Park, and since we had tickets to the evening cruise, that's about all we were able to fit in.

NYU owns most of the buildings surrounding the park. This is NYU Law School down from the diner.

The Square itself has a fascinating history, from a Native American encampment, to land deeded from the Dutch West India Company in a sharecropping arrangement to "half-freed slaves" -- people who were free but any children born to them were slaves. And they were allowed to be there mostly because they would be the first victims of any Indian raids from the north, outside the wall (that would become Wall Street.) That went on for nearly 150 years. 

Then, just as grisly, the City purchased the land in 1799 for a potter's field because the indigent and unknown weren't allowed in any of the church yards. Then the yellow fever hit and as a precaution most of the infected were also buried here. The cemetery was closed in 1825 and there remains some 20,000 buried under the land to this day.

From 1826, as a parade ground, to a park in 1849, the real estate around it became highly valuable. The first fountain was installed in 1852. The arch was added in 1889 to commemorate George Washington's inaugural centennial, and due to its popularity, a more permanent one was constructed from marble in 1892.

From there we wound our way up to The Strand, which I need an entire afternoon to really appreciate.

and then we had to cut for Union Square to get back to midtown

Union Square is also built over a potter's field!

Union Square hosts the first public sculpture erected in 1856 by New York City. The previous public sculpture was in 1770 of George III. Cast in bronze it captures General George Washington triumphantly leading his troops back into the city as the British left, known as Evacuation Day, November 25, 1783.  

The Subway runs under the park. The "Union" name actually has nothing to do with the new nation. It was the union of Broadway & Bowery streets. 

 Up next: City Lights Harbor Tour