NEW YORK CITY
Walking tours are an excellent way to explore New York City. Exploring a neighborhood on foot allows you to see it up close and learn about the people and places that make it tick. Free tours tend to attract big groups, so you won’t receive the same intimate experience as you would on a private tour, but the price can’t be surpassed!
The Free Walking Tour of New York City lasts 2.5 hours and covers some of the main landmarks of the city. The guides on these trips work solely for tips, so keep that in mind and tip generously if you enjoy your experience. They recommend tipping $10 per person for 2-hour excursions.
The tour is perfect for history buffs, out-of-town visitors, and anyone who enjoys learning about a city’s rich heritage.
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty (French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) is a massive neoclassical monument located on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, United States. The copper statue was sculpted by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal structure was erected by Gustave Eiffel as a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States. On October 28, 1886, the statue was dedicated.
Libertas, a robed Roman liberty goddess, is shown in the statue. She holds a torch over her head in her right hand and a tabula ansata engraved JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776 in Roman numerals), the date of the United States Declaration of Independence, in her left. As she goes onward, a broken shackle and chain fall at her feet, signifying the recent national abolition of slavery. Following its consecration, the monument became an image of freedom and the United States, serving as a welcoming sign for immigrants arriving by sea.
Charging Bull of Wall Street
New York City’s Financial District is home to a bronze sculpture known as the Bowling Green Bull, or the Charging Bull of Wall Street. An enormous bronze bull sculpture, which weighs 3,200 kilograms and stands at 3.4 meters tall and 4.9 meters long, symbolizes great financial optimism and affluence in the country. Wall Street’s emblem, the Charging Bull, is a well-known tourist attraction that draws tens of thousands of people each day.
The artwork was produced by Italian artist Arturo Di Modica in the aftermath of the 1987 Black Monday stock market crisis.
Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge in New York City that connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn across the East River. The Brooklyn Bridge, which opened on May 24, 1883, was the first permanent bridge of the East River. It was also the world’s longest suspension bridge when it opened, with a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m) with a deck 127 feet (38.7 m) above mean high water. The bridge was formerly known as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge or the East River Bridge before being renamed the Brooklyn Bridge in 1915.
The Brooklyn Bridge has been reconfigured multiple times since its initial construction, and it once carried horse-drawn vehicles and elevated railway lines until 1950.
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in New York City’s Midtown Manhattan. It was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and constructed between 1930 and 1931. Its name is taken from the moniker given to the state of New York, “Empire State.”
The Empire State Structure was the world’s highest building until the World Trade Center was built in 1970. Following the World Trade Center’s fall in 2001, the Empire State Building was once again the city’s tallest tower until 2012. The building is the seventh-tallest in New York City, the ninth-tallest finished skyscraper in the United States, the 49th-tallest in the world, and the sixth-tallest freestanding structure in the Americas as of 2020!
Construction began on March 17, 1930, and the building opened on May 1, 1931, thirteen and a half months later. Despite good publicity surrounding the building’s construction, its owners did not turn a profit until the early 1950s due to the Great Depression and World War II.
World Trade Center
The World Trade Center is a partially finished complex of skyscrapers in New York City’s Lower Manhattan area that replaced the original seven buildings on the same location that were destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The site is being rebuilt with up to six new skyscrapers; a memorial and museum for those killed in the attacks; the elevated Liberty Park adjacent to the site, which houses the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and the Vehicular Security Center; and a transportation hub.
The rebuilt complex’s centerpiece is the 104-story One World Trade Center, the highest structure in the Western Hemisphere.
Explore New York City for Free
If you want to explore the main landmarks of NYC, the Free Tour of NYC is an excellent choice. You can see many of the top sights, and fill your day with the traditional peculiarities only a local knows.
Here you can see the whole list of Free Tours in the United States.
