NYC Subway Restaurant Tour, Part IV: One Dine (One World Observatory)
Perhaps I went a little nuts. I took 345 pictures on my bucket-list trip to the new World Trade Center — then went back a few days later to shoot 93 more. It is now officially known as One World Observatory, though its original nickname, the Freedom Tower, is the one that has stuck. I had never made it to the top of the now-fallen Twin Towers — I figured they would always be there, until they weren’t. Here they are, five months before the human-rights crime known as 9/11.
Perhaps the site’s tragic history spooked me a little. But having seen the faceted glass tower from Brooklyn, Staten Island, New Jersey, and of course up close in Manhattan, I finally had to experience it. It was just a matter of waiting for the right weather. When I got up that day, I had no idea I’d be doing it. Until I did.
I’ve photographed this beautiful glass spire from several vantage points outside Manhattan — most often from the Staten Island Ferry in 2023–24, as I ate my way through New York’s Secret Borough for the Staten Island Restaurant Tour. I was on my way to Graniteville for Colombian food that day.
I caught it from Pier 1, under the Brooklyn Bridge, when attending Bargemusic (chamber music on a barge in the East River). From that vantage point, on the pier next to the barge, it was hiding behind another building. You can just see the broadcast tower poking the sky.
I caught a distant glimpse from Tribute Park in Rockaway Beach, Queens, looking across Jamaica Bay and Brooklyn. True, the zoomed shot is pretty fuzzy, but it is especially relevant here. The park includes a large metal fragment from the original World Trade Center, and is dedicated to the memory of the 2,977 people who died there. They never got a chance to enjoy this view. I did, and I consider myself lucky.
Finally, here is One World Observatory on the day of my visit, a beautiful and intermittently clear day in Manhattan. That’s the white textured box of the Perelman Performing Arts Center at right, another of the miracles to rise from the ashes of 9/11.
The station on the 1 train, the Broadway Local, was known as Cortlandt Street before the Twin Towers fell on 9/11. To avoid confusion for old-timers, it still wears that name, whose unnerving historical resonance I explored in the Tour episode on Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. The station is now officially the WTC (as opposed to Freedom Tower or One World Observatory) stop.
The massive murals in the station have a name: CHORUS, by artist Ann Hamilton. “She is as interested in verbal and written language as she is in the visual, and sees the two as related and interchangeable,” writes a critic in art21.org.
The murals here — and there are several more aboveground — come to terms with the martyrdom of nearly three thousand people with an emphasis on human rights, quoting from the Declaration of Independence and the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights.
Treat yourself to a quick stroll in the Oculus Transportation Hub before heading to the entrance of One World Observatory.
Not everyone likes it but the integration of exterior and interior tickled my fancy.
With links to many subway lines…
…and the PATH trains to New Jersey…
…it is a place to pass through on the way to another place. There is a little retail, but unless you’re eating here, or picking up something at the pharmacy, there is not much else to occupy you.
When that big mamajama hoves into view, its mirrored facets catching the sky, it takes your breath away.
Nearby are at least three noteworthy attractions for your phone-cam, some of them commissioned by the World Trade Center Mural Project. There are several murals near the base of the tower. This one, apparently topped with ventilation ducts, says “Welcome to the WTC.”
Here’s another view of the same multiculturally evocative mural by Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra, who has painted more than three thousand murals on five continents. If you won’t want to spring for a fancy restaurant, bring your food to the picnic tables at the Oculus Beer Garden and have a bite before or after your Observatory experience.
Around the corner is a mural by Georgie Nakima of North Carolina. “My platform is created with intention to inspire and connect artistry with real world data in hopes to shift perspectives towards justice, wonder, and research,” she writes on her website. “Using patterns, texture, and textiles, my goal is to transform the basics of portrait work and identity into a deeper dialogue of imagination and evolution.”
Nearby the Oculus, planters offer more artwork evoking friendly feelings…
…and positive messages. This one says, PEACE!
More words to live by: LOVE. BIG DREAMS.
And a little origami in concrete.
This Pop Art inspired work by Todd Gray was so gorgeous I just had to zoom it out of context. He writes: “I think that art needs to be fundamentally beautiful and pretty to look at: like a melody in a song.”
In context, its exuberant colors and shapes contrasted with the sedate but sweet box of the Perelman Performing Arts Center next door.
Perelman PAC’s textured panels are no less a treat for the eye. I’ve been to a string quartet performance in the lobby and look forward to going back for more shows.
You might be so dazzled by the color and texture that you’d miss something more sobering next to the Freedom Tower and all its friendly neighbors.
At the foot of the new World Trade Center, outlined by young trees, the 9/11 Memorial recalls the event that turned two office buildings into Ground Zero.
It marks the footprints of the original Twin Towers.
Only the Memorial has been built here to replace them. There are no new buildings on what has become a sacred site….
…engraved with the names of the murdered.
It is a place to pause and reflect.
And to record new memories: I was here. I saw this.
Somehow, it’s more real if it’s in your phone.
In one of the rectangular reflecting pools, a waterfall was gently hissing on all four sides…
The water flowed down the grey granite sides onto the green interior rectangle, making it a reflecting pool, then disappeared into the shaft in the center. The 9/11 Memorial opened a decade after the tragedy, and in its first decade of operation, attracted 57 million visitors.
I explored all of that a few days after my first visit to One World Observatory. On the first visit, I wanted to focus on the Freedom Tower itself. Getting close! Note how the flat facets transition to a more elaborate pattern in the lower stories.
While the top straightforwardly reflects the sky, paying tribute to nature, the bottom diffuses the reflections of the visually busier downtown street, offering a gentler take on the works of man. It is strikingly jewel-like.
Tah-dah, I thought to myself, I’ve made it.
Inside, signage combined function with showmanship, foreshadowing the fridge magnet to come. It is wiser to buy your ticket in advance, as I did, and avoid this line.
Priority Access for me, please! That’s included in some of the ticket tiers.
“Today most visitors from CENTRAL AMERICA came from MEXICO.” Way to go, Mexico!
Top of the world, ma!
The multi-screen video display was reflected by interior facets that evoked the outdoor ones. This shot was more interesting than the one of the screens themselves.
I headed into a grotto. More showmanship. The last thing you’d expect in this cathedral of steel and glass is a stone cave.
I followed it around and to the right.
There was hardly any wait for the elevators, which were both numbered and color-coded for some obscure reason (more showmanship?). Either this whole thing is incredibly well organized, or Priority Access really works, or coming on a weekday in the dog days of a humid and stormy summer was a good idea.
The elevator was both swift and smooth, in contrast to what little I remember of the one in the old WTC, which was alarmingly shuddery and noisy. (Yes, I had made it inside the Twin Towers, as far as the Sky Lobby, but then saw a long line to get to the top and went home. This time I had a reservation.) On our way up, we reverently stood back from the badge in the center of the floor.
The walls of the elevator educated us as we went. Many animated depictions of Lower Manhattan flashed by. This one showed its early Dutch heritage, back when New York was Nieuw Amsterdam. It looked like a lot of smaller Dutch city centers still do today.
A bucket-moment I had dreamed of since moving to New York in 1975 finally arrived. Forty-nine years later, I was at the toppermost of the poppermost.
The building has 94 stories though they are numbered up to 104; the original WTC had 110, at the time a record. But the new tower is taller, at 1,776 feet vs. 1,728 feet including broadcast towers. Now, into the See Forever Theater.
If the grotto and the elevator art hadn’t impressed me with One World Observatory showmanship, this would have. But I was eager to get past the screens to the actual views.
First glimpses. The cameras came out. The day had turned partly cloudy, with pale blue skies. Up here they appeared lighter.
To speed our passage to the restaurant and snack bar, some windows were shaded.
And some were not. Look! said a woman to her daughter. Half the pleasure of being here was vicariously experiencing the fun of others while enjoying my own.
We were all living the dream, together. Many of us were shooting the Statue of Liberty. It’s the tiny object sticking up in the left panel.
For this bucket-list trip, I passed up the snack bar in favor of a deluxe-ish meal in the One Dine restaurant, successor to the old WTC’s Windows on the World (which I never gave myself a chance to try). This was the view behind my seat, looking south. A fellow diner was using a paper map. I remember doing that when I started traveling in the mid-1980s.
My table view included Lady Liberty and, somewhat chillingly, a plane passing nearby.
The view in the other direction, looking north, had boats plying the Hudson with the West Side of Manhattan at right and New Jersey to the left. I have deep ties to the Hudson and this gave the broad watery vista an emotional resonance.
I zoomed in on Liberty Island.
Looking over the railing, I saw folks shooting the West Side up the Hudson. From up here, the mighty river was a pleasing green-blue, which reminded me of the canals of Venezia (Venice). It caught the sky differently, I guess. I’d never seen it from this vantage point — only at ground level, or high up in a plane.
Down to (my other) business. The Uptown Martini included passionfruit juice and honey. It was, as expected, a little cloying, and if there’s a next time, it will feature a less heavily sweetened martini choice. But the drink was enough to induce even more indiscriminate picture-taking.
I had made a serious dent in the martini and was pretty high by the time the branzino arrived.
Restaurant Week menus all over the city were featuring branzino. It’s the fish you practically have to order because it survives under heat lamps. I’m not knocking that. Mass production is the only way to go in a place like this.
In the bucket-list context, it was a satisfactory lunch, juxtaposed with the view of my beloved Hudson…
…and parked on top of some hearty tomato couscous.
I demolished it.
And made a huge mess of it. The alcohol had set in. Before leaving I cleaned it up with the napkin.
I enjoyed my view of the Hudson a bit more.
Then it was time for a tipsy walk around the other side of the Observatory. It is helpful that the restaurant and observation areas are not rigidly separated. Once you’re up there, you can wander around. This removed one of the imagined fears that had kept me away for so long.
The Hudson originates in the Adirondack Mountains, travels nearly the full length of New York State, and empties itself into the Upper Bay between New York and New Jersey. By the time it reaches the city it has acquired a generous width that has always moved me emotionally. This is my river. My big river.
As my phone and I walked along the west side of the building, toward the north, Midtown Manhattan tilted into view, along with a bit of Tribeca, behind the left column.
The building at lower right is 56 Leonard Street, also known as the Jenga Tower, the tallest building in Tribeca. The condo’s Swiss architect describes it as “stacked houses in the sky.” Is it an eyesore or am I just jealous?
Central Park is back there somewhere but not visible. You probably can’t quite see the star attraction of the midtown skyline.
Spotted it yet? Just right of center. I found it only because I knew it was there. My old eyes are pretty good but really getting a good glimpse required a technological boost.
Before the Freedom Tower, even before the Twin Towers, the king of the Manhattan skyline was the Empire State building: a 102-story icon, and I’m not overusing the term icon, rising from Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. Built in 1930–31, it was the world’s tallest building until the original World Trade Center beat it in 1970. I haven’t had many great views of it on my recent outer-borough wanderings, so it was great to have such a good shot, even if it did take a little zoomy magic to cut through the smog and feel it in my gut.
Even in this rarefied air, the cursed lanternflies exerted a presence. The invasive species are destroying our trees and vegetation. I have friends who will stomp them on sight. There is talk of importing their natural predators, Asian wasps, but be careful what you wish for — those are harmful to humans.
As I continued around along the north side, toward the east, folks on the lower level of the Observatory were taking in the East River.
The big building at center is New York’s Municipal Building, renamed the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building, after New York’s first black mayor. He beat the late 20th century crime wave by hiring more cops and insisting they walk a beat. Though his signature achievement was appropriated by his successor, crime stats prove it was Mayor Dinkins who broke the back of the crime wave, luring tourists back to the city, and eventually to the Freedom Tower. Mayor Giuliani hasn’t had many moments of dignity recently, but his somber words at the original 9/11 press conference will live forever: “The number of casualties will be more than any of us can bear.”
As I tilted the camera back up toward the East River, a tributary of the Hudson that runs around Upper Manhattan and the East Side, three more municipal beauties caught my eye.
Three bridges cross the East. That is a reference to a song by The Nice. No one will get it except moribund progressive-rock fans like myself, especially those into keyboard-based power trios.
Art shot: Three bridges and cool reflection.
At far left in the above picture is the Williamsburg Bridge, connecting Manhattan’s Lower East Side to the hipster haven of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Completed in 1903, he said, cribbing from Wiki, it was the longest suspension bridge span in the world until 1924.
Due south of the Willy-B are the Brooklyn Bridge, constructed in 1883, a New York icon (yes, again) on a par with the Empire State Building. It connects downtown Manhattan to the tony stockbroker brownstone neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights. To the left of it is the Manhattan Bridge, completed in 1908, connecting Chinatown to DUMBO, which stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. I have recently rolled over the bridge in trains en route to Bath Beach and Brighton Beach, where I ate Uzbek and Uyghur food.
The shot above favored the Manhattan Bridge at the expense of the even more venerable Brooklyn Bridge. Here’s a better look at the latter, with its Gothic Revival style towers. At least 20 men died building it. As construction techniques and regulation have advanced, the job has gotten less hazardous — only two men died building the Freedom Tower, as they were balancing a steel beam.
Much farther to the south, as the Hudson turns into the Upper Bay, is a distant view of the much larger and newer Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, circa 1964. Its little brothers hop across the East River but the Verrazzano takes on a wider stretch of the Hudson from Brooklyn to Staten Island. I’ve taken close-ups from various neighborhoods in Staten Island. In the foreground at left is Governors Island, a public park with dozens of historic buildings.
While admiring Lady Liberty, for the first time I noticed the skyline decor along the bottom of some Observatory windows.
Man, even the ventilation system here is fancy.
Showmanship everywhere, including this ring of screens on the lower level. Most of my fellow Freedom Tower tourists were too engrossed in the real thing to pay much attention to the lit screens, despite the artful arrangement. Probably just as well. It might have been some kind of creepy wormhole. Stare at it too long and you’d be rocketed into an alternate universe filled with family members arguing about politics on Thanksgiving.
I needed to use the facilities. Several roomy all-gender restrooms were provided.
The toilet had a view of the Freedom Tower itself! How cool is that? Despite the all-gender designation, there was some discrimination at work here — only persons who pee standing up get to admire the tower.
As I circled around the Observatory — several times — I noticed some sweet plum-colored high-backed booths for those who wouldn’t mind having the view at a distance. I’ll save ’em for my third or fourth visit.
I stopped by the gift-shop area. Fridge magnets are an indispensable part of any tourist experience, even a staycation. This one cost eight bucks, but the build quality was impressive, with the Freedom Tower icon feeling very 3D under my fingertips, and I’m sure it’ll impress my Trekkie friends.
People posing were constantly part of the ambience. I like it when people gather for a common purpose. Even if we don’t know each other, we’re all here for the same reason, sharing an experience.
Completing my drunken perambulation, I arbitrarily circled back to my table, to say goodbye to home base, I guess, and realized I’d forgotten my messenger bag. The two of us had made an epic trip to the Netherlands last year and the canvas is now pleasingly soft and worn. I was glad I hadn’t left it behind.
After a few more circuits — because this was a bucket-list visit, and I didn’t know if or when I’d be back — I ambled back to the smooth-running elevator, dropped a hundred or so stories while hardly thinking about it, and walked over to the Oculus eye candy to get the Broadway Local.
Down we go.
The MTA apologized for a delay on the 1 train. But on this day of days, I was happy it worked at all.
My visit to One World Observatory was everything I’d hoped it would be. Though I was haunted by the knowledge that it took a massacre and a demolition to replace the old Twin Towers with the new Freedom Tower…
…being here made me feel that it was not just my body, but my hopes and imagination, that had been flung into the sky.
I’ve been doing a lot of bucket-list stuff lately, visiting New York neighborhoods where I’ve rarely or never been while there’s still time. But this is one I am likely to return to if I can.
I feel drawn to the geometry in the sky.
It is just an awesome place.
Previously on the NYC Subway Restaurant Tour:
Part I: Lake House Cafe (Van Cortlandt Park)
Part II: Toshkent (Bath Beach)
Part III: Kashkar (Brighton Beach)
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