Manhattan Welcomes Fleet Week

If you’re jazzed up about fleet week then you should get yourself out to the Christopher Street pier for some unmatched views of the ships. Also, if you’re jazzed up about seeing some wacky New York characters, you may also want to visit the Christopher Street pier. Quickly, this was what I saw on my lunch break.

The annual procession of boats along the Hudson

Watching the ships pass, their uniformed crew on deck and standing at attention, is a very unique sight. But, in New York, when you pull the lens back you are greeted with slightly more dynamic scenes.

Karate Chopping a Ship

Without even a blink, undisturbed by those watching, this guy went about his karate routine with wreckless abandon, chopping and kicking his way back and forth.

Hiyaaa!

People wait for months for the ships to come in and for the Memorial Day celebrations.  You can see it in the actions of people like this guy, so enamored with naval history and nautical engineering, I assume, that he dressed up like a sailor to show his support.

Realllllllly likes the Fleet Week

 And there ends a great introduction to fleet week in New York City.

New York City’s “Second Cemetery”

Standing some for over 200 years, the tombstones of the Second Cemetery at 76 W. 11th between 5th and 6th (closer to 6th) have all but worn down. Their faces display the remnants of words and the small plot is harder to find than it is to pass by, like I have for months on my morning commute.

Second Cemetery Sign

The Second Cemetery is much smaller than it originally was. Burials began here in 1805, in what was a much larger, square plot extending into what is now the street. It was the cemetery, founded by Portuguese Jews, for those who died by plagues, particularly the dreaded yellow fever of 1798. The Commissioners’ Plan had established the city’s grid in 1811, but not until 1830 was West 11th Street cut through, at that time reducing the cemetery to its present tiny triangle. The disturbed plots were moved further uptown to the Third Cemetery, which is on West 21st Street.

Worn Tombstones

“According to legend, the location of the red-bricked building abutting the cemetery has an unusual history of its own. On the site of that building, there was a Civil war tavern known as the “Grapevine”. Many Union officers went there including many southern spies, and many incognito newspaper reporters.

Of course everyone knew that everyone else was eavesdropping on conversations there, so the tavern became known as the place where many rumors originated. This became the origin of the phrase “heard it through the grapevine”! The newspapers began using this phrase which is in common use now, and later it made Gladys Knight and Marvin Gaye a lot of money.”  Source: Willensky and White’s AIA Guide to New York City

Flower at the cemetery

If you’re reading this and wondering, well where is the first cemetery? Here you go. The first cemetery of Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue, Shearith Israel, is located at St. James Place just off Chatham Square in Chinatown. This cemetery dates to 1683! The Shearith Israel Jews emigrated from Brazil beginning in the mid-17th Century.

* Most of the information presented in this post was gleaned from the helpful folks at The Foundation for the Advancement of Shepardic Studies and Culture. Other bits I found through forgotten-NY.com, a must-see website that I have an unhealthy obsession with and suggest you visit when you are through scouring the pages of I Spy NYC. They are my inspiration.