Monday, March 2, 2009

1 Train - South Ferry (Day 1, stop #42)


Out:  One of the most historic buildings in Manhattan, the shrine to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton,  is directly outside the ferry terminal as well as the impressive skyscrapers of the financial district.


The terminal building is very spacious, with large windows and a great view of the downtown skyscrapers as well as boats out on the water.  


Obviously a very new building.  Waited for a while on some benches in the large terminal atrium and saw lots of commuters sprinting to catch the ferry before they closed the large glass doors and ending access to the 5:30 train.  Some got turned away just as the doors closed…obviously disappointed, sucks for them.  From here I leave the terminal building and walk up to Wall Street & Broad St. to get on the J train.

In:  I can’t get off the train!  I forgot to move up to the first five cars, so the train stops and I can’t get out. What a pain.  Can see into the station, though, which has just one, long curved platform here at the point where the 1 Train turns around to head back uptown.  I end up riding back down from Rector St. a second time. There are chained areas to prevent people trying to access the train where there are very large gaps between the cars and the platform edge.  The station looks very old inside, and there is a horrendous screeching as the cars make their turnaround.  There is a mosaic station sign with a green background and green metal columns by the platform edge.  There are nice little accents with a boat from colonial times on the top of the walls.  The station exits directly into the Staten Island Ferry terminal.