This tour covers the financial district of southern Manhattan and such iconic locations as the New York Stock Exchange and its Charging Bull statue. We move on through the memorials to the terrorist destruction of the World Trade Centre in 2001 - to City Hall - Brooklyn Bridge and through ethnic districts to Washington Square park...

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Audio tour developed by "HeartBeat Guides" and powered by IZI.travel
 

Hi! My name is Ian and I’ll be your guide on this tour of New York’s West Village. This tour takes approximately three hours to complete. You can stop at any time and start again at the same spot later. You can follow the route on your phone or simply listen as I guide you from one sight to the next. I’ll be giving you clear directions and the audio will automatically start playing when you get close to the next sight on the tour. Don’t worry if you need to skip a sight as the tour will pick up at the next location. One more thing before we get started – always be aware of your surroundings and be sure to obey all traffic signals.

I’ll be showing you around one of New York's most picturesque neighborhoods, whose quiet streets are lined in brownstones and leafy trees. We'll also stroll in its neighbor, the Meatpacking district, the new home to the Whitney Museum of American Art. The West Village has a lot of green space, and our tour starts and ends at parks, beginning at the High Line, an elevated park built on disused railroad tracks, and ending at iconic Washington Square Park. On our walk, we'll visit historic sites like Jefferson Market Library, a handsome courthouse-turned-library and the Stonewall Inn, which played a pivotal role in the US's LGBT rights movement. If you're ready, let's begin at our first stop, the High Line.

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Audio tour developed by "Insight Guides" and powered by IZI.travel

Welcome to our audio tour of Lower Manhattan. Dutch Heritage World Tours will lead you through the streets of the area of New York City which in the 17th century was called New Amsterdam. New Amsterdam wasn’t the first Dutch trading post, but would eventually become the most important settlement of the colony of New Netherland. New Netherland was founded by the Dutch West-India Company in 1623. A year later the West-India Company sent the first group of colonists consisting of 30 Walloon families to the new colony. At first they didn’t settle in Manhattan but in other places throughout the colony covering large areas of what now are the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Delaware.

We use 1625 as being the founding year of New Amsterdam, and therefore, of New York City even though the first structures were probably built by the Dutch colonists in 1626. In this year the Dutch West India Company sent a few ships with more colonists and soldiers as well as livestock, seeds for grains and vegetables, farm equipment and construction materials. With this the Dutch started a new community on the southern tip of Manhattan island.

Today it may be hard to imagine, but Manhattan used to be a green island of trees, bushes, brooks, swamps and a few indigenous villages with their cornfields. The name of Manhattan came from the original name of Manna-hatta, meaning ‘island of many hills’. But it could also mean ‘the island where we all got drunk’, referring to the initial contact the indigenous people of the island had with alcohol. The first buildings that were constructed on Manhattan island were Fort Amsterdam, several wooden houses, a warehouse and some farmhouses. They were soon followed by sawmills and gristmills for building homes and milling grain.

In and around the fort the village slowly but surely grew into New Amsterdam, the capital of the colony of New Netherland, and was the seat of the colonial administration To be precise, the colonists themselves called their city ‘Amsterdam in New Netherland’.

We usually talk about the Dutch colony and Dutch colonists, but in reality a substantial part of them came from other European countries. In the period that the colony was Dutch, many languages were spoken on Manhattan island, including English, German, French, different Scandinavian languages and of course the local indigenous languages. This was a reflection of Amsterdam in The Netherlands which was a teeming international trade center.

The colony of New Netherland only existed for 40 years from 1624-1664. In 1664 the English took over the colony. From that moment on New Amsterdam was called New York.

Nine years later, New York City and the surrounding islands were recaptured by the Dutch. The city was then named New-Orange in honor of ‘stadholder’ Willem III, Prince of Orange. However, this situation lasted only for about a year after which the English again regained control of the city and it was renamed New York once and for all.

In Lower Manhattan none of the original buildings that once lined the streets of New Amsterdam have survived. However, the streets still follow, more or less, the old layout which explains the somewhat haphazard outline of the streets in Lower Manhattan. Later the street plans were based on a grid. Also, the street names reveal a lot of the Dutch presence and this is what this tour will show you. We have inserted old maps, drawings, and paintings to help portray the old city of New Amsterdam as it once was – and thus the old city of New York.

The tour starts at the Netherland Monument, the Dutch-American friendship monument at the eastern entrance of Battery Park at State Street.

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Audio tour developed by "Dutch Heritage World Tours" and powered by IZI.travel
 

Midtown New York is where all the world famous buildings are - the Empire State, the fabulous Art Deco Chrysler, Grand Central station and the United Nations headquarters.The district moves on northwards along Broadway through Times Square and up to the Rockefeller Centre. By the northern most part of this tour you are also deep in the expensive shops of 5th Avenue...

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Audio tour developed by "Heartbeat Guides" and powered by IZI.travel
 

Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare going through the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It stretches from West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square North at Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. It is considered among the most expensive and best shopping streets in the world. Fifth Avenue offers a number of curious tourism attractions, which are introduced in this tour.

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Audio tour developed by "Audioviator" and powered by IZI.travel

Welcome to the Stuyvesant Tour from Dutch Heritage World Tours. We will take you to an area of Manhattan where in the 17th century Peter Stuyvesant (or Petrus as he was called) had his country home. Stuyvesant came to the colony of New Netherland in 1647 to take the position of Director General. The Dutch West India Company established this colony in 1624. New Amsterdam, currently New York City, was the capital. He was not the first Director of the colony. Before him there was Willem Verhulst, Pieter Minuit, Wouter van Twiller and Willem Kieft. Pieter Minuit was the Director who under the auspices of the West India Company bought the island of Manahattan from the Lenape Indians. Near the Staten Island Ferry we find his name represented in the Peter Minuit Plaza.
 
With his 17 year tenure as Director Stuyvesant was not only the longest sitting Director General in the New Netherland colony but also the most influential and powerful. The Dutch colony of New Netherland existed only for 40 years, from 1624 to 1664, until the British took over. Nevertheless, in that short period of time so much happened that the influence of the Dutch is still strongly apparent in New York City and all of New York State.
 
Most of this tour is dedicated to Peter Stuyvesant and his life on Manhattan Island. Before Stuyvesant came to New Netherland, he had lost his right leg in the battle to acquire the island of St Martin in the northeast Caribbean Sea. It is said that the wooden leg he walked with since that fateful day was adorned with an array of small sheets of silver. Besides being a striking physical presence his character was also known to be remarkable. His predecessors did not have a strong character leading to many problems in the colony. For example, Director Kieft even waged a war with the local population of Lenape because of his demands that they contribute to the cost of defending the colony. They did not comply and Kieft conducted retribution campaigns that always ended in a bloodbath. It is said that Stuyvesant treated the indigenous population with a great deal more tact and respect. Originally Stuyvesant had his residence within the Fort Amsterdam at the location of what now is the Museum of the American Indian in Lower Manhattan. It was not long before he decided to reside elsewhere within the city of New Amsterdam. That was to be a house and courtyard on the corner of Pearl Street along the East River at the time. After the British took over the colony in 1664, the house was renamed White Hall. We find this referenced in the name of the street that led to the residence, now called Whitehall Street. We would like to invite you to also enjoy another of our tours  “How Dutch is New York? – The New Amsterdam Tour” for a trip around Dutch heritage in Lower Manhattan.
In this tour, The Stuyvesant Tour, we will be focusing on the “country” residence of Peter Stuyvesant, Bouwerij No. 1 (Bowery or Farmhouse # 1) also known as the Director’s Bowery. This was located north of the town of New Amsterdam currently the East Village.

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Audio tour developed by "Dutch Heritage World Tours" and powered by IZI.travel