Vesey St, Financial District

Vesey St (pronounced like Easy) is a pretty big street for tourists but not the most happening street as far as nightlife goes. The street starts off on the West Side at the Irish Hunger Memorial. It's a bizarre memorial but I actually kind of like it. It looks like an Irish hillside and it's quite nice considering all of the massive buildings and traffic around it. The serenity is over, though, as you cross the street into prime finance territory. The corner of Vesey and North End houses the World Financial Center: a group of Financial buildings built on top of a landfill. These buildings house companies such as Merrill Lynch and American Express. Across the street is the Goldman Sacks office building. You can't miss it: it's very reflective and shiny.
Across West is Ground Zero: a tourist nightmare. I totally understand people wanting to see it and pay tribute. But, the amount of people lurking around trying to get a picture of the hole is really creepy to me. Luckily the hole won't be there for long. This particular corner will soon house the Freedom Tower. It will be the tallest building in the US upon finished construction. Across the street is the first, and so far only, completed rebuild of the World Trade Center. None of the big money or governmental offices are in this building but it's very impressive looking. The rest of the block is still in planning and construction phases. There will be more buildings, a performing arts center and Greenwich will actually be extended further south. It's incredbily loud in this area because of construction and people, but I think the new World Trade center will be lovely when it's completed.
Across Church Street is St. Paul's Churchyard and St. Paul's Chapel. This Chapel is one of the oldest buildings that remains in its entirety in New York. It's a really pretty little chapel, and the quaintness of it is magnified by the fact that it sits in the center of all these massive, modern buildings. It was the church where George Washington was inaugurated and James Munroe's funeral was held. It has survived an awful lot by freakish methods. The fire of 1776 that destroyed the majority of the area didn't take down the church because of the shape of its roof. People could easily stand on it and put out ambers. And a massive sycamore tree on the property protected the building from debris on the September 11th attacks. Sadly, the tree didn't survive the attack but the stump is still there as a memorial. It's a pretty sturdy little church and it's very pretty.
I would not recommend living on this street by any stretch of the imagination but you can't visit or live in New York without coming to this street. It has so much to see and so much history, it's well worth the afternoon.

After the devastating attacks of 9/11 nearly ten years ago, Vesey Street - one of the streets adjacent to the World Trade Centre city - was decimated right along with the centre itself. But just as reconstruction of the trade centre site has at last begun, with a new tower in the works, so has Vesey Street worked to build itself up again. There are a few restaurants in the vicinity - Au Mandarin provides quick and simple delivery for office workers looking to eat in - and offices like Verizon and American Express are located here. Regardless, however, this street is somewhat dismal and depressing, even for a commercial street, given its location and the still largely-empty construction site: a literal void in the centre of downtown Manhattan. Tourists may wish to visit Ground Zero - although for some New Yorkers the idea of turning this painful memory into a tourist attraction is an anathema - but unless you're working here, there's little to bring you in this direction.

New York is fully aware of the proud Irish culture that many of its citizens portray and the city does not overlook the reason why so many people fled Ireland to find new homes. The Irish famine was one of the most tragic occurrences to hit any group of people and this tasteful yet powerful memorial allows the history of the hardships to never be forgotten. If you are visiting New York and have some Irish heritage, this is one sight that isn’t near the top of a tourist list that should be placed on your must see list.

Vessey Street is a good location from which with to view the World Trade Center memorial. Ground Zero itself is a gaping hole in the island, a sad memory of the most tragic event to transpire in our time. There is interesting information provided and the ghostly construction equipped sits dormant most of the time. Further down Vessey Street you will also find the Irish Hunger Museum which provides an interesting look at the famine that struck Ireland in 1800s causing a mass immigration of Irish people to the isle of Manhattan. This street is easily accessible by the metro and buses.