Written by Max (U6H2) and Aryan (L6R2)
During February half term, a group of 29 students and three teachers set off to explore the history and politics of the United States through prism of the two great cities of New York (Manhattan) and Washington DC.
Our visit to New York began with a visit to Liberty Island and Ellis Island, the gateway for millions of immigrants who looked to the US as both refuge and a land of opportunity. The exhibition halls on Ellis Island were both fascinating and emotional, as we learned about the struggles and triumphs of those who came to the country seeking a better life, and the harsh experience of those that were not granted entrance.
In the afternoon, we took a tour of Lower Manhattan, which began at the 9/11 Memorial. The site serves as a solemn reminder of the lives lost and the heroes who risked everything to save others. With the guidance from our first very knowledgeable tour guide, we began to appreciate the beauty of the memorial and the many murals which serve as a testament to the resilience and strength of the people of New York City.
Next up was a visit to Wall Street, the epicentre of global finance. It was thrilling to see the famous ‘fearless girl’ statue which promotes female empowerment in the face of a male dominated industry, and to learn of the history dating back to the English takeover of New Amsterdam in 1664. Further down Wall Street we also visited the site of the Slave Market, which served as a reminder that New York had had a large slave population before slavery was abolished in the state in 1827. The monument near City Hall commemorating the African burial ground outside the city limits further underscores the fact that early Manhattan was built in large part by men and women whose migration to the North America was an act of coercion rather than of people seeking freedom.
In midtown Manhattan, the Rockefeller Centre and the Empire State Building were deserved highpoints of the trip. Both afforded breath-taking views of the city by night. The Rockefeller Centre was also home to stunning art deco architecture, while the Empire State’s exhibit reminded us of the tireless labour that was needed to construct the cultural icon which still rules popular fiction today.
Day two, Monday, began with a visit to Ulysses S Grant’s tomb and the Riverside Church on the Upper West Side, followed by a tour of Harlem and then a visit to the stunning campus of Columbia University. We then took advantage of the unusually warm, almost spring like weather to walk across Central Park to the Metropolitan Art Museum and Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Guggenheim Gallery.
The second half of the trip began on Tuesday with a four-hour coach journey to Washington DC. Two hours into the journey, we arrived at the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial. As the largest and possibly one of the most significant battles of the American Civil War, the historians in the group were particularly excited by the prospect of exploring ‘the fish – hook’. We toured the battlefield, its significant features – Cemetery Hill, Seminary Ridge, Little Round Top and the ‘Bloody Angle’, by coach and on foot, and were able to develop a clearer sense of the thinking behind the decisions made by Robert E Lee and George Meade, which shaped the course and development of the three-day battle.
On arriving in Washington DC, we booked into the Hotel Harrington and then took a short walk to the front of the White House. The fun picked up again on Wednesday with a visit to the nearby Georgetown university where we were given another feel for the scale and general lifestyle of American universities. Afterwards, we travelled to Arlington, where we visited Robert E Lee’s house, the memorials to the assassinated Kennedy brothers – John F and Robert and the recently added grave of Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Excitement amongst those studying politics peaked after lunch when we arrived at the Capitol building, where we enjoyed a tour of the historic rooms within the building of Congress. It was interesting, as general tourists, to learn about how the statues and artwork in the famous rotunda. For the historians, the most notable part of the tour was the chance to see the old Senate Chamber, the desk where Senator Charles Sumner was famously beat with a cane by Congressman Preston Brooks in 1856 following the deliverance of an anti-slavery speech, “The Crime Against Kansas.” And where, when the chamber became the Supreme Court, the now infamous judgement that ‘separate was equal’ was delivered in the case of Plessy versus Ferguson (1896).
Later that afternoon we visited a think tank “Centre for Strategic and International Securities” (CSIS), where we were given an extremely informative talk on the structure and workings of a think tank and an insight into how think tanks attempt to influence the policy process. After supper at the popular Dupont Circle, Thursday morning began on the National Mall, taking in the fantastic view of the historic Washington Monument and ended with a talk from a key member of the Centre for Equitable Growth – “a non-profit research and grant making organization dedicated to advancing evidence-backed ideas and policies that promote strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth”, which enabled us to compare the basic operations of a non-partisan think-tank (like CSIS) and a partisan progressive think tank focused on influencing a reform of domestic policies in areas such as child tax credits.
Our final day and a half was spent largely on the Mall. By Thursday evening we had visited a range of the great Smithsonian museums. A particular highlight was the National Museum of African American History & Culture with its magnificent exhibition of almost two miles in length dedicated to the century of African American civil rights covered in the Lower 6th’s course work. On Friday we took whistle-stop tours to almost all the famous memorials within sight of the Washington Memorial: we covered the Ford Theatre (where President Lincoln was assassinated), saw the room in which Lincoln died, the Lincoln and Jefferson memorial, the FDR memorial, the Vietnam and Korean War memorials and finally the Iwo Jima. Leaving the memorials in peace – we said our goodbyes to the historic city and travelled to Potomac Mills the largest outlet mall in Virginia before finally departing from the USA from Dulles Airport.
Overall, the trip to New York and Washington DC was not only extremely enjoyable, but also exceptionally valuable for the insights it provided into both the workings of American politics and the backdrop of its fascinating, if turbulent, history.
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