Between 11th February and 18th February 2017, a group of eighteen HABS students accompanied by Mr Clark (Head of Politics) and Mr Handley went to New York City, Philadelphia, Gettysburg and Washington D.C. visiting historical sites, as well as places of political and educational interest.
The group flew into a cold and snowy New York, staying near Times Square. Sunday morning was spent taking a cruise of New York harbour visiting Liberty Island to see the iconic Statue of Liberty and the Museum of Immigration on Ellis Island, including the Registration Hall through which over 12 million people between 1870 and 1930 started their American journeys. That afternoon was spent having a private tour of Museum of Jewish Heritage, as well as visiting the massive new 9/11 Memorial Museum at the World Trade Centre. In the evening the group received a tour of the historical and financial district of Lower Manhattan, before meeting up for dinner with Udayan Tripathi (Henderson 2008) who is currently studying a MBA at New York University’s Stern School.
On Monday the group walked through mid-town Manhattan, stopping for a photograph opposite Trump Tower, home of the current President, on Fifth Avenue. The group went on to St Patrick’s Cathedral and a tour of the United Nations Headquarters, before lunch at Grand Central Station. In the afternoon we received a tour of Columbia University and learned more about the similarities and differences between the US Ivy League institutions and the Russell Group universities in the UK. In the evening the group went up the 102-story Empire State Building seeing the metropolis in the twilight, before having dinner and admiring the impressive Rock N’ Roll memorabilia at the Hard Rock Café at Times Square.
Early on Tuesday morning, the group departed by coach for Philadelphia, journeying along (and counting cars) on the New Jersey Turnpike. The students received a personalised tour of historic Philadelphia, including the Independence Hall, the Congress Hall and Benjamin Franklin’s House. Our coach travelled onto Gettysburg where we received a tour of the battlefield, stopping at the scenes of many of the key moments of this vital and bloody US Civil War battle, as well as the site of Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Gettysburg Address. The evening concluded with a trip to a pizza restaurant and a ghost tour, before staying the night in the tranquillity of rural Pennsylvania.
After a hearty breakfast, we travelled onto Washington DC, spending Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill, taking photos outside the Library of Congress and the US Supreme Court, as well as receiving a tour of the US Capitol Building, which including a brief sighting of Senator John McCain, the Republican Presidential candidate in 2008. Wednesday afternoon was spent at Ford’s Theatre (where President Lincoln was shot), Peterson’s House (where he died), as well as the National Archives. After dinner in Chinatown, we took a night walk through Pennsylvania Avenue, taking photographs of the White House and the Washington Monument.
Thursday morning was spent receiving a guided of the monuments on the western end of the National Mall, including the World War Two Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial and the Lincoln Monument where Martin Luther King Jr gave his “I have a Dream” speech to Civil Rights protestors who took part in the March on Washington. Our group then walked across to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. As we arrived at the grave of President John F Kennedy who was assassinated in 1963, three F-14 jets poignantly performed a “missing-man manoeuvre” for a military funeral taking place elsewhere in the cemetery. In the afternoon we went on to the US National Holocaust Museum and the Smithsonian Air and Space seeing iconic air and spacecraft like the Wright brothers plane, Chuck Yeager’s X-1 (the first plane to break the sound barrier) and Apollo 11.
The final day was spent mostly in Georgetown, where we received a tour of the university campus, admiring the impressive facilities as well as learning about their unique speaker programme, before spending the early afternoon shopping in Wisconsin Avenue and seeing the Old Stone House. The group then went on to Baltimore airport and the flight home to London.
A number of themes shone throughout our trip. One was the magnificent hospitality of the American people. Everyone we met showed keen interest in us and wanted us to feel at home in their country. The second theme was the great pride the Americans take in their country, their past and the sacrifices that they have endured for freedom and prosperity. Another theme was the remarkable endeavour of the American people that drove them to build huge, magnificent buildings like the US Capitol and the Empire State Building, as well as exploring the skies and into space. The final theme was the polarised nature of the current US political scene since the 2016 presidential election and the inauguration of President Trump as we witnessed strangers engaging in heated political arguments in the street with each other.
Our whole group would like to thank our tour company and all the hotels and sites that accommodated us and made the HABS trip to the United States 2017 so memorable and so enjoyable.