One World Trade, Oculus, 9/11 Memorial, Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, New York

Take a walk through the Financial District, at the southern tip of Manhattan visiting the One World Trade Center and going up the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, and into the National September 11 Memorial Museum.
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Starting out at the oldest park in New York City, Bowling Green, then along Wall Street and up to One World Trade, soon brings us to one of the most unusual buildings in New York, it's the Oculus.
This vast soaring space has been compared to a cathedral, or being inside a whale, or big dinosaur bones, but whatever it is, it's astonishing and inspiring.
Next door you'll find the September 11 Memorial fountains on the site of the original World Trade Towers. And beneath these fountains is the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, which you'll find to be one of the most somber and profound experiences of your New York visit.
From the plaza you can't miss the tallest building in the Americas, One World Trade. And you enter in, follow the signs up the escalators to the lobby.
The elevator takes you up 100 floors in 47 seconds with what looks like a view but actually it's a very clever video screen all around you as you go up, a prelude of the real thing.
The observation platform is wonderfully designed with the dark floor and ceiling and vast picture windows to give you the view, especially nice on a day when the weather is clear and the facility was not very crowded – easy to get right up to the window and gaze out all you want in all directions.
The main vista is looking down at Lower Manhattan, Tribeca, the Village and then up to the band of skyscrapers in Midtown.
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