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Fraunces Tavern, was once the first offices for the Departments of Foreign Affairs, War and Treasury from 1785 – 1788

One of the reasons I love New York City is that it is so rich in US History.  It was here in lower Manhattan that many battles were fought during the revolutionary war.  The battles here in New York were the first major battles of the American Revolutionary War to take place after the United States declared its independence on July 4, 1776

While George Washington beat the British in Boston in The Siege of Boston, (April 19, 1775 – March 17, 1776), he was completely outgunned and out manned in the Battle of Brooklyn a few months later in August of 1776. Washington would retreat from the Battle of Brooklyn saving his Army to fight another day.   In September of 1776, Washington and his troops would eventually return and fight in The Battle of Harlem Heights .

For close to 7 years until the the end of the war, the British navy controlled the harbor and lower Manhattan.  During this British occupation, no one trusted each other, basically everyone was a spy. When the British occupied New York City in 1776, Samuel Frauncis had already relocated to Elizabethtown, New Jersey. Fraunces was eventually captured in June of 1778 and brought back to New York City as a prisoner of war.

Captive Fraunces was forced to work as the family cook for General Robertson. He used his position in the kitchen to aid American prisoners, sneaking them table scraps, giving them clothing and money, and even assisting some with escaping.  Fraunces also passed on intelligence. Later, George Washington would write, identifying himself as a “warm friend” of Fraunces, that the man had invariably “maintained a constant Friendship and attention to the Cause of our Country and its Independence and Freedom.

At the time close to 25,000 people lived in Lower Manhattan.  Many New Yorkers abandoned Lower Manhattan while the city became a jail with  30,000 prisoners, many of them on prison ships in deplorable conditions. The prisoners kept on British ships in Brooklyn had it the worst. More than 11,500 of the inmates on the prison ships died of starvation or disease.

After British troops evacuated on Nov. 25th, 1776 the tavern hosted a week later, an elaborate “turtle feast” dinner on December 4, 1783, in the building’s Long Room for U.S. General George Washington where he bade farewell to his officers of the Continental Army by saying “With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.” As he later asked to take each one of his officers by the hand for a personal word

Fraunces Tavern on corner of Pearl and Broad St in New York City

It could be argued that NYC helped the cause of liberty by providing Washington a valuable lesson. It was in Brooklyn, that “Washington learned never to fight the British directly again.” Eventually in 1783,  Evacuation Day occurred which was celebrated into the 1800s, a day which is still memorialized at Fraunces Tavern.

Fraunces Tavern played a prominent role in history before, during and after the American Revolution, serving as a headquarters for George Washington, a venue for peace negotiations with the British housing federal offices in the Early Republic.

It has been owned by the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York Inc since 1904, which carried out a major conjectural reconstruction and claim it is Manhattan’s oldest surviving building. The tavern remains a tourist site and a part of the American Whiskey Trail and the New York Freedom Trail.

So if you are ever in New York City, you should visit Fraunces Tavern Museum on 54 Pearl Street in lower Manhattan.  It’s an experience you will never forget! You can visit the website at Fraunces Tavern Museum

Spread throughout New York City your will see these bikes painted all white, locked to a street sign, in many cases decorated with flowers.

What are these bikes doing here?  They are ghost bikes and serve as a grave reminder of where a bicyclist or pedestrian spent their last moments on this planet.

This unique memorial comes complete with a symbolic gravestone memorializing the victim of a bicycle accident, many times not reported in the media or charges being brought against those negligence or criminal acts have ended someones life.

The history of ghost bikes goes back to the first one created in 2003 in St. Louis Missouri.  Here in New York City, there are over 150 ghost bikes installed which represents the largest number of installed bikes in the world.  Currently there are over 210 ghost bike locations throughout the world that serve as a reminder and advocacy that cyclists’ have a right to safe travel. The same holds true for pedestrians.

Since the inception of the ghost bike program in 2003,  there have been memorial rides where cyclists unite and tour New York City visiting ghost bike sites.  I’ve participated in several memorial rides and have paid my respects to the fallen bicyclists.

As a bicyclist that has ridden over 3,000 miles every year since 2014, these memorials have always hit home for me.  I look at all the victims as my brothers and sisters whose lives were cut short.  Sometimes the loss of life was caused by an accident, but in many cases the deaths were senseless.  Whether it be by a drunken driver, someone fiddling with their phone, not paying attention to cyclists, or rushing to beat that red light, many of these deaths were unavoidable.

Fortunately in New York City, one of the largest cycling cities in the world, there are more bicycle lanes as part of the initiative known as Vision Zero. The term, which originated in Sweden in the 1990s, urges us to stop accepting traffic fatalities as inevitable, and to instead work toward building a world in which no one must risk their life simply getting from point A to point B.

In New York City, traffic fatalities in the city have been reduced by 22 percent since being enacting in 2014. There are over 30 miles of protected lanes throughout New York City part of the total of an overall total of 1000 miles of bikes lanes.

With proper planning you can pretty much plan a route to get you anywhere in the city and completely avoid street traffic making it much safer.  Now if we can keep taxi’s and cars out of the bike lanes, it will only become safer.  You can see an online map of bike lanes at NYC Bike Maps