Broadway from Exchange Place, with Trinity Church

This illustration shows buildings on west side Broadway and street scene. Trinity Church faces the entrance of Wall Street. This is the church's third temple, consecrated in 1846. Here, some text from this Miller's guide: «By way of introduction to the city in detail, we recommend the visitor first to get a bird’s-eye view of it from the steeple of Trinity church [then the tallest structure in the city]. A view from this elevation, over 320 feet in height, affords a good idea of the general extent and topography of the city. The tower is accessible to the public at any time of the day, excepting the hours devoted to divine service, morning and afternoon. To facilitate the ascent of the church tower there are landing-places ; at the first of these you have a fine view of the interior of this Cathedral-like edifice. At the next resting-place is the belfry, with its solemn chimes : here too is a balcony allowing us a first view of the city. Still higher up we gain a magnificent panoramic view of all we have left below us, — which amply repays our toilsome tour of many steps. The variegated scene stretches out in every direction, with new beauties, — north and south lies Broadway with its teeming multitudes and its numberless vehicles ; west and east are crowded streets of house-tops terminating only with the waters of the inclosing rivers. Looking eastward, we see Wall street immediately below us, with the Treasury Building on the left, and a little further on the right the Custom-house, the Wall-street ferry, and the East River which separates New York from Brooklyn ; with the New York bay stretching to the southeast. Sandy Hook, the Highlands of Neversink, and the coast of Staten Island. To the northeast, the eastern district of Brooklyn, formerly known as Williamsburg, the Navy Yard, &c., and still further to the north, the rocky channel called Hurl-gate, — so perilous to our Dutch forefathers; near by Randall and Blackwell’s Islands [now Roosevelt Island], with their City Asylums. Transferring our gaze to Broadway, we notice on the corner of Wall street the Bank of the Republic, and on the next street the Metropolitan Bank. Passing several fine marble buildings, we notice Barnum’s Museum on the east side of Broadway, and opposite to it St. Paul’s Church, then the Astor House, the Park, and the City Hall ; the brown-stone building on the east side being that of the Times Office...»

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