Where to Take Good Photos in Lower Manhattan (And What Time to Show Up)
By 17John Hotel ·
Quick answer
The best photo spots in Lower Manhattan are the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian path at sunrise (about a 10-minute walk from John Street), the cobblestones on Front Street and Peck Slip at the Seaport with the bridge behind you, the Pier 17 rooftop for the skyline, the white ribs inside the Oculus around midday, Stone Street's narrow cobbled block, the Charging Bull and Fearless Girl before 8am, and the free Staten Island Ferry deck for the classic skyline-and-Statue shot. Timing matters more than gear down here: almost every one of these is transformed by getting there before the crowds, which in the Financial District means early morning on a weekend.
Most of the good angles downtown are within a 15-minute walk of each other. · Photo by Adam Li on Unsplash
Lower Manhattan is a good place to take pictures for one boring, practical reason: the sights are close together. You can shoot a suspension bridge, a cobblestone street, a modern transit hall and the harbor in a single morning without getting on a train.
The catch is timing. Everything down here has two versions, the empty one and the crowded one, and the gap between them is about 90 minutes. The Financial District doesn't fill up until mid-morning, so the earlier you're out the door, the better everything on this list looks.
We've listed these with walk times from John Street, which is where we are, and the hour we'd actually go. All of them are free.
One honest note before you start: don't try to do all seven in one push. Pick three, walk them in order, get coffee. The list below runs roughly east to west, so it works as a route.
The Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian path
· About a 10-minute walk · Free
The obvious one, and still the best one, but only at the right hour. Get on the path before 8am and you'll be sharing it with runners and a few tripods. Arrive at 11am on a Saturday and you're photographing the backs of other people's heads. Walk out about a third of the way to the first stone tower, then turn back toward Manhattan: that's the frame with the cables converging and the skyline behind them. Shoot from the pedestrian level, keep an eye out for cyclists, and stay out of the bike lane.
Front Street and Peck Slip, the Seaport
· About an 8-minute walk east · Free
Our favorite block downtown for street-level photos. Low brick buildings, Belgian block paving, and the Brooklyn Bridge stacked in the background at the north end of the street. It looks like an older New York than anything around it, because it is. Best in the morning when the light comes off the East River, or during blue hour when the shop windows are lit and the pavement is still shiny after rain.
The Pier 17 rooftop, the Seaport
· About a 10-minute walk · Free to go up
The easiest skyline picture you'll get without buying an observation-deck ticket. You're out over the water, so you get the Brooklyn Bridge on one side, the FiDi towers behind you, and Brooklyn across the river. Late afternoon lights the buildings; after dark you get the windows. It's an event venue in summer, so if there's a concert on the roof, that half is ticketed.
Inside the Oculus
· About an 8-minute walk · Free
White steel ribs, a skylight down the middle, and almost no colour, which means the photo is entirely about lines. Go around midday when the sun is high enough to come through the spine. Shoot from the upper level at either end for symmetry, or stand on the main floor and point straight up. Every September 11th the skylight is opened, but any clear day works. It's a working transit hall, so people in the frame are a feature, not a problem.
Stone Street
· About a 5-minute walk · Free
One narrow cobbled block, low buildings on both sides, and in warm months a full run of outdoor tables down the middle. Photograph it two ways. Early morning it's an empty 19th-century street with towers rising behind it. Around 6pm from spring through fall it's packed with people eating outside, which is the more honest picture of what the block is.
The Charging Bull and Fearless Girl
· About a 10-minute walk · Free
Both are worth ten minutes and neither is worth an hour of queueing. The Bull sits at the north end of Bowling Green, and from roughly 9am there's a line of people waiting to touch it. Fearless Girl stands across from the New York Stock Exchange on Broad Street. Before 8am you can shoot both with nobody in the frame, and that early the Broad Street canyon with the NYSE flag is a better picture than either statue.
The Staten Island Ferry deck
· About a 15-minute walk south · Free
The cheapest good harbor photo in New York, because the ferry costs nothing. Stand on the right-hand side heading out for the Statue of Liberty, and the left-hand side coming back for the full Lower Manhattan skyline as you approach. Outdoor deck space is limited and it fills fast, so board early and go straight to the back. Round trip is roughly 50 minutes including the turnaround at St. George.
