On October 1st, members of the AP US History class and many others took a trip to New York City. After a long morning bus ride to the city, the members of the trip then took a ferry to the Statue of Liberty, walking all the way up to the pedestal of the statue where they could look down and view the city. Senior Ryan Brodeur states, “I really enjoyed going up to the Statue of Liberty, and seeing all of the sights from the top of it. I could see the entire city around me, and the view was incredible. It really puts into perspective how big New York City is”.
After some time to view the statue and walk around, students took another ferry to the famous Federal Immigration Station, Ellis Island. Though the station stopped operations in 1954, they had many interesting original documents, and a database available for use where people could find their relatives that had been processed through the island. Taking a ferry from Ellis Island back to the city, the students then had time to eat and walk around Brookfield Place, a large shopping and dining plaza.
After lunch, the group walked to the 9/11 memorial, where they saw the reflecting pools at “ground zero”, the base level of where the Twin Towers used to stand prior to the events of September 11, 2001. Then, they went to the museum located underneath ground zero and viewed all of the different artifacts such as half destroyed firetrucks and real pieces of supports from the destroyed buildings. AP US History student Chase Comboni states, “all of the different artifacts were very interesting, there were crushed support beams, different vehicles, and tons of art, like drawings made by children after it happened. I really enjoyed seeing and learning about the history behind this event and I think it was very informative.”
After visiting the memorial and museum, the students took the bus back to Old Saybrook, stopping at a rest stop in Darien, despite some unexpected traffic. Finally, the bus arrived back at the high school at the end of a long day of education and fun.
