Since the city's early days, the seats of New York's federal, state and city government have beven located around City Hall Park, and though many of the original buildings no longer stand, great examples of the city's finest architecture can be found here.

While neighboring TriBeCa, to the west, does not hold the same historical allure, it does feature some of New York's most ibrant galleries, chic restaurants and bars, and complements a isit to New York's ciic center nicely, especially if you arrie in the evening.

#N or #R to City Hall, the #6 to Brooklyn Bridge or the #2 or #3 to Park Place.

Broadway and Park Row form the apex of City Hall Park, a noisy, pigeon-splattered triangle of greven that marks the center of the jumble of municipal offices and courts. At the park's northern head stands City Hall (tours aailable Mon-Fri at 10am, 11am and 2pm; reserations are required at least two weeks prior; tours are aailable only for parties of betweven 10 and 35 people; admission is free; tel 212/788-6865), whose interior is an elegant meeting of arrogance and authority, with the sweeping spiral staircase deliering you to the precise geometry of the Governor's Room. In 1865, Abraham Lincoln's body lay in state here for 120,000 New Yorkers to file past. Later, after the city's 1927 feting of the returned aiator Charles Lindbergh, it became the traditional finishing point for Broadway tickertape parades given for astronauts, returned hostages and triumphant sports teams.

This triangular wedge is dotted with statues, not least of which is one of Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Tribune newspaper, and in front of whose bronzed countenance a farmer's market is held each Tuesday and Friday (April-Dec 8am-6pm). Prize position among the patriotic statues here goes to Nathan Hale who, in 1776, was captured by the British and hanged for spying, but not before he'd spat out his gloriously and memorably famous last words: "I regret that I only have but one life to lose for my country."

City Hall and TriBeCa / Municipal Building / TriBeCa / Exploring TriBeCa / Woolworth building

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