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If you want to see the Statue of Liberty close-up, you'll want to head for Battery Park because that's where the ferry goes from. But this small oasis of greenery on the edge of the big city, is worth a visit itself. Statues of famous New Yorkers abound and apart from culture, you'll also very often find entertainment in the park, if you time it right.

The park is named after a line of cannon which once stood to defend the city and is actually bigger now than it once was, because it has been extended into the harbor over the years, by landfill.

While enjoying all the park has to offer, you may also like to visit Castle Clinton, which was originally a defense post for the artillery. Now a visitors center for the National Parks Service and a monument in its own right, it used to be situated in the harbor and connected to the mainland by a causeway. Again, landfill has brought it inland and now it's a part of the park.

In its time, the castle has been a processing center for immigrants, much like Ellis Island, and was also a theater at one time, called Castle Garden, and was used by the likes of Phineas T. Barnum.