The Battery quite interestingly earned its name due to the battlements and defenses erected by the first inhabitants of the land against a potential British invasion that never came. This gave the area the opportunity to become the first waterfront park of New York City looking back into the construction of a world famous city. The mild yellows and pastels of yarrow and deep mauve of red thunder are just a few of the additions adding to the muted beauty of the Battery’s perennial gardens. Bird walks held occasionally by impassioned volunteer guides brings visitors’ attention to the feathery migrants of the park including Blue Grosbeak, Summer Tanager and 20 other species of these twittering guests. Located on the park grounds at the site of Fort Amsterdam is now the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Archives at New York City, chronicling key events and documents from before the mid 20th Century beneath a single stone steeple roof. Walk through the countless exhibits and gain a deeper insight into the complex threads running through the American tapestry right by the harbor’s edge. If you have a green thumb, do drop by the only public urban farm in Lower Manhattan with over 80 organic vegetable plots marked out in rope and simple signs. The BeeVillage is another unique installation to visit where the striped, buzzing workers have taken over model replicas of colorful historic buildings and continue to match-make the flowers of the park as they have for the past century. The Battery’s noteworthy attempt to educate and amaze is sure to make your day.