For one week in July, New York Harbor will look the way it did 250 years ago.
According to America250.org, the official 250th anniversary commission has partnered with Sail4th 250 to stage the largest peacetime maritime gathering in American history. From July 3 to 8, more than 50 tall ships from 30 nations will sail into the Port of New York and New Jersey, joined by roughly 50 allied and U.S. naval vessels, the Queen Mary 2, and thousands of pleasure boats.
The centerpiece is the International Parade of Sail on July 4. According to Sail4th 250, the procession will begin near the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, move north up the Hudson River past the Statue of Liberty, and end at the George Washington Bridge.
Participating ships will come from Argentina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, the Marshall Islands, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and Uruguay, among others. Most are training vessels used by foreign navies as goodwill ambassadors.
After the parade, the ships will dock at South Street Seaport, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and Staten Island's Home Port and open to public visitors from July 5 through 8. According to NYC Tourism + Conventions, organizers expect 8 to 10 million spectators, a crowd swollen further by FIFA World Cup matches at MetLife Stadium the same week.
NBC and Telemundo will carry the parade live. For viewers at home, it will be the closest thing to a glimpse of the harbor George Washington defended.
