Good morning, my fellow Americans. Season after season, year after year, the tides have come in and out of New York Harbor long before the name New York had ever been spoken; Lenape dugouts crossed these currents.

It was on these waters, tall masts crested the horizon, captained by explorers like Verrazzano and Hudson, after whom we’ve named our bridges and rivers. And ever since, ships full of travelers, weary from long journeys, have passed through the narrows, the winds of the Atlantic at their backs. When those passengers lifted their heads to glimpse what lies just beyond the waves, what did they see? They saw land, lush and teeming with life. They saw men waiting at the docks to take them into bondage. They saw tenements rife with squalor. They saw industry rumbling with activity, steam and smoke rising, a city on the move. They saw a towering monument to freedom, her torch glowing worldwide welcome. They saw New York City. They saw America.