In order to reach Staten Island, one of New York’s five boroughs, all you need to do is take the Staten Island Ferry, a boat that takes off every half an hour from the tip of Manhattan, right next to the southernmost stop of the subway, Broad Street. Here, in the heart of the Financial District, at the southern-most tip of the city, tourists mix with Staten Island commuters to craft the strange water-based link that connects Manhattan to the strange, often forgotten borough.

From atop the ferry’s bright orange digs, it becomes strangely evident that the ferry attracts a peculiar mixture of peoples. Half are intelligent tourists, who somebody must have told that, for an up close, free look at the statue of liberty, the Staten Island Ferry is the absolute best bet. The other half, however, are individuals who go back and forward between the reality of Manhattan, and that of Staten Island, lives divided by that large, beautiful, body of water. Taking off from here, Staten Island, among all of New York’s boroughs, is perhaps that which is least urbanized, that which reminds one the most of a classic American suburb.