NYC War Memorials to Visit on Memorial Day or Any Day

The price of freedom and independence is high.

Here are six top memorial sites in NYC where you can honor our men and women in uniform any day of the year, not just on Memorial Day.

These war memorials are FREE to visit and reflect on the true cost of freedom and independence.

World War Two Memorial, Battery Park

This outdoor memorial is a series of tall marble slabs embedded with the name, rank and serial number of the thousands of New York City men and women who gave their lives in WWII.

Open daily, the same hours as Battery Park.

Vietnam Veterans Plaza memorial site in NYC_nyctravelguru — Photo: The Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Plaza

Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Financial District

This plaza a few blocks from Wall St. is an eclectic mix of news dispatches and the letters of US military, etched onto slabs of greenish glass. It is one of the few NYC war memorials with benches for reflection.

End of Coenties Slip, between Water and South Streets, near the South Street Seaport.
Find out more from the Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza

Brooklyn War Memorial, Cadman Plaza

The official name is WWII Memorial in Cadman Plaza. It is Brooklyn’s only borough-wide monument honoring the 327,000 American men and women from Brooklyn who served in uniform in World War II.

Grant's Tomb, one of several presidential sites in NYC_nyctravelguru — National Park Service photo

Grant’s Tomb, Upper West Side

Although not technically a war memorial, Grant’s Tomb honors the Civil War general and US President.

Yes, Ulysees. S. Grant is buried in Grant’s Tomb, alongside his wife, Julia Dent Grant, in twin marble sarcofagi, and the small museum includes historic documents and other artifacts.

Grant’s Tomb is part of the National Park System

Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Riverside Park, NYC_nyctravelguru — NYC Parks Dept. photo

Soldiers & Sailors’ Memorial, Upper West Side

This soaring white marble monument in Riverside Park commemorates the Civil War dead. More than 370,000 soldiers from New York State fought in the Civil War on the Union side, accounting for one out of every five men in the state. Of these, 130,000 were foreign born and 4,125 were free Blacks.

Riverside Drive at 89th Street.
NYC Parks Dept. website with additional information.

Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Arch, Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn

This grand arch also commemorates those who served in the Civil War, and also reminds many of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

The arch sits on one of the most important intersections in Brooklyn.

Many Civil War soldiers are buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

And this —

Tribute in Light at the World Trade Center in NYC commemorating Sept. 11, 2011_nyctravelguru — Tribute in Light at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 each year

9/11 Memorial Site and National September 11 Museum

Not technically a war memorial, but this is where “they” declared war on us that horrible day when the World Trade Center twin towers were destroyed by madmen, killing thousands of innocent people.

Never forget.

This article was published originally on my former site, NYC on the Cheap, which was hacked, held for ransom and destroyed in Feb. 2022. Some links are to the original article, via archive.org.

This article has been updated and is is published every Veterans Day, Memorial Day and July Fourth.

ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter is a journalist with 25+ years of experience as a newspaper and magazine writer, radio & TV news producer & reporter, and author of guidebooks and smartphone apps – all focusing on travel, automotive, the environment and your rights as a consumer.