Chinatown, Little Italy & Brooklyn Bridge Tour

On this 3-hour walking tour, an experienced local guide will take you through some of New York’s best neighborhoods, including Chinatown, Little Italy, over the Brooklyn Bridge and more. See famous New York sites that you know from film and television, hear about the immigration that gave the USA its reputation as a 'melting pot', and find out about the infamous gangs of the 1920s.

Your New York City Chinatown, Little Italy & Brooklyn Bridge Tour meets in front of the Jacob Wrey Mould Fountain in City Hall Park and finishes at the former New York City Police Headquarters Building (240 Centre Street). 

Some of the most famous New York neighborhoods

You can’t come to New York without taking in the amazing views from the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, or hearing the incredible story behind its construction, which was a major engineering feat at the time. Of course, you also can’t leave the Big Apple without experiencing the world famous Chinatown or Little Italy! With approximately 100,000 Chinese and 100 Italian inhabitants respectively, your local guide will tell you about the arrival of these groups in New York, as well as pointing out the most authentic places in these neighborhoods to eat, drink and visit.

The Melting Pot

As well as hearing about the Chinese inhabitants of Chinatown and the Italian inhabitants of little Italy, you’ll also hear about Irish immigration while visiting the Five Points neighborhood (made famous in the Martin Scorsese film Gangs of New York) and forced African immigration through slavery, visiting the African burial ground, where the remains of 10-20,000 slaves were discovered in 1991. Hear about the dire conditions many of New York’s new arrivals lived in during the 1800s, including slums, overflowing outhouses and streets filled with sewage and livestock.

The gangs of 1920s New York

While Little Italy houses many of the crime scenes and favored haunts of the notorious Italian Mafia, your guide will also tell you about the much-feared Tongs, who ran Chinatown and controlled the gambling, prostitution and drug trade. Hear about the tunnels under Chinatown used for smuggling, hiding and escaping, find out about the street fights and shootings that were part of everyday life, and discover the slum that was rumored to have a murder every night for 15 years.