In Walt Whitman’s Crossing the Brooklyn Ferry, the speaker turns a normal, common ferry ride into a philosophical experience. The speaker not only discusses the journey people take every day by means of the ferry, but instead takes the experience, and gives his own unique perspective. He talks about how it relates to himself and future generations, since there is a unity among the people of New York City. The harmony of humanity is illustrated through the people riding the ferry every day. Throughout the poem he is pointing out New Yorkers share a common bond that makes many of them able to relate to one another. Not only does Whitman write about New Yorkers being able to relate to one another in the present day, he also reflects on the fact that New York is a “melting pot” and people of different nationalities can also relate to one another. In addition, Whitman introduces the point that New Yorkers, both native and immigrants, can relate to their ancestors. To Whitman, there is not much difference between the struggles and the lives of those in the past, present, and future. The poem is not so much describing the ferry ride to and from the city, but describing how an experience such as the ferry ride joins other experiences in creating unity among people of different ages, genders, and cultures. Everyone in the world is connected. If we think about riding the Staten Island Ferry, certain mental images come to mind. We usually don’t know anyone on the ferry, but we all see the same things: the Statue of Liberty, the ships sailing, the Manhattan skyline at night. As we look at these things we never stop to think that everyone else on that same ferry is looking at the same things and probably thinking the same things we are. No matter what languages they may speak or what they may look like, we are all connected by our thoughts and what we see.