I'm reminded of that scene in Die Hard 3 when they have to get from 72nd St to Wall St in 30mins ("a 100 blocks in 30mins in New York traffic...") and they drive through central park, almost killing people to only go 13 blocks (< 1km) and then get stuck in traffic anyway.
You can do the entire trip from 72nd St to Wall St on a bicycle in 29mins at a casual 20km/h on the beautiful Empire State Trail.