Wednesday 20 October 2010

NYC Day 4

The plan for today was to go to ground zero where the twin towers used to be and to ascend the Empire State Building. Tickets for Empire State cost $22 apiece and I purchased them online prior to heading out.

There is a massive amount of building work going on for construction of the new memorial tower, however, apparently the logistics of bringing materials through city streets is a major problem. I'm not sure why, but they are not permitted to use a river approach and transport stuff the short distance from the water by road.




 A bell in the grounds of St Paul's church (which was a major relief centre during the disaster).
 We went to the 86th floor observatory. It's incredible that this building was built in only 13 months. The Great Depression provided a massive and cheap workforce and safety standards were abysmal by any standards.
 View towards the Hudson River, Chrysler Building spire in sight.

 The views of city extend to the horizon in every direction. Although it appeared a little hazy in the distance, one of the things that has amazed us about NYC is the lack of air pollution.
 View toward East River. Manhattan certainly is an island. I'd read that bedrock for building foundations can be at 2 feet in the middle of the island and 200 feet elsewhere, especially around the river banks.

We could see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Isl in the distance but it didn't photograph well, so no pic here.

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