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26th Dec....
Some general facts about New York...
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New York is made up of 5 boroughs.... Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx & Staten Islands. Of this, Manhattan is the THE place to be... its the office area of New York.... mostly, when anyone refers to New York City, they usually refer to Manhattan. All the major offices, skyscrapers, etc are here.... the other boroughs.... are mostly residential areas... Manhattan is truly an island... on one side it has the Hudson River separating Manhattan and New Jersey... on the other, there's the East River separating Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens & other boroughs.... On the south side is the Statue of Liberty.... Ellis island.. Governor's island & Staten Islands... Most of the Indian community stays in Queens. Bronx is more black dominated area & people avoid going to there. Staten Island is a bit far off from the main city... One striking feature about New York.... all the roads are perpendicular to each other... the roads are numbered in terms of Streets & Avenues... The Streets run from East to West while the Avenues run from North to South.... The Avenue number increases as you go West & the street number decreases as you go South. Most of the Streets & Avenues are one-ways... in such a system, you really have to try hard to get lost.... New York has an excellent subway system... there are about 5 different levels underground and more than 16-17 different routes... Did you know that Manhattan Island was bought by a white man from a red Indian for just 1$.... & today, that same place is worth trillions or more... |
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Next day, Geeta Maushi and I started early.. Our plan to visit Empire-state, Rockefeller Center and later do some shopping. Bottom image:- Manhattan Plaza... one of the subway stations opens into this place... Click to enlarge.... |
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At Empire state, we decided to take the New York skyride & the observatory... we had to wait for more than 2hrs before we got a chance to board the elevator that took us to the top floors.... the elevator took us to the 80th floor in 55sec & then we boarded another elevator that took us to the 86th floor which is the main observatory center.... the air temperature was about 0 deg C & the wind chill less than -10 deg C.
Guys you MUST visit this:- (http://www.nyctourist.com/empire1.htm)
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Empire state - one of the tallest building in Manhattan.. second only to the World Trade center.... ppl prefer to 'observe' New York from this building since its in the center of Manhattan unlike World Trade which is almost at the southern tip of Manhattan. For many year, Empire state was the tallest building in the world until the world trade center came up... click on the images to enlarge... |
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At night, the lights on the Empire State resemble the flag of the country whos independence days falls on that day. So, on 15th Aug., if one were to look at Empire state from a distance, the building would look Green, White and Orange. |
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| Look very carefully at this image, you should be able to see two faint building just below the flags. Those two are the World Trade center buildings. Click to enlarge the image.. |  |
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Once on top of Empire state... I went mad... I couldn't believe my eyes... the whole of Manhattan & its surrounding were just too much. For the next 30 min all I did was click click click... anything & everything that looked good was captured on film. The wind chill temperature was so bad outside that my hands had turned red (I wasn't wearing gloves since I had to take pictures...)... most ppl preferred to stay inside the closed glass structure... Top Image:- The bridge connects Manhattan & Queens. The island in the center is home to a few millionaires. Center Image:- The Chrysler Building.... forgot the names of the other blding :-))) Bottom Image:- Inside the glass structure.... |
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The Grand Central station (not seen in the photo) is immediately next to MetLife... infact both the building are internally connected as if they are one building... The brown patch in middle & bottom the pictures is Central Park. During summer, they say its the most beautiful 'natural' place in Manhattan. Earlier it used to be a garbage yard.. later the city authorities converted it into a beautiful garden. In the central image, you can see the two rivers.. the one on the left is the Hudson River.. so the left side of the river is New Jersey... the river on the right is the East River... The Hudson is more clearly seen in the bottom photo... click on the images to enlarge... |
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East River & Queens area... The black building on the Queens side is the Citibank building... its the tallest building in Queens... |
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Hudson River & New Jersey... Note the flyover in the center of the bottom image... it runs between buildings... some of the buildings on this side of Manhattan though not tall, do have their architectural beauty... enlarge to the photos by clicking them... |
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The other side of Empire State (the side opposite to the World Trade Center).... your really have to be on top of Empire State to appreciate the beauty of these buildings.... |
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| Queens-Manhattan-East River... |  |
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Statue of Liberty... Ellis Island & the Governor's Island are seen... (The photos didn't come well since the camera was facing the sun) |
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You can see the Statue of Liberty in the adjoining image... its a small projection on the first island.... the second island is Ellis Island & the third (incomplete in this photos) is Governor's Island. The land mass far away (well ahead of Liberty) is Staten Island. The water body on the right is Hudson River. adjoining image - World Trade Center & its surrounding... we can see the East River on the left side... |
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| Close-up of the streets & Avenues of Manhattan... |  |
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