Completed in 1909, and located on Madison Ave, NYC, the Metropolitan Life Tower was the tallest building in the world until 1913. Elements of a few of its intriguing designs were photographed by me a few years ago from nearby Madison Park. My son Steve and I, with several hundred people, were enjoying a wonderful concert there with singer/songwriter Lucy Kaplanski …until the in-ground watering sprinklers popped up and activated, in some cases under people’s blankets.
Thanks for viewing and comments are always welcome. M 🙂
Most of the country, and particularily cities like New York, continue in a state of shut-down due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Today, a most welcome and meaningful show of support was heralded simultaneously by the Navy’s Blue Angels, and Air Force’s Thunderbirds, seen below flying from just south of the George Washington Bridge, to The Freedom Tower in lower Manhattan. I joined about 30, mostly masked onlookers atop a basalt outcropping near Goffle Road, Hawthorn, NJ, to witness the event some 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 km) distant from Manhattan. Close-ups are seen through ground haze, and a 600mm lens.
Thanks for viewing. Comments are always welcome, and zoom in for a closer look. M 🙂
Lucy Kaplansky, a Greenwich Village honed musician and singer-songwriter with pitch perfect vocals and acoustic guitar mastery, has impressed us during a number of local performances over the years. This past Saturday, as snow fell on the city and suburbs, my city savvy son and I made the trek, first by car in N.W. Bergen County, NJ, to the local train station. The end of the line is Hoboken, just steps away from the ferry terminal where we waited a few minutes for the frigid ride across the Hudson River to the “Battery” terminal (WTC area.) A cold half mile walk thru accumulating snow and partly along the water front, brought us to the pleasantly impressive “City Vineyard” restaurant on Pier 26.
Preceded by an excellent dinner, Lucy would perform flawlessly with her music and stories, right there on the Hudson River, and practically in the shadow of One World Trade Center.
This is how we got there…
The last image above is through the window next to our high top table while watching the show, – overlooking the summer deck and Jersey City beyond.
City Vineyard is marked near the upper right on the map above.
After the show, with my son leading the way, we would take a cab uptown to Penn Station, where the trains would bring us back under the river and eventually to the car (via Secaucus Jct.) and the final slippery road home.
Note that these are i-phone images.
Thanks for viewing and comments are always welcome. M 🙂
October 21, 1964, I was fortunate to be there, …in New York City, walking around the Staten Island side of this brand new and, at that time, longest suspension bridge in the world. In an hour or two the ribbon cutting would facilitate the official opening, and we would be among the first to cross.
“New York’s Finest” on foot, and on motorcycle, as the latter start one final sweep of the roadway just prior to the official opening.
See Part Two, as we prepare to cross the new bridge, which after 2018 became correctly and officially named as the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge with two z’s, finally conforming to the explorer’s actual name. Giovanni va Verrazzano was the first documented European explorer to sail through this waterway, in 1524!
Thanks for viewing, zoom in for a closer look on these original 35mm film images, and comments are always welcome. M 🙂
Last week we toured the Boscobel Federalist Mansion near Cold Spring, New York. Below is the view from its front lawn overlooking the Hudson River, …the i-Phone capture reminiscent of a genre of Early American Art from the Hudson River School. Information on this impressive site can be found at
It was late August. Summer jobs were finishing and my friend and I wanted to do something different before returning to school. “Let’s drive north, as far as we can go!”
(Three-second pause …) “Ok!”
Although my 1962 Austin Healy Sprite was slightly damaged by a rear-ending just a week before, its fun handling characteristics and open-air ambiance was an easy choice of vehicle, not to mention great mileage for college kid’s stingy budgets.
There was little debate, and in the warm, humid air of a New Jersey evening, we decided, …the trip was on.
Back in 1966, there was no internet or Google Maps. Preparation was more fly-by-wire as our available time and financial resources didn’t allow many options besides just …going! The Sinclair, Mobil, or Exxon paper maps were our planning media, and if it wasn’t on the map, we’d have to resort to local advice along the way.
Below is the 1098 cc Sprite as it appeared ten months prior our trip, when it was …clean! (“FANG,” the dog, agreed to be the model!)
My last post featured a barely visible bridge across the Delaware River near where George Washington famously crossed from New Jersey to Pennsylvania on Christmas Day, 1776. That experience was interesting because of the heavy air and dense fog, but the picture didn’t quite convey the ambiance.
I like the following two images a lot better however, near where George Shaw has gained some notoriety…
Background Of These Images
Jeanne and I were in Canada at “Niagara on the Lake,” which hosts the Shaw Festival each year, …the second largest repertory theater company in North America, staging plays written and inspired by George Bernard Shaw. Located on the shoreline of Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Niagara River, this quaint little town is about 24km (15mi) north of the Falls.
These positive slide film images were taken from the scenic Canadian Niagara Parkway on April 23rd, 1997.
As always, thanks for viewing and you can click-on or finger-stretch to zoom in. Comments are always welcome. M 🙂
Thanks for viewing and comments are always welcome. M 🙂
