Grumpy's grand adventure Pt 4

[Hagar]

We travelled to Manhattan courtesy of Messrs. Amtrak. It was a relief to let the train take the strain & not worry about driving. I've never travelled on a train in the US before (can't remember the last time I was on one at home either) so this was another new experience. They really do shout 'Board & I was quite impressed with that. Also with the steps to get on the train. Little things like this fascinate me. It was very clean & comfy inside too, different to the ones at home.
On arriving safely at Penn station we thought about hailing a cab to take us to our hotel, the Howard Johnson. As luck would have it my brother pointed across the road from the station exit & asked "What does that sign say?" Believe it or not it was our hotel. We were born lucky as there must be at least 4 exits from that station. We booked into the hotel & phoned my brother's friend that we had come all this way to see - only to find that he was in Florida visiting his sick father. Ah well, never mind. We'll go & do some sightseeing. I don't have too many shots of NYC on this trip as we'd both visited before. Pity I didn't have a digital camera back then. My memory is a tad hazy & I get the visits confused. I remember we went to the WTC & I took these pics from the top. It still saddens me that this would not be possible today. I hope they don't upset anyone from that fine city.

Maybe Rotty or Dave can tell me which bridges these are.


The Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island.


I took this one of the Goodyear blimp. There were light aircraft & helos buzzing around all over the place. I don't know if this is allowed these days.


I think we walked from there to the southernmost part of Manhattan. I recall wandering through Battery Park & this ship taking tourists to Ellis Island & the Statue.


We decided against it as the queue was about a mile long & my brother suggested we visit Pier 17 instead. This was a hive of activity with all sorts of things going on.

[Ben_M_K]

Sweet shots...
It also saddens me about the WTCs. I'm sure everyone is thoug...

[legoalex2000]

OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!

thats where I played when my band went to New York. in front of pier 17, i goota post a pic of this, i feel speical for uneeded reasons

i'll post the pic later...

[ozzy72]

That guy on the bike rivals New Yorks singing cowboy chappy for weirdness

[SideWinder9]

Yes, it does!



Nice shots!

[xFLAMESx]

Afternoon Doug,

Bridges in shot #1 are : Brooklyn (closest) and Manhattan
Great series so far

Cheers mate,

Carl

[Hagar]

Thanks Carl. I should be able to recognise the Brooklyn Bridge but I wasn't sure.

[beaky]

Love those shots from atop Tower 2. That  observation deck used to actually look down on the VFR corridor...
Speaking of which, it's alive and well, and just the same as before.
Here's a picture. The Terminal Area chart for NYC shows a lot more, including the freq. used and helicopter routes, but this piece of the Sectional will give you the rough idea.
Basically the Class B is notched out to allow flights over the river up to 1100 ft, with a 1500- foot ceiling between the WTC site and the Staue of Liberty (known as "the Lady" while reporting on the CTAF). When I fly there, I just keep it at 1000 ft. all the way from the Verrazano Bridge at the mouth of the harbor to the top of Manhattan, and pray I don't have to make an emergency landing (no place to glide to north of Liberty State Park- forget Central Park, too many tall bldgs. between it and the river)
Those two 2500-ft. obstacles are not the WTC (WTC 7 is topped-out now, but only stands about 50 stories). I guess that's the Empire State bldg., and... ?  Drawing a blank there...


PS- glad to see you were at the Seaport; hope you went aboard the Ambrose, Pioneer, or Peking. I used to live on a 40-footer over near Liberty State Park; I was renting it from a woman who did carpentry for the Seaport. She moved off the cruiser after 15 years (!!) when a berth opened on the Peking.

Also: that hunk of ironwork crossing the river in the back of photo #3 is the Pulaski Skyway... it leads to Newark, which is the skyline to the SW... and that "Colgate" clock sign used to sit atop a bldg. in that very spot. It's a reporting point for VFR traffic in the corridor.