New York, NEW YORK

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Geo: 40.7792, -73.9632

A busy and fun day. Subway'd to Brooklyn and walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge to the Financial District and the World Trade Centre. A good look around then subway again a long way uptown to the Metropolitan Museum of Art - The Met.

After detouring via a knitting store, we thought we'd do some surface travel and caught the bus back along 5th Ave, ending up at Penn Station near our hotel around dinner time.

The original 1910 Penn Station was demolished in 1963. There was a great hue and cry because the station had become iconic, and it was the inter-city hub for east coast rail. The great building had been inspired by Paris' Gare d'Orsay (which was converted into the Musee d'Orsay in 1987). The 21 railway lines below the ground remained operational during the construction of the replacement Madison Square Garden and Penn Plaza.

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Photos

Brooklyn Bridge
Built in the 1880s, the bridge over the East River was an engineering marvel. The central pedestrian walkway is very popular with walkers and bike riders. We also encountered several primary school excursions that clogged progress pretty well.

The Financial District
Looking on the south side of the bridge. The Statue of Liberty is out there and the tallest building is World Trade Centre tower 1.

North to Midtown
Beyond the Manhattan Bridge the Empire State Building is clearly visible.

World Trade Centre
Work is proceeding on the replacement buildings, but take-up of the new office space is slow. Accordingly the rebuild is well behind schedule. Still, the work looks great and the precinct will be spectacular when finished.

South Pool
The pools are sombrely dramatic, and very moving memorials to the fallen. The victims names are written on the surround, which is apparently internally lit at night. WTC1 at the far end of the photo is 1,776 ft high including the spire (really?) but the building itself is two feet lower than the original tower.

The Met, end of E 82nd St
The museum is amazing but it's gigantic size (200,000 sqm) is almost intimidating. We took the highlights tour and our guide whizzed us around for an hour, stopping perhaps ten times to discuss various pieces. She was very informative and this is one museum where I could be tempted to spend days looking around.

Massive Galleries
This is just one of several galleries that housed colossal displays.

Halloween Overkill
At a residence near Central Park...

Comments

[Kerrie Lonn]

How are prices (restaurants/food) in New York? Looks very interesting - if a little intimidating.

[robselclark]

We have been eating inexpensively ~USD 25 for two. They have many fresh food deli's where you choose from a hot or cold buffet and pay $8.50 /lb at the check-out. Wine by the glass and beer typically $7. Not bad...

[Morag]

OMG !!

[Morag]

Hmmmmm