New York, Manhattan. August 8, 2012

    

New York by night.

New York  is a city that needs no introduction.
This is my seventh visit to this city.  The first one was in 1984. Each visit  has made me more enchanted of her varied attractions.

 

New York State & City

N.Y. is one of the 50 states  of USA (in green). Albany is the state capital. 

New York City ( in circle) is  on the south east comer of the state. 

It  is the biggest city in the country.

 NY city is divided into 5 boroughs, like the District for us in India. Of the 5, Manhattan [light blue in the map] is an island and the city's business center. Most the tall buildings one associates about NY is situated here;  one huge concrete jungle.

  Manhattan's  Map

Manhattan has several geographical sub divisions, like the Financial District, Upper West Side, Harlem etc.  This blog is about our visit to the Mid Town area, on August 8.

 The street map of Manhattan. If you enlarge you can see streets named in numerical order like- 
1st street,  2nd street, 172nd street etc. [in east-west direction]  and Avenues called 1st avenue 5th avenue etc in  [south- north direction]. But some avenues  have names instead of numbers like Madison, Park, etc.

Some of these street and avenues are so well  known  for its several features and attractions, like the  famous Park Avenue or Broadway. These are by itself places of tourist pilgrimage.
    

 TIME SQUARE - at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue . This Square –  is sometimes called  as the "The Crossroads of the World". The brightly illuminated junction  is  one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections, and a major center of the world's entertainment industry. To describe the ambiance of the area by night only one apt word comes to my mind, കിടിലന്‍.

On this trip we were staying in Connecticut some 45 miles away in our son's apartment. We went to the city taking the Metro North rail line to the Grand Central Station, from Norwalk, Connecticut. The one way off peak fare is $ 10.50. per person. But during peak traffic at Grand Central, the fare for a ride is $ 13.75. Travel time is about 55  minutes on the average, to cover 45 miles / 70km.  One day was spend visiting the Mid Town area. Two other days each were spent to see the Metropolitan Museum of Natural 
Science and The Museum of Modern  Art, near the Central Park. On the last day, we took the Circle Line boat cruise to go around the island of Manhattan.

 

 At the ground of Rockefeller Center - flags of  different countries; our tri-colour  in the middle. 
 Rockefeller Center is a group of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres  between 48th and 51st streets in New York City. Built by the fabulously rich Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue.

 

 Rockefeller Center.  Mid Town has a lot of tall buildings each of which has a history of its own . Of these, 2 offer tour to the top - The Rockefeller Center and  the Empire State Building. Both buildings has a fee of around $. 20 per person, but worth the value, as one 'll  get a clear perspective of the city from above. The only better option is the short tour helicopter ride.

  Here we are on top of the Rockefeller Center. You can see the expanse of the Central Park. Each square foot of land is worth millions here- the most expensive real estate on this globe. Yet New York  keeps its central park. 843 acres of prime land - green and pristine. The park initially opened in 1857, the year in which we had Sepoy Mutiny in Delhi, when  The British Govt. took over India's administration, from East India Company.

At the  "Top Of the Rock"

 The  centerpiece of Rockefeller Center is the 70-floor, 872-foot

GE Building,  constructed  with a flat roof, where the Center's  observation deck, called "The Top of the Rock" is located, It was built in 1933.

 Communication antennae at the top.

One mile  to the south, is the Empire State Building, our next destination today.

Walking leisurely to Empire State, through the concrete and steel canyon of New York. 

Under the tall structures, people look like ants.

While walking to the Empire State Building, you can see me stopping a while  in the  vast  court yard of New York public library. Here  I get the open space to track the GPS satellites above on my phone. 

The library is a nonprofit corporation operating with both private and public funds. With nearly 53 million items, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States, after the Library of Congress in Washington DC.

Click on the map to enlarge.

The screen shot of my phone's  Global Positioning   navigation system - using Google Earth and A T & T mobile data service,  it gives, step by step turns; time and distance to destination, both in text and map form.

As we got down from the Rockefeller and began to walk south towards the Empire State , an unusual sight caught my eyes. A group of people waiting patiently outside a hotel's entrance.. I have seen it  outside Indian hotels, where cricket stars stay. But didn't anticipate  the New Yorkers to follow suit. The American ladies foot ball team that won gold in London Olympics was coming out  of Hotel Sentai,  on way to a congratulatory meeting with  their President, Mr. Obama.

 People all over the world are the same, only  cultural  practices differentiate  them out.
Here, there is no pushing and shoving - a well behaving crowd.

  If you look carefully you may find an Indian in the crowd.

Amazed at the similarity of human nature, I walk on, before the team came out.


 

Empire State stands 102 floors high. From its foot it is hard to capture the entire building in camera frame.

 Jessy at the entrance of Empire State Building.

 The Foyer from where you get the lift to the top of 102 floor building. The building was constructed in 15 months [ one floor every  fourth day] and opened in 1931. That is why America is different; what the world does today, they did, 100 years ago.

View from the top- Hudson River on the west side. Across Hudson  the State of New Jersey.

Far to the South about 3 miles away, you can see the tall buildings of the Business District, near  the island's tip.  Beyond,  in the New York harbor  on the Liberty Island is the Statue of Liberty.

On the east side, the East River. Across the river the borough of Queens.

The rectangular green and white box building on the top left by the East River is the
United Nations Building.

Concrete Jungle of New York.

Mid Town East area.

Now a reverse view.  1 mile to the north, the off-white rectangular building in the center, is the GE building of the Rockefeller Center, 70 story high, from top of which I took the picture of Empire State. 

Some other buildings in Mid Town, at the foot of Empire State.
Even  50 story building seems a wee bit short.

Two surprising sights in  NY.  Cycle Rickshaw & trash bags on street side.

At the end of the day we go back home from the  Grand Central Station.
All the rail lines are deep  underground.
This station is so huge and steeped in history, that there is a  free conducted tour of the Station.