Seeing Sue's photos from New York flash by in my feed made me nostalgic for our own trip to NYC in 2007. Almost 2008 because we visited New York to celebrate New Year's Eve. Since we're not going overseas anytime soon, I'm going to have to live vicariously through Sue's travels. On the last day of 2007 we walked over Brooklyn Bridge to have brunch with Caitlin in Brooklyn. After brunch and a quick walk around Brooklyn we caught the subway back into Manhattan.

I'm a bit of a bridge geek so I loved our walk across Brooklyn Bridge. It really is a very attractive bridge. We watched the Brooklyn Bridge episode of Seven Industrial Wonders of the World before visiting New York so we had an appreciation of just how much work went into building the bridge.

To sink the foundations of the two towers beneath the East River, men worked in chambers pressurised to keep the water out. Lots of men, including the chief engineer, suffered from decompression sickness after they left the highly pressurised environment.

In that episode, we also learnt that there was dodginess with the manufacturing of the steel cables that support the bridge. Apparently, steel that was rejected as not satisfactory was still used. But it can't have been that bad because the bridge is still standing. The Brooklyn Bridge is nearly 130 years old making it one of the oldest suspension bridges in the world.
More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

Our visit to Brooklyn Bridge was part of our trip to New York. We visited New York in December 2007 to celebrate New Year's Eve in Times Square style. We also did heaps of other New Yorky stuff. Other entries from this trip include: Aeroplanes in the night sky.

There is a song that is being played on commercial radio at the moment and the chorus goes like this:

Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars?
I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now.

When I listen to this song I'm reminded of standing on the observation deck of the Empire State Building in New York. I can remember standing there, looking out into the night sky and noticing bright points of light. At first I thought they were stars but then I realised they were moving. They were aeroplanes on their way into one of New York's three airports (probably JFK). It was amazing how many you could see. There were dozens of twinkling, shiny (very slow) shooting stars in the sky.

Andrew and I visited the Empire State Building at about 11.30pm after seeing the Knicks play basketball at Madison Square Gardens. It was the perfect time to visit as there was no one there. We breezed through the queuing area and went straight into the lift. I was glad that we had chosen such an unusual time to visit as it was quite a long walk through the snaking catchment area. If we'd have gone during the day that catchment area would have been crowded with people.

It was freezing on the outdoor observation deck. Andrew spent most of his time outside trying to take photos of the view which was quite difficult because of the low light conditions (and because his hands were frozen). I would go out periodically for a little bit of a look and then head back inside to thaw out.



Here is a photo of a cranky man. Andrew was taking photos of the lift area and this man yelled at him because he was in the photo and how dare Andrew take photos of him. He was really rude about it too so I'm posting it here on fushmush just to spite him. Rudeness will get you nowhere.

More photos (slideshow) of New York on Flickr.

Our visit to the Empire State Building was part of our trip to New York. We visited New York in December 2007 to celebrate New Year's Eve in Times Square style. We also did heaps of other New Yorky stuff. This is the first entry from that trip.

Jess and Alice in Central Park

Happy New Year!