New York City Down and Back. Part II: Two Kinds of Views

The first post in this two-parter was about fighting my way through traffic to get into New York City.  This installment is about the joys and vistas of the journey home.

In addition to the deserted early morning roads and uninterrupted NPR programming, other things I really like about these NYC trips include the great variety of things there are to see across the dashboard and the chance to change up the route and explore on the way home.

You get a little taste of the Manhattan views on the way into the Lincoln Tunnel (see post #4) but there are really spectacular city vistas (one kind of view) can be had on the way home too.

The celebrated New York Times building.

The iconic Empire State Building.  It looks better with a big monkey on it.

As part of that "take a different route home" thing, instead of going back through the Lincoln Tunnel, I sometimes head over to the West Side Highway.  One of the first things you see once you are driving north from mid-town is the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, which is housed on the retired WWII aircraft carrier USS Intrepid.

It's pretty eye catching; not the kind of thing you expect to see as you drive along most roads.  It is a gigantic ship, but it is actually amazing how small it looks, given what it was used for.  They landed airplanes on this thing!

USS Intrepid, obviously.

But if you grew up like me, obsessed with airplanes, reading books like Jane's Book Of Aircraft and Air War Against Hitler's Germany (The American Heritage Junior Library Edition.  Just re-read it a last year...) the thing that puts your head on a swivel and really grabs your attention are those angled-in tail fins of the plane to the right.

It's a Lochheed SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance (spy) plane and arguably the coolest aircraft ever built.  

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird in profile.  I actually turned around and headed back
down the West Side Highway to take this.  Conveniently, there is a legal u-turn just north of the ship 
and a stop light at the Museum entrance.  I got lucky and caught a red light in the perfect spot.

The SR-71 has held or holds virtually every record for manned non-space flight including altitude (85,069 feet) and speed (Mach 3.32, 2193mph).  Only 32 Blackbirds were ever built.  With the coming of the satellite era, the need for a spy plane that can fly over any spot in the world to take pictures of it in just a few hours has disappeared. The Blackbird was retired in 1998.

It still looks (more pictures) like something out of the future, which I find very encouraging as the SR-71 and I were introduced to the world in the same year (1964).

The West Side Highway also has great views of the Hudson River and one of New York's other great iconic structures, The George Washington Bridge.

The Hudson River with the GWB in the background.  
Aesthetically, both would benefit greatly from the addition of a big monkey.

Just about to head under the first tower of the GWB.
This would be an excellent place to put the monkey.

Sometimes when leaving the city via the GWB, I'll take the first right and head up the Palisades Parkway.  If I had done that on this trip, I'd have some (hopefully) great pictures of upper Manhattan, Bear Mountain and the Hudson River.  Another trip perhaps.

This time I continued west through New Jersey on Route 80.  So, with apologies to New Jersey, it was a while before I felt compelled to pull out the camera to document the other kinds of vistas on offer during the trip home.

The drive west on route 80 offers some fantastic views of rural New Jersey, especially as you approach the Delaware Water Gap.  The Delaware River is the longest un-dammed river east of the Mississippi and provides drainage for nearly 14,000 square mile of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  All of the water from New York and western/northern Pennsylvania that drains into the Delaware flows through the gap.

The Delaware water gap is a break in what is the first (or last, depending 
on your point of view) major ridge of the Appalachian Mountains. 

The break in the ridge can be seen for miles from both the eastern and western approach.  The landscape is pretty dramatic as you enter the gap.

Exposed rock ridge line of Mt. Tammany on the northern side of the gap.

Exposed rock ridge line of Mt. Minsi on the southern side of the gap.

Boulder field just below the upper ridge.  It comes right up to the roadway.

The gap also marks the southern entrance to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, which is an area I highly recommend you take some time to explore, if you are ever in the area.  It's even worth a trip of its own with both great river access for boating or swimming and hiking at a variety of levels.

It also a great jumping-off-point for that other thing I like about theses drives; a little exploring!  If you get off route 80 at the park entrance (there is no fee), you can not only stop in at the visitors center or one of the other buildings that cater to, uhm, visitor needs, but also get on the first of a series of small 2 lane roads that take you north along the river.

Leaving the visitor's center headed north on Old Mine Road (closed in winter).
That's route 80 on the Bridge above, just before the toll booths that are on the Pennsylvania side.

National Park Service road 615 (Walpack-Flatbrook Road), just south of Walpack Center.

The views and vistas of these isolated roads are fantastic as they work their way north through the park on alternating sides of the stream valley.  It takes you past some great park facilities (hiking, swimming, education centers) and through little hamlets of buildings, some run as historic sites by the park service, and other like the Peters Valley Craft Center that just seem to pop up out of nowhere.

But the real highlight of this route comes when you finally have a chance to cross the Delaware River into Pennsylvania.  Dingmans Ferry is the spot.  It has been a crossing point on the Delaware since at least 1735 when Andrew Dingman began running a flat boat ferry across this narrow, calm portion of the river. It is the only access to or from New Jersey for 30 miles to the south and at least 15 miles to the north.

Of course, there is no ferry at Dingmans Ferry anymore.  The location has been the home to a series of bridges beginning in 1836 (although Andrew Dingman III, after a series of bridge failures, ran a ferry here for about 40 years until the turn of the 20th century).  The current bridge was built in 1900 and has been in constant use since November of that year.

Dingmans Ferry Bridge, very full of traffic!  
I don't think I'd put a big monkey on it, despite the 4 ton sign.

There are 3 very cool things about the bridge.

First, it has a wooden deck.  Actually, that alone would be enough to make it cool!  When was the last time you drove on a wooden deck bridge, especially one this long that actually sees significant traffic?

Yep!  Those are wooden planks!

Second, it is one of the last privately owned (don't worry, they are subject to all the safety regs) bridges in the US.  Take a minute to think about that.  A bridge, connecting two states and two public roads, owned by a family run private firm.  Imagine this conversation at elementary school career exploration day.

"So Jenny, what are you going to be when you grow up?"

"When I'm a grown up, I'm going to run my family's bridge!"

"What?"

"Our Bridge.  The one over the river with all the cars and stuff.  I'm going to run it and take the money and fix the planks and paint the cables and make sure no trucks that are too big ever get on it!  And I'll let bikes  and school buses and ambulances and all my bestest friends go over for free!"

"That's nice dear"

Later in the staff room:

"Poor Jenny, she thinks her Mom & Dad who work in the toll booth actually OWN the bridge.  So Sad..."

Last Laugh to Jenny!

The third super cool thing about the bridge is the toll taker.

Toll taker, on the Pennsylvania side, Dingmans Ferry Bridge.

That's right.  My man is STANDING. In the middle of the road.  He is standing ALL day and night.  He is standing all day and night taking $1.00 from everyone coming or going over the bridge and putting it in a bucket.  He is not in a booth; doesn't WANT a booth; doesn't even KNOW what a booth is.  He is resolute and immovable; respecting, directing, protecting and collecting from all those who want to abandon or gain the Pennsylvania shore.

OK, so maybe I'm being a little overly dramatic but damn, can we get my man a chair?  I mean the bridge is open 24/7/365.  

He does get one day a year off.   The bridge is free on Christmas (and always for bikes, ambulances and school buses, just like little Jenny said).  I may drive down on December 25th just to take advantage of that, as a little gift to myself.

(And yes, I realize there must be more than one toll taker......better story my way)

From this fabulous bridge, the drive takes you up Route 739, also known as Dingmans Turnpike, through the town of Dingmans Ferry and more beautiful scenery, finally leading back to the big highway Route 84. Which I reluctantly get on.   Because, after all, I really do need to get home.
     

New York City Down and Back. Part I: Two Kinds of Traffic

Some days start earlier than others.

That's 4:58 AM.  It should read 4:45 as I had planned to take the  picture  in the driveway before I started the drive. But I forgot.   Hey, it was early.  I took this waiting at a stop sign.

Every month or so, I drive from Ithaca to New York City for a meeting.  It is 223 miles from my house to the parking garage I normally use in Manhattan. Meetings always start at 10:00am.

So the alarm went off very early, as it always does on these days, this past Friday.  It sounds awful to have to drive to and from New York all in one day, but it only happens once a month and there are some things about the trip that I look forward to.  

For one thing, it's always a day when I can be sure to hear Morning Edition on NPR from start to finish.  And for the first few hours anyway, the roads are mostly deserted. That's one kind of traffic.

The world is also quite a bit "darker" in the early morning than it is late at night.  I'm not talking about "darkest before the dawn" kind of stuff; the landscape is just darker at 5am than it is even late at night. There are fewer lights on in buildings and houses in the early morning, making the ones that are on stand out that much more.  I often have that moment of thinking "what are they doing up?" as I zip past.  Is someone sick?  Or can't sleep?  Or going on a trip?  Or rifling through papers they just found in the back of an old chest of draws?  Or playing cards? Or burying a body? Or...

Of course, they are probably just doing what I'm doing.  Going to work.  If I drove this route every morning at 5 I'm sure I'd see most of the same lights on.  But I'm the one out of my routine in this case and so the imagination wanders, just a little bit.

The lights that are on, apart from appealing to the more fanciful part of my brain, can be quite beautiful too as they blaze away in the blackness.  Which can make for some interesting photo ops as well.

The runway lights at the Ithaca Airport at 5ish in the morning.

I especially like being able to look into the dairy barns and see the cows chewing and waiting (I tried to get some pictures of that. They all sucked).

Because there is a specific time by which I have to arrive in New York, the route for the trip down is dictated by the need for speed. With virtually all of the roads (81 to 380 to 80) having posted speed limits of 65mph the trip ought to take about 3 and a half hours.

I should be able to leave my house at 6:00am and make it with time to spare.  Instead I need to leave by 4:45 to be sure to be on time.  While I have made the drive down in 3 and a half hours (Once.  In nearly 4 years), the trip has also taken 6 hours and on average takes about 4 and a half.

The reason for that is simple.  Traffic.  The other kind.  The crowded, maddening, soul destroying, am I EVER going to make it through this and boy do I really need to pee kind of traffic. 

You never know what the last few miles of the trip are going to look like.  Mostly they look like this:

The beginning of the slow down on the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel

The first 219 miles of the drive Friday took 3:20.  The Final 4 took 45 minutes. I usually have the radio on as I head towards the City with an ear open for traffic reports about the Hudson river crossings.  It doesn't really affect my route because our office is only a few blocks from the Lincoln Tunnel.  That is where I am generally headed.  For it to make sense for me to switch to either the Holland Tunnel or the George Washington Bridge, the wait at the Lincoln would have to be 2 hours or more.  Which certainly happens, but I've been lucky so far.

Everyday type Lincoln tunnel traffic.   How many thousands of cars are ahead of me?

I listen anyway and have often wondered how they gauge the waiting time.  It has always seemed to take less time than the reports were predicting.  But on this trip I was paying careful attention (The Heisenblog Principle in actions? See post #2) and I have to say that the time from when the traffic really slowed to a crawl to when I drove into the tunnel was pretty much exactly the 45 minutes that was predicted.

Reaching speeds of 15mph is both a rarity and a luxury this close to the tunnel.  The car rarely gets past 2nd gear and spends much of the final stretch in 1st.  Driving in traffic like this is the only time I would prefer to be driving a car with an automatic transmission.  The sturdy little Scion has a stick shift, which makes it fun to drive, but if I had to do this constant stopping  and starting  everyday, I'd switch.

Which would be a tragedy, because manual transmissions are just better.  That's right, I said it!  Plus knowing how to drive a manual transmission is a valuable if increasingly rare skill.  It means you can drive a rental car in Europe for starters.  And it's cooler.  I'm glad both my daughters have or are learning how to drive a manual.  

In fact, my older daughter has even gotten to talk a little trash about having that particular skill.  Back in High School, some dopey boys were teasing her with that old stereotype about girls being bad drivers.  She just looked at them and said "Can you drive a stick?"  They looked sheepish, said "No" and slunk away.  Talk about delivering in the "clutch"!

The final approach to the tunnel has a great view of the Manhattan skyline just before the road makes the big sweeping turn into the toll booths.  I managed to get a few shots when we were once again at a standstill.

NYC Skyline from the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel.   It actually looks a lot better than this

As I neared the toll booth before the tunnel, I started to have another concern.  Ever since 9/11,  there has been a security presence at all the Hudson River crossings.  I'm not sure if they are TSA or NY/NJ Transit Authority police, but there are always cops standing in the roadway once you get past the toll barriers.  Last winter, I saw them stop a guy in a big SUV just before he entered the tunnel.  There had been a big snow storm overnight and the car had about a foot of snow on the roof.  They made him get out and clean it off (the fear I assume being that a big chunk of it would come off in the tunnel and whack following cars in the windshield) before letting him go on.  He was wearing a suit and as far as I could see didn't have a snow brush.  And it was about 20 degrees.  Although I should have, I did not feel sorry for him.

But I was not worrying about snow or the weather as I got close to the tunnel.  I was concerned that the cops might be a little suspicious of someone taking pictures of what has been identified as a potential target for a terrorist attack.  How could I end a story about traffic without pictures of the cars merging into the tunnel?

I made sure to take my pictures quickly and nowhere near where the cops stand.

Just before the toll barrier.  There are 14 booths. 

The left and center tubes.

The right tube, where I always head, is the best way to go if you need to
make a right onto 40th street once you are in Manhattan .

It is amazing how the traffic funnels from 14 toll booth lanes down into 3 tubes with 2 lanes each.  There is lots of honking and jockeying for position but I've never actually seen any collisions, although I'm sure they must happen all the time.  Once you are in the tube, it's pretty much smooth sailing.


Total time from walking out my door at home to walking into the office: 4 hours 25 minutes.  Pretty good, actually.


Of course, that's only the first half of the day.  Stay tuned for the exciting return trip!!!