<< Winter at Marymere Falls

01/22/18 - New York City - 1

We just returned from a trip to New York City to spend time with friends and family and to just wander around and enjoy a serious dose of urban life. We did the usual tourist things, wandering the streets and visiting museums. There was construction all over the place with scaffolds, cranes and construction workers. Despite all this and less visible economic forces, we were pleased to see that the urban fabric still holds.

One of the nice things about wandering the city is that it is full of surprises. Our very first evening, as it turned out, was the last evening for the Christmas tree at Bryant Park. This was once a rather disreputable park behind the main public library branch, but is now adopted seasonally. In the winter, that means an ice skating rink. It was a cold night, as you can see from the icicles on the fountain. The next night was warmer, and the Christmas tree was gone.

We took a walk along the High Line, an unusual park that was once an elevated railroad right of way. It is landscaped with grasses, but the real attraction is the unusual view it offers of the city. Well above the ground floor, one can look down at store fronts and city streets and into people's back alleys. There are glimpses of the skyline and of the Hudson River which it parallels.


The winter skating rink at Bryant Park

Michaelangelo's Brutus at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The High Line, an urban fantasia

Some snow among the ornamental grasses

Neither heaven nor earth, it's the High Line

A view into the urban fabric

An elevated park

Another city street view

Part of the vanishing industrial landscape

The new city being built

Across the Hudson

Keywords: new york city