| Public buildings are always impressive. I think this is part of the administration of Jersey
City. We passed this as we walked the five blocks to the train station. |  |
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PATH is the commuter subway in and around Jersey City but also goes across
to Manhattan. It isn't part of the New York subway. This train goes under
the Hudson and up to 33rd Street next door to Penn Central station. |
| That puts you right
outside Macy's. We did go in but found it just too bewildering. |  |
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This is a statue outside Macy's. It is of Minerva with bell ringers and is a
memorial to James Gordon Bennett who was the founder of the New York Herald
newspaper in 1835. |
| Broadway is partly
pedestrianised and there are very wide sidewalks extending into the road
where traffic no longer flows. Here there are small cafes and potted plants. |  |
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There are lots of attractions for the thousands of tourists. You can have
your photo taken with any number of cartoon characters - for a fee. |
| Times Square is just a
mass of electronic billboards some of which are many floors high. |  |
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They cover every building in the quarter mile along Broadway around Times
Square. |
| It is quite impressive
even in daylight. The screens are very bright. |  |
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Surprisingly there weren't any political ads. Perhaps the billboards are all
sold on long term contracts. |
| Most of these screens are
15 floors high. There are thousands of tourists on the streets. |  |
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The visitor centre is in an old theatre and has several costumes from Andrew
Lloyd Webber shows on display. This is from Evita.. |
| This costume was worn by
Christine from The Phantom of the Opera. |  |
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The huge queue of people is for booths where they sell last minute tickets
for Broadway shows with a 50% reduction. |
| In amongst the
skyscrapers there are numbers of churches tucked in between buildings many
times higher. |  |
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We went to the Rockefeller Centre but we didn't go up it. It is only a few
blocks from the Empire State Building which we did go up. This is a skating
rink which is part of the complex. |
| There are lots of
buildings dating from the 1930s. These have quite artistic exteriors with
complex stone facings. |  |
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We walked back through Times Square again. The lights get brighter as the
shadows of late afternoon start to form. |
| It is impossible to
underestimate the importance of football in America. But most of it is in a
different language which we don't understand. |  |
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There are folk begging - I guess this guy is at least honest. |
| Twilight falls as we
depart to catch the train back to New Jersey. |  |
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Even the buildings which aren't covered in billboards are attractively
designed. |
| This is the Empire State
Building which at 1454ft to the top of the aerials used to be the tallest
building until the Twin Towers were built. When they were destroyed it was
again the tallest but is now surpassed (since 30/4/2012) by the new One
World Trade Centre which will be 1776ft. There will be three more in that
complex but they will be lower. There are almost 6000 skyscrapers in New
York with almost 100 being over 600ft. |  |
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