Into New York City

November 17, 2017

We had enjoyed our flight from Atlanta to New York's LaGuardia Airport. It had taken about and hour and forty minutes. We now needed to reach the Crown Plaza Times Square hotel, which was about 10 miles away. On the map it is billed as about an hour trip, but it took us about the same amount of time as the Atlanta-New York flight. But we were on a comfortable bus with friendly company and had no particular agenda except to see part of New York, so it was ok.

The first big hurdle was that everything in sight was under construction. As their slogan said, "A whole new LaGuardia" was in progress. So the bus torturously wound its way through the construction along with a vast number of cars and other vehicles. At one traffic light we must have waited several minutes.

Laboriously working his way through the traffic, the bus driver finally reached a main highway, Hwy 278 or close to it. Our first view of Manhattan buildings was over this cemetary.

The cemetary wasn't so scary, but this gridlock warning sign was! The traffic was horrendous, and this suggested that it would get worse! We were turning onto the 495 and headed for the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, a mile-and-a-quarter tunnel under the East River into Midtown Manhattan.

We were getting a little more of a view of the Manhattan skyline now, over the tops of dense two and three story buildings on this side of the East River. The tall skinny building is very close to our destination hotel, but we had no idea of that at the time.

We continued through the lower and older buildings, with the newer skyscrapers in the distance. They were shiny and mostly glass.

As we approached the tunnel, the traffic was saturated. The area was amazingly dense with all kinds of structures.

Occasionally we got an opening to see the tall buildings. I believe these were on the east side of the East River.

It was interesting to see the cranes and rigging used in the construction of new highrise buildings.

There were a surprising number of churches crowded in between the highrise buildings and among the traffic-choked streets.

Finally we entered the 1.2mile-long Queens-Midtown Tunnel. For the most part it was straight, but there was a surprising curve near the midtown end.

Finally through the tunnel, we were traveling along the streets of Manhattan. Proceeding northward on 8th Avenue I believe, we are passing 38th Street on out way to 47th Street where the Crown Plaza is located. The Avenues run north and south and the Streets east and west. There were so many tall buildings so densely packed that you felt like you were going down the bottom of a canyon. We passed street names we have heard all out lives like Madison Avenue, Park Avenue, Wall Street, etc., memorable from countless stories and also from the Monopoly game board.

The midtown area near Times Square had a crowded network of Streets (East-West) and Avenues (North-South). Above left is one of the streets at about 44th Street, taken out the side window of the bus. Above right is 8th Avenue, one-way north with alternating directions for the Avenues. The theme of these pictures is to show the busyness and traffic. And there was construction everywhere to add to the congestion.

For something so important to transportation in New York City, the Subway stations were certainly unheralded. You just had to find these unpretensous stairways that led to the Subway stations below the street. We found them to be the most efficient way to get around the city, even though hundreds of taxis roamed the streets.

We turned onto Broadway for the last few blocks to our hotel, the Crown Plaza Times Square. The building at right is on the corner of 49th Street and Broadway, and I included it as typical of what we were seeing in the area: towering buildings on both sides of the street, a variety of shops at street level, and large high-resolution video billboards all around the Times Square area. This intersection is called Jack Dempsey corner because of the Broadway Restaurant the famous boxer had at this corner from 1935 to 1974. Jack Dempsey was world heavyweight boxing champion from 1919 to 1926, and this location is across from the third location of Madison Square Garden. Madison Square Garden was a famous venue for boxing as well as other sports.

When we arrived at the Crown Plaza Times Square hotel, we checked into our rooms - we were on the 29th floor and Jeff, Darla and Elyse were on the 18th. We went to the 4th floor ballroom area to check with the Celebration Concert Tour representatives to get our name badges and further information. Then we went a block or so up Broadway to Junior's Restaurant for supper and then walked back down Broadway toward Times Square.

On the way from supper to Times Square, we stopped off at the m&m store - three floors of m&m stuff! There were collections of m&ms of every color, size and description. Some of the walls were lined with large clear plastic pipes filled with m&ms.

Brenda, Darla, Elyse and Jeff with some M&M memorabilia. I don't think you are going to see more M&M's in one place! We covered all three floors of this remarkable ode to m&ms. I had no idea there was such a place.

We walked on down to the famous Times Square. Brenda is alongside some other folks who have just come from the M&M Store. The area is covered with large billboards that are high resolution video screens.

Jeff, Elyse and Darla just north of the "upper triangle" of Times Square. Just behind them is the tkts location which markets tickets for all the shows and performances of the area on the day of performance. Above it you can see people standing on the top of a triangular set of bleachers that give a view of the most famous (and crowded) part of Times Square.

Above is the best depiction of the view and feel of walking into the upper triangle of Times Square. To the left is the side of the triangular viewing stand. At right, Darla, Elyse and Brenda are on the steps of the viewing stand. The screen to the back of them is an example of the very high resolution video displays that surround Times Square. It has to be the world showcase of this current large screen display technology. The orange sign to the back right is one of the entrances to our hotel, the Crown Plaza Times Square.

This is our view of Times Square from up on the viewing stand. Note the memorial to Catholic Priest Lieutenant Colonel Francis P. Duffy, a World War II hero for which this upper triangle is named. As the Times Square article explains, this northern triangle is called Father Duffy Square after Chaplain Duffy.

All of these evening activities were very close to the Crown Plaza Times Square as shown on the map of Manhattan Island above. You can find Broadway and 7th Avenue on that map and the upper triangle of Times Square is where those two come together.