One World Trade Center

November 19, 2017

How would you like to go to the top of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, the tall building showing in the photo at left? That is what we are preparing to do, but we had to go through a full-scale, airport level security check first.

At the observation deck level we could walk the complete circle with views of the city. Certainly my favorite view was of the Statue of Liberty in the harbor, particularly since we had nice sunset colors behind it.

An interesting sweep of view was from the Statue of Liberty on the left to the Colgate Clock on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. We had gotten good views of the Colgate Clock on our dinner cruise, so it was interesting to see it from this high perspective.

An interesting view to the south was the entrance to the tunnel that leads southward under the harbor. The view of the tunnel entrance is between two tall buildings. It appears that one side of the tunnel is closed and they are having to share lanes through the other side, and quite a traffic jam on the right has resulted.

I kept coming back to look at the distant view of the Statue of Liberty with the changing light of sunset.

Looking to the east, you could see the lights of the Brooklyn Bridge clearly, and above them a dimmer set of lights on the Manhattan Bridge.

With a wider view you can see the lights of the Brooklyn Bridge on the right. Then moving left you can see the Manhattan Bridge and then the Williamsburg Bridge.

Looking northward up Manhattan Island, you can see the main traffic arteries, with red taillights on the right and headlights on the left.

We could see the outline of the New Jersey side of the Hudson River and the lights along it toward the north. It was interesting to see the building with the two stripes of light up its entire height. We had seen that building from the dinner cruise.

The large expressway going up the west side of Manhattan shows the taillights and headlights of the traffic. The Hudson River can be discerned as the totally black area. Then the lights of New Jersey can be seen on the other side.

The views from the top of the One World Trade Center were indeed inspiring - much more so than can be captured by night photographs. The entire structure was of top quality. It is a wonderful answer to those who think they can quell the American spirit and capability by acts of terrorism.

After exploring the lower levels of the building a little, we found the subway station where the trains actually come into the building. It was an efficient ride back up to the 44th Street Station which was in easy walking distance from the hotel.

I think you would say that there is a crowd in Times Square when we walked there from the subway station about 7pm. It was made more crowded by some concrete barriers where you had to squeeze closer together to pass. When we had walked the two blocks north from there to the hotel I found that my wallet was missing. I spent the rest of the evening canceling my credit cards, and a good portion of the next morning at the Police Precinct Station on 53rd street making a report on the loss. One reason for doing that was to get a police receipt that would help me get back on the plane for Atlanta the next day. Marty helped by sending me pictures of my passport and old driver's license.