Upper East Side, East River Walk at 71st Street; FDR Drive Between 71st and 73rd Streets

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This is the East River? I mean, this is the East River. Doesn't it look tempting?





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Here's a longer view to help you figure out what you were looking at in the closeup.







Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………..click to enlarge


And now looking south is the Queensboro Bridge. Or if you're feeling groovy, the 59th Street Bridge.

These were all shot from the overpass I mentioned last night.





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Right about here I ran out of, I started to say film, but what I ran out of was space on my card. But here is one last shot of where I walked after I crossed back over.  There's a very narrow sidewalk alongside those buildings over there and I walked it from 71st to 73rd (because you couldn't get through on 72nd).  It's not that concrete by the red car which looks wide enough, but if you really look hard (or enlarge), you can see a blue car on the other side, and the sidewalk is on the other side of that.  Narrow.

Tomorrow starts a new walk - and tales of Grand Jury Service!  Well, not too many, since we're sworn to secrecy.


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Upper East Side, FDR Drive at 71st Street

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At the end of this last block is an overpass to the walkway beside the East River.

I was going to end this walk tonight with four photographs, but I really need to get to bed early tonight, so tomorrow I'll end it with three photographs. Just so you know.


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Inwood, Harlem River Ship Canal

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Here we are in Marble Hill looking back at the tippy top of Manhattan Island.







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And here's this thing. There were several of them on both sides of the bridge. What are they for? Does anyone know? It looks like a miniature High Line with natural things growing on it. Perhaps we'll have some tiny parks up here. I've left it in its giant enlargement size so you can examine it.



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Inwood, Harlem River Ship Canal

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Here's my boundary. But we walked across anyway, because I wanted to return on the other side of the street.



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Inwood, 218th Street Between Seaman Avenue and Indian Road

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This is where the boathouses are for Columbia's rowing teams. And that body of water is what connects the Harlem River with the Hudson and what separates Manhattan from the Bronx. EXCEPT for Marble Hill which is part of Manhattan but is across the body of water. I'll get to the name of the body of water in a minute.

Marble Hill used to be attached to Manhattan and the Spuyten Duyvil Creek was around its northern edge and separated Manhattan from the Bronx. Then some engineers figured out it would be more efficient to plow a water channel straight through Manhattan, so they basically chopped Marble Hill off and left it an island. Then they could get from the Harlem River to the Hudson 14 miles faster. Soon after, they filled in the Spuyten Duyvil Creek so Marble Hill was no longer an island, but was now part of the Bronx, geographically speaking. Legally, they're still in Manhattan.

So this body of water is officially called the Harlem River Ship Canal, but I think it's still casually referred to as the Spuyten Duyvil Creek. My map is silent on the matter. Go here for a more lengthy and official history of the area. And go to the wonderful Wikimapia to see the reality of this end of Manhattan. I should probably start linking to Wikimapia instead of Mapquest.



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218th Streets ends at Inwood Hill Park which you see there in the distance. I've written enough tonight, so I'll save the park for another day. This was the third flurry of runners who had thundered by me, I guess they're from Columbia, so I said, oh, all right, and took a picture of them.

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East River

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Okay, now are you going on a boat ride? I mean those of you who have access, of course. If you're in some landlocked place, far from bodies of water, find yourself a plashing fountain and sit there and watch the sky grow dark. That's good, too. A glass of wine would only add to it.

That's the lovely Chrysler Building on the right, and the manly Empire State building on the left, of course.

This is the last shot of the boat ride. I hope I get out tomorrow for a photowalk. I hope it doesn't storm.

East River

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And now, finally the waterfalls. The first two photos are shot at the Brooklyn Bridge and the third one at Pier 35 on the east side of Manhattan. The other two waterfalls are at Governors Island and the Brooklyn Piers.

You must imagine being on a boat on a balmy summer evening.

Upper New York Bay

Back from vacation. It was wonderful despite the bruises from a full body fall and the sliced finger from getting careless with a mandoline. I don't mean sliced off, although that could have happened. Luckily, they didn't happen on the same day. I try to look on the bright side.

And so, home again and back to the boat ride of over two weeks ago. I'll try to get up to date soon.



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Now we have turned around and come down into the Upper Bay so that we could see the Statue of Liberty and other landmarks. I took a number of photos of Miss Liberty and this is the only one that wasn't too blurry to show. What with the long exposures required because of the darkness and the movement of the boat, I consider it a miracle that I got this one.

Hudson River, West Side of Manhattan

LAST POSTING UNTIL WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13

I'm going to upper Michigan to visit Tom and Jeni and Nathan, Carrie and Ellen, where the weather is sunny and in the 70s, and the cooking is good and the wine is fine. See you in a week! Don't forget!


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I think it was about here that Barbara noticed we were traveling up the Hudson away from the waterfalls and leaped to the (correct) conclusion that we'd boarded the wrong boat.

This is lower Manhattan, but I don't know where. Does anyone recognize it? Let me know.

East River at South Street

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And now for something completely different. Not a walk at all. Saturday evening, nine days ago, Barbara and I set out to see the waterfalls of Olafur Eliasson – we had tickets to the 8:30 thirty minute waterfall boat trip from pier 16 at the South Street Seaport. It's so nice to be on a boat on a summer night, leaning against the railing, watching the sky gradually darken, feeling the breezes.

After a while it began to dawn on us that we weren't seeing any waterfalls and we'd already been out at least 30 minutes and, uh, we were probably on the wrong boat. But they took our tickets and let us on! Well, what could you do? We just leaned on the railing and enjoyed the ride and, after about an hour we did tour the waterfalls.

This is at the beginning, when the boat had started south down the East River (not a river), and this is the Staten Island Ferry. The last time I took a ride on the Staten Island Ferry was in the olden days when the fare was 50¢ and now it's free! Unbelievable. You should go. I should go.

Upper East Side, East River at 78th Street

Mary Sargent © 2006

Now I’m at the end of 78th street on the overpass, looking down. Of all the down shots I took--of traffic, of a guy lying on a bench, of a guy walking his dog, this is the one I’m showing. Water. Staring at water. Tension releasing from body.

I could easily have made this water look bluer, but, you know, it just wouldn’t be the East River, would it.