New York houses many spectacular landmarks, some I thought would be ho hum as we see them on movies or hear about them so often, but to actually see them in their true surroundings is another matter. The architectural beauty of some of these buildings- mostly apartments now, are supreme. The use of copper- tarnished green, gold, or wrought iron lace to decorate the roof tops or accentuate a balcony is cleverly done, as is the special lighting effects at night.

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A harbour cruise (which I recommend) takes you under the 26 bridges (7 major ones)and over 6 underground tunnels that link this island to the rest of the country. What impressed me most about these bridges is the varied architectural designs over the years. Each new bridge is sure as different from any of the others. The other interesting fact is that some of these bridges were built before the ‘car’ had been invented or could not cope with the volume of traffic once opened, so they built a second story of roads underneath the bridge!! The Brooklyn bridge is the one of the most famous and well worth a walk over.bridge1.jpg

The Statue of Liberty I must admit is a spectacular site. Thought it would be a low rating attraction for me- but I was proven wrong. This harbour cruise takes you close to it, plenty of times for a photo shoot. She is a an impressive statue and in some ways quite beautiful- on a sunny day. Her careful positioning at the mouth of the Hudson river is in prominent place and you can see the impact this statue must have had and meant for the thousands of new immigrants hoping for a better life in America. Check out the webcam, the weather is meant to improve today!!

The Empire State building is another one, but sadly the waiting time and the gimmicks to buy and buy more souvenirs lost some of its impressiveness. The ears do pop when you zoom up 80 stories iat record speed, then transferred to another lift- past more souvenirs opportunities to reach the viewing platform. The views are as far as you can see- on a fine day and well worth the 40 minutes queue to get there. However, as I was walking past the building the other day in the rain and with low cloud it had a sign saying 5 minute queue and zero visibility!!! I suppose if your time is short in NY then you would still go up. Just to note it has an average of 35,000 tourists a day visiting.

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Ground Zero I have mentioned before, but thought this photo from the top of the Empire State gives you a very good indication to the size of these two massive towers and how they once dominated the landscape.