Monday, January 15, 2007

East River

Manhattan is a long but narrow island bordered by the East River on the east and the Hudson River on the west. It is 13.4 miles (21.1 km) long; and 2.3 miles (3.7 km) across at its widest and 0.8 miles (1.3 km) at its narrowest.

This photo was taken from the elevated Roosevelt Island Tramway, which is a cable car system connecting Manhattan to Roosevelt Island across the East River on 60th Street. In the photo, you can see the northern view of Manhattan on the left and Roosevelt Island on the right.

The East River is a beautiful and narrow waterway that attracts a fair amount of single engine plane and helicopter tours along it. Unfortunately, the tall buildings on the Manhattan side can be hazardous to inexperienced pilots who fly this route. Recently, a small plane piloted by baseball player, Cory Lidle smashed into one of the buildings during an attempt to turn the plane around after flying up the East River.

N.B.: Macky of Tokyo Photo Daily posted a similar photo last Sunday. How appropriate since Tokyo is a sister city of New York City.


12 comments:

Zannnie said...

ohh, great shot, i like this East River view:) wonderful..It looked cold in this colour, what's the temperature there?

Ming the Merciless said...

zannie - It was taken sometime before New Year so it's a couple of weeks old. Can't remember what the temperature was but it was probably around 50 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 degree Celcius. We have the warmest winter ever. Something to do with El Ninos.

How was Budapest, Hungary??

Unknown said...

Wow, the roads goes below the building!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for your excellent description. I've never been to NY and often wonder at the things I see on tv. It's hard to get a mental picture of the "lay of the land." (Recently I had to book my boss in a Manhanttan hotel and it took quite a while to find one located near his meeting. I consulted a lot of maps!) This really helps -- and, oh, did I mention I love the blue of the water in the photo? :)

Olivier said...

tres belle photo, cote de new york moins photographie, merci.

j'aime bien roosevelt island, il y a une tres belle eglise (peut-etre un post bientot ?)

very beautiful photograph, dimensions of New York less photography, thank you. I like roosevelt island, there is a very beautiful church (perhaps a post soon?)

Dsole said...

hey, Manhattan is always said to be an island, but it isn't more like a peninsula?
Lovely photo, cars seem so tiny from there above! :)

Ming the Merciless said...

keropokman - HA! I didn't notice until you mentioned it. Yeap, apparently the highway was built before the highrise.

lessie & olivier - thanks for the compliments.

dsole - I think a peninsula has to be attached to the mainland, like Florida.

Dsole said...

Ok, you're right, I saw it on the amazing google earth... but anyway, it doesn't seem to be an island..

Anonymous said...

so this is where the incident happened ? it is indeed dangerous..
this reminds me of boston with charles river

Annie said...

That's a nice vista to look at. I like your photo!

Melting Wok said...

wahh, ming, nice pic :) its so fitting for the weather hehe :) haven't been there for a while now, thx for sharing :)

Unknown said...

Great shot! Thank you for the link:-)