Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge was begun in 1867 and completed in 1883. It is 6,016 feet from end to end (1.14 miles) and stands 135 feet above the water. Due to its size, magnitude and the crudeness of the tools and engineering available at the time, nearly 30 deaths occurred during the its construction, including the accidental death of John Roebling, the chief engineer.

Of the bridge, Roebling wrote, "The great towers...will be ranked as national monuments. ... As a work of art, and a successful specimen of advanced bridge engineering, this structure will forever testify to the energy, enterprise, and wealth of that community which shall secure its erection."

As it turns out, John was right. The bridge is still standing and one of the great landmarks of this great city. So much so that we made it a critical stop along our journey.

Aside from the magnificence of the bridge itself, it offers some superlative views:

Stunning.

I Got Off The Island

Pardon the cheesy "Lost" reference, but I couldn't resist.

Today, I played tourist one last time and took a three hour Circle Line boat tour around Manhattan island. It was fun to see my city from the water, plus it yielded some fantastic pictures.

First, one to prove that I'm really here:



Skyline...

Ellis Island...

Lady Liberty...

Brooklyn Bridge...

Yankee Stadium...

Also today, I installed my air conditioner... Did you get that? INSTALLED... as in, with actual tools and heavy lifting, all by myself.. my air conditioner. I feel very handy and somewhat proud of myself. I am also very happy because this means that I will no longer be subjected to the whims of New York's very temperamental weather.

I was so excited, that I almost took a picture of the air conditioner in its fully-installed state to post on the blog. But then I really would be one of those weird crazy bloggers who thinks that their audience (if they have one) actually cares about their air conditioner, and having already spent to paragraphs on it, I draw the line at pictures.