We’d made plans today to visit one world trade centre, the freedom tower and the observatory. In previous years our high rise experiences have bounced between the Empire State Building and the Rockefeller centre. My favourite being the top of the rock.
This time, given the observation deck only opened a couple of months ago we decided to try the new observation deck at the freedom tower.
The tower is located metres from where the original word trade centres, twin towers, were located before they were felled by events on 11 September 2001. We’ve previously visited the area and museum. Both areas emanating a solemn reminder of that fateful day so many years ago now.
We sat at the foot of the massive building, 1776 feet tall for obvious reasons. It towers over everything else and stands as a beacon to freedom. I took a few photos as we sat and took in the space. We then made our way inside, past the queue of people purchasing tickets, we’d ore purchased. Down the escalators passing a massive digital display showing where visitors had come from and how many people had visited since opening. We chatted to a guide holding us on line before moving to the security check point. She said they expect 1,000 visitors and hour.
We were ushered to security, much like at the airport. After security we were used down corridors and past a number of displays showing snippets from the construction projects and interviews with builders. Displays about the bedrock in NYC and why and how tall buildings are made. We then moved into a further line where we were ushered into a photography opportunity queue. We by passed that and moved to another queue where we eventually made it into the lift. 1700 feet in 60 seconds. The in lift display was amazing. A 60 second 40,000 year journey of manhattans development.
A great video on all walls of the elevator shaft.
We then made it to the 102 floor. Not there just yet. We then moved sling more queues with blacked out windows into a theatre. There we watched a movie about NYC and life and times in this amazing place. At the end of the movie the screens lifted and before was Manhattan. A uniform gasp from the crowd as this stunning city sprawled before us from the highest point of view.
We were then ushered out of the theatre to more queues and an escalator ride to the observation deck.
We’d finally arrived at the 360 degree views. Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Queens, Ellis Island, Staten Island and of course the Statue of Liberty were all there right in front of you. The views were spectacular and an entirely different perspective to those from 34th street (ESB) and 47th street (The Rock). Looking up town we could see mid town but it felt a long way away and to me it seemed lost. You can’t see Central Park from this vantage point. You do however have a stunning view of where the east river meets the Hudson River and lady liberty is just there before you. We watched and waited for sunset, sadly a layer of afternoon cloud moved in and obscured the sun. The light created was somewhat dull, but it did allow for some good dusk photos.
We sat and watched as day turned to night and the city lit up.
During this time we grabbed a snack and scoped out some good photo spots. Mardi reserved one looking north and me one on the south side.Â
One of the most interesting views was straight down to the void left by the memorial fountains to the twin towers. Although partially obscured, it’s an interesting perspective.Â
After full dark we made our way down in the elevator, another stunning visual display inside the elevator as we were transported sideways outside the building and traveled down as it abseiling down and around the building. Cool.Â
We caught the subway home and popped in before heading out to dinner. Tonight we felt like some southern BBQ so we headed across the road to Virgil’s. We enjoyed a great American style BBQ and dessert. During dinner the music in the restaurant sounded like I had programmed it. A selection of Pink Floyd classics coupled with so old time Syd Barrett classics. Fantastic. We also enjoyed a frozen mojito, which was pretty yum and lethal. Singing along to Syd Barrett in a packed restaurant isn’t my finest moment.
We wandered home, luckily it was only across the road!
