The other night a friend and I drove into the city without any clue of where we wanted to go or what we wanted to do. I was doing the driving and used the west side highway to enter the city. As I turned onto the 34th st. exit, our answer was right in front of us, why not go to the top of the Empire State Building. That night the weather was quite nice for January, the sky was clear, and at that time of night there was little concern of it being overcrowded with tourists.
After we parked the car in a nearby garage, we made our way over to the building and the doorman informed us the observatory was still open. Taking an escalator up to the 2nd floor, we walked through rows and rows of velvet ropes (I would hate to see how crowded that must get on a summer's day), and made our way to the ticket booth. The cost for entrance to the observatory is $22, which is not too bad. After going through another maze of velvet ropes, we were led to an elevator which took us up to the 80th floor. The elevator ride was quite nerve-racking as it flew up fast, causing my ears to pop, and rattled often which made me think it might just snap at any second. On the 80th floor there's some historical information about the building and with some old pictures of the time it was being built. After passing by a small cafe, we had to take a second elevator, this time a shorter ride up to the 86th floor where the actual observatory is. As soon as we got off, they had someone there playing a saxophone, and the main area is behind glass where people can take in the sights from inside, but its much more interesting stepping foot outside.
As soon as I opened the door to get outside, I had a gust of cold wind blow against my face. It might've been a nice night on the ground level, but it was certainly freezing and windy eighty-six floors up. There's high fences curved inward, as well as guards, to keep people from being able to fall off the building, although several have been able to do it over the years. After taking one look down for myself, I had to imagine there must be a better way for one to kill themself. Items like firetrucks and boats in the harbor looked like the size of a fly. It was quite a sight to see, especially at night with all the bright lights of the city, as well as those of the outer boroughs, through the clear sky. Since I hadn't planned on going there before driving to the city, I didn't bring my camera with me. There was plenty of skylines and landscapes to photograph, everyone was snapping pictures. The only part of the building that people weren't looking at was the west end which faces New Jersey, as there wasn't much to look at for that side. The other sides offered the East River, with all its bridges, Times Square, the Freedom Tower, the Crysler Building, and more. In fact, the top of the building itself was lit up in blue which made for a great sight by simply looking upwards.
It would've been nice to stay a little longer, but the cold air was having an impact on us, so we decided to head back down. The elevator took us back down to the 80th floor where we had an opportunity to walk through the gift shop area, I ended up buying a souvenir mug. From there it was onto the next elevator which took us from the 80th floor all the way back down near ground level, happily. Perhaps it was the elevator rides, or maybe the cold winds up there, but for some reason we started to feel very hungry. There is a bar/resturant near the entrace of the building, in fact it can be accessed from the lobby. The only problem is they stopped serving food by that hour, so there was nothing there for us to eat but liquior. We were saved by a Papaya Dog stand located down the block that I ordered a chili dog and colata drink from for only $4.75 in total. When we got back to the car, initally I thought the parking fee wouldn't be much as it wasn't in a "hot area" so to speak, but the price for less than two hours came out to $39.
It would've been cheaper if we had brought the car a $22 ticket and parked it on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building...
After we parked the car in a nearby garage, we made our way over to the building and the doorman informed us the observatory was still open. Taking an escalator up to the 2nd floor, we walked through rows and rows of velvet ropes (I would hate to see how crowded that must get on a summer's day), and made our way to the ticket booth. The cost for entrance to the observatory is $22, which is not too bad. After going through another maze of velvet ropes, we were led to an elevator which took us up to the 80th floor. The elevator ride was quite nerve-racking as it flew up fast, causing my ears to pop, and rattled often which made me think it might just snap at any second. On the 80th floor there's some historical information about the building and with some old pictures of the time it was being built. After passing by a small cafe, we had to take a second elevator, this time a shorter ride up to the 86th floor where the actual observatory is. As soon as we got off, they had someone there playing a saxophone, and the main area is behind glass where people can take in the sights from inside, but its much more interesting stepping foot outside.
As soon as I opened the door to get outside, I had a gust of cold wind blow against my face. It might've been a nice night on the ground level, but it was certainly freezing and windy eighty-six floors up. There's high fences curved inward, as well as guards, to keep people from being able to fall off the building, although several have been able to do it over the years. After taking one look down for myself, I had to imagine there must be a better way for one to kill themself. Items like firetrucks and boats in the harbor looked like the size of a fly. It was quite a sight to see, especially at night with all the bright lights of the city, as well as those of the outer boroughs, through the clear sky. Since I hadn't planned on going there before driving to the city, I didn't bring my camera with me. There was plenty of skylines and landscapes to photograph, everyone was snapping pictures. The only part of the building that people weren't looking at was the west end which faces New Jersey, as there wasn't much to look at for that side. The other sides offered the East River, with all its bridges, Times Square, the Freedom Tower, the Crysler Building, and more. In fact, the top of the building itself was lit up in blue which made for a great sight by simply looking upwards.
It would've been nice to stay a little longer, but the cold air was having an impact on us, so we decided to head back down. The elevator took us back down to the 80th floor where we had an opportunity to walk through the gift shop area, I ended up buying a souvenir mug. From there it was onto the next elevator which took us from the 80th floor all the way back down near ground level, happily. Perhaps it was the elevator rides, or maybe the cold winds up there, but for some reason we started to feel very hungry. There is a bar/resturant near the entrace of the building, in fact it can be accessed from the lobby. The only problem is they stopped serving food by that hour, so there was nothing there for us to eat but liquior. We were saved by a Papaya Dog stand located down the block that I ordered a chili dog and colata drink from for only $4.75 in total. When we got back to the car, initally I thought the parking fee wouldn't be much as it wasn't in a "hot area" so to speak, but the price for less than two hours came out to $39.
It would've been cheaper if we had brought the car a $22 ticket and parked it on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building...
No comments:
Post a Comment