NYC By Night

Traffic rushing past the Times Square Subway, and the lights of 42nd Street

One thing about New York, I wouldn’t want their electricity bill… The neon lights that make the city so spectacular by night must be expensive to run.

Views down 42nd Street

I ended my first day in New York by going up the famous Empire State Building. The entry to the building is a little deceiving. You need to queue a total of four times to get up to the top (well the 86th floor anyhow) – first to go through the security check, secondly to buy a ticket, thirdly for the lift. And when you think that you’re about to get out at the top, at the 80th floor, you get out of the main lift, and need to queue again for the lift to the observatory. Crazy stuff… The view, however is worth it. Difficult to capture the view with a camera (I was a little scared of dropping it – I had a feeling that my camera wouldn’t survive a fall from the top of NY’s tallest building) but it’s such an awesome sight, the view out over the five boroughs and lights as far as you can see.

The Chrysler Building and Times Square from the Empire State Building

After descending the building, I wandered up through Times Square. From above, the Square glows from thousands of advertisements, cars, theatres and restaurants. It’s not so much as square as a parade of lights, stretching for a few blocks. Times Square on a Saturday night was filled with people, out and about – so many that the crowd stretched from the sidewalk onto the first lane of traffic – which was largely closed off to vehicles by the traffic police. No special event, just an ordinary Saturday night in summer.

Hersheys at Times Square, and bank advertising

Mosaic in the Times Square Subway station