Oh, and Happy New Year...and Happy Anniversary Caputo's Corner!!!! Caputo's Corner will be having our first year anniversary special later this week and next!
So for those of you who have been following me on Facebook, you would have noticed a picture of your humble correspondent in the heart of Times Square all ready to go for New Years Eve. No, I was not in New York for New Years Eve, but Jena and I took a day trip to Manhattan as part of our Christmas Vacation. A trip to New York was something that we both had wanted to do for a long time, and the Holiday season was a perfect time to go. Our journey began in Pikesville where we were supposed to get on the bus, but we could not find it, and by the time we did it had already left. No big deal, we just tailed it to its next stop in Carney (which actually worked out better for us since we could actually get home a bit faster). The bus trip took about 3 hours and change and took us through some of Caputo's Corners favorite highway features: The Delaware Memorial Bridge and the Lincoln Tunnel. The Lincoln Tunnel is fascinating in that it begins at the bottom of a giant helix structure as NJ Route 495 descends the New Jersey Palisades to meet the tunnel portal. Check this out:
The Lincoln Tunnel was also part of the now-cancelled Mid-Manhattan Expressway. This expressway would have taken I-495 across Manhattan to meet the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and the Long Island Expressway. Today, the road that carries traffic to and from the tunnel in New Jersey is NJ Route 495 since it was never built to interstate standards due to the cancellation of this project.
Alright, enough roadgeek-dom. What you really want to know about is how our trip actually went. Well, we started off right here...no literally the bus dropped us off about 2 blocks from it.
Yes, folks, that is Times Square, the crossroads of the world, in all of its New Years Eve glory. I didn't think the bus would be able to get as close as it did. In 2009, the mayor closed vehicular traffic on Broadway within Times Square to be more accessible to pedestrians and make traffic flow more smoothly. I don't see how closing the road can achieve that second purpose, but I said I would not fall into roadgeek-dom anymore. It was nice to walk right out into the middle of the street and see the entire block all lit up. We even went into the Toys R Us right next door and saw the gigantic ferris wheel.
After Times Square, I got to hail my first cab. I had always wanted to do that! I didn't even get my right arm half way up when one of those distinctive yellow cars came screeching to a halt on the curb in front of me. Destination was Ground Zero. This is still a very active part of Lower Manhattan, but the mood down there nowadays is a lot more somber than probably what some remember. Nevertheless, it was quite spectacular to see all of the construction going on. We couldn't get into the official 9/11 Memorial area. You needed advanced tickets, but we did get to see the new Freedom Tower rising from the base of the island.
When this building is done in 2014, it will be the signature skyscraper of the NYC skyline, and a giant "Take that!" to anyone who thought they could mess with us on 9/11/2001. OK, I'll admit, we used slightly stonger language instead of "Take that!" :-)
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