Riverside Park/Hudson River: August, 2005

After several weeks of extremely hot and humid weather in NYC during July and early August, temperatures finally cooled down in late August, and local residents turned out to enjoy the weekend. Central Park is the most well-known place for people to relax, but residents of the Upper West Side also enjoy strolling along the river on the Hudson River edge of Riverside Park. I decided to join the throng on a Saturday afternoon, and snapped the attached pictures along the way. I often walk along here in the early spring, late fall, and winter months when there aren't many other fellow citizens; this was the first such stroll during summertime in many, many years.

My stroll began at 88th Street, descending from the Grant's Memorial Tomb at Riverside Drive, down to the promenade that runs along Riverside Park down to 82nd Street. I took a few pictures (mostly of small birds and pigeons, as it turns out) in the playground where my own children played in the late 70s and early 80s. Then down to the river's edge, and southward past the 79th Street Boat Basin, all the way to the pier extending out from 72nd Street.

Back in the 60s, there was an old, rotting wooden pier extending way out into what seemed like the middle of the Hudson River; I remember running out to the edge of the pier, literally hopping and jumping from one rotting beam to another, hoping the whole thing wouldn't collapse. Now, thanks to Donald Trump (who built the collection of condos that overlooks the whole area down there), it's a legitimate walkway, with benches and railings to keep people from falling overboard into the water.

From 72nd Street, I then turned and walked back north, all the way up past the tennis courts at 96th Street, and along the pedestrian/cycling walkway that parallels the West Side Driver (where the cars go whoosh! whoosh! at a maniacal 60 or 70 mph, unconcerned about us pedestrians) all the way up to 125th Street. Then back south to 96th Street, where I angled eastward off the river, and finally back up to my own apartment, a couple blocks to the east.

It was a nice stroll (about 5 miles altogether) on a nice day, and it was nice to see that everyone else was enjoying themselves as much as me. In another week or two, Labor Day will have come and gone, and we'll be into the fall season; I doubt that we'll see the same collection of people in their summer attire, enjoying themselves as much as they were this weekend ...

There's nothing particularly special about this picture, but it establishes a "placeholder" for the general area of the pictures that follow. It was taken from the promenade up above the West Side Highway, approximately 84th Street. Looking west, as all of the pictures in this series are, since (duh!) I was located in Manhattan looking toward New Joisey. This picture simply shows the West Side Highway down below, through the trees and grass, with cars zooming along at 60 mph, and then the river and the New Jersey skyline off to the west. It doesn't look like much at all from here, but it's impossible to capture the steady background noise of the cars zooming steadily along at their breakneck pace; you might think they would be driving more slowly, right on the edge of the Center of the Universe — but no, they're careening along at a breakneck pace of 60-70 mph, and the roar is amazing. Also, what you can't possibly realize from this photo is that literally below my feet, where this photo was taken, is a railroad line that runs underground from Penn Statin until approx 125th Street, at which point it emerges from underground and becomes the Metro North line carrying passengers up to various towns and hamlets in the Hudson River valley area. In subsequent pictures of this series, you'll see various other pictures of the condos along the NJ shoreline, as well as the high-rise apartment buildings.

Near the 82nd Street playground, where our kids used to play in a time long long ago (and where I've literally got pictures of me and one or two of the kids on the park benches shown here, circa 1978), there was a hot dog and soda concessionaire this afternoon. Most of them around NYC tend to be run by swarthy men of (apparent) MIddle Eastern origin, but this one was being manned (womaned?) by a decidedly non-Middle-Eastern woman. And she apparently had a visitor who had settled down to chat with her for a while; there was no pet in view, though there's just a wisp of what looks like a dog tail on the left side of the concessionaire's spare cooler. There were no other customers, but the concessionaire didn't seem to mind; I had the feeling that she would be perfectly happy to stay there all afternoon, with or without customers ...

Just before I got to the end of the promenade, I saw this pigeon staring at me from an iron fence running along the western edge of the promenade (the Hudson River is a quarter-mile or so behind the pigeon). Nothing particularly special about him, except that he was remarkably calm as I focused in and took his picture; I find that pigeons are usually rather skittish, and will typically fly away before I can get a decent picture.

After watching the activity in the 82nd Street playground, I proceeded to wander down to the River level — past the mysterious gated entrance to the underground NYC Central Railroad line that runs beneath the promenade, through the underpass beneath the West Side Highway, and down to the river's edge itself. This picture was taken from the underpass area — you can see the overhang of the "tunnel" that passes from the ground-level part of the park, beneath the West Side Highway, down to the Hudson River. Walkers, runners, and bikers zoom in and out of this tunnel area, so one has to be a little careful of where one stands before considering any pictures to be taken ... A young woman whizzed past me just before I took this picture; she meant no harm to me, I'm sure, but she was not about to cede any territory to a middle-aged old frump with a camera. Off in the distance, you can see the Hudson River and one of many sailboats moored out in the water. And on the other side of a river that's at least a mile wide at this point is the shoreline of New Jersey, with an ever-burgeoning stretch of apartments and condos. ...

If you looked carefully at the previous picture, you would have seen these two women on the right side of the picture. Mother and daughter? Who knows ... But what wasn't apparent in that previous picture shows up now: a wonderful wooden sailboat anchored in the Hudson River, not more than a quarter-mile from where these two women are sitting. Did they notice? Did they appreciate it? Did they care? I don't know, and was not willing to interrupt their conversation to find out. But I can tell you, from my strolls along the river over the past 30 years, that there are an amazing number of wonderful old sailboats like this moored on the river. Who owns these boats? Rich Wall Street tycoons trying to one-up their peers? Hippies who refuse to give up the 60s, like Robert Pirsig (author of the classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance), who sailed a boat down the Hudson River in the early 90s and wrote about his metaphysical experiences in Lila: An Inquiry into Morals? Who knows ...

A typical view along the Hudson River, this one taken from approx 82nd Street, just as I got down to the River area. The sailboat is not at all noteworthy, and its presence here is only to point attention to the high-rise apartment towers and condo buildings on the New Jersey side of the river, about a mile away ... The high-rise apartment buildings are built somewhat higher up on the side of the NJ hills, probably constructed back in 70s, if not earlier. But the 3-story townhouse/condos in the foreground are a lot newer, probably built within the last ten years. I don't know anything about them, but they provide an interesting contrast to the overall scene ...

It's easy to forget that the Hudson River is still a major conduit of transport for HUGE ships bearing all sorts of materials, presumably heading up to places like Albany and wherever else the Hudson River can taken them. While you're busy watching the sailboats and other small "consumer" levels of river traffice, every once in a while these huge ships will pass by, silently and almost unnoticed. I have no idea what the "Spar Lupus" was transporting, or where it was bound. But it quietly floated up the river, out in the middle, while the small sailboats in the foreground looked on ...

The most common scenario along the river, on this late August weekend afternoon, was people sitting on benches enjoying the sunshine while reading the paper or doing crossword puzzles. Many, but not all, were older couples. This couple caught my eye as I walked south along the pathway from 82nd Street down to the 72nd Street pier. I had no idea at the time I snapped the picture, but a closer examination now leads me to believe that they're Russian — look at the typeface of the newspaper the woman is holding. Aside from that, it's hard to imagine what was on their mind when I took this picture. I'm pretty sure they didn't see me when I snapped the photo, but they do have the look of a couple wondering if they've been spotted by the KGB. P.S. What on earth is the "Nike" label on the shopping bag on the old man's lap?

All kinds of people were sitting on benches along the river: young and old, skinny and fat, plain and pretty. I hardly know how to characterize this man, but I thought he was definitely worth a picture — as he gazed off into the distance (westwards) of the river and NJ skyline, contemplating the meaning of the universe and whatever innocence he may have lost back in the 60s. He never did notice me, which I appreciated; I had only a medium-telephoto with me for this jaunt along the river, and I had to toss out some pictures where people DID notice me as I attemptd to take their picture. But this guy was lost in his own dreams, and that was fine ...

A little further along the Riverside Park walkway, heading south, I spotted this buy, who struck me as a Siamese twin for Jimmy Carter. Don't know what he was doing, though it appears that he was picking up email or surfing the web from some kind of hand-held device. And note that he has slipped off the running shoe on this right foot; he's not going anywhere soon ...

One of the things I noticed on my walk along the river promenade was the number of elderly people who had been brought in their wheelchairs to take in in sunshine for the afternoon; this picture illustrates what I saw on several occasions during the afternoon. In most cases, the elderly person was accompanied by one or more younger attendants who seemed to completely ignore their charges once they got them into a comfortable position. That seems to be the case in this picture, with a pair of younger folks who seem to be chattering amongst themselves while their elderly patroness sits on her own in the wheelchair. You would obviously think, looking closely at this picture, that the elderly woman is looking closely at the younger pink-topped woman walking by: "I used to be young and pretty," she might well be thinking to herself. But that's an illusion. The elderly woman had been looking out at the river (not seen here, of course, but it's off to the west, to the right of this picture) for several moments before this picture was taken; and the young woman had been striding along northward, in a determined but oblivious way, from the south, without even being aware of the tableau on the left side of this picture. As it happened, I took this picture when the young woman came within range of the elderly woman and her attendants. I don't think she was aware of the tableau into which she had been thrust, and I don't think the elderly woman ever really noticed the elderly woman at all. And as for the so-called attendants on the left side of the picture ... well, they didn't notice anything at all ...

The Circle Line ... if you ever visit Manhattan, there really is no better way to see the whole island, north and south and east and west, from the river itself. Most NYC residents have probably never taken the Circle Line (I have!), but we all see it churning up the East River or down the Hudson River. Here you see a typical example: a late-August afternoon Circle Line boat chugging down the Hudson River, towards Wall Street and the Statue of Liberty, if it hasn't been past those areas already. In the background are two of the anonymous high-rise apartment buildings along the NJ shore.

I didn't expect to see geese on my walk along the river, but here they are: a couple dozen of them pecking away at seeds and grass on a baseball diamond in the mid-70s, by the Hudson River. In the background, you can see a couple of the recently-built highrise Trump Tower buildings. In the foreground is one of several pictures I took of the resident geese ... they were relatively blasé about my presence, and the presence of everyone else around them.

A closer view of the geese shown in the previous picture. I realize that this picture is pretty context-independent: you really can't tell whether it was taken in NYC or somewhere in northern Montana. But the geese might argue that that's just as well: they would prefer hanging out whereever they can find food and sunshine ...

Well, what can I say about this picture? Who cares about three anonymous and uninteresting people having apparently descended from a flight of stone stairs? Actually, what's most interesting about this picture — at least in terms of my stroll along the park this afternoon — was the stairs, not the people. In several parts of the park, there are stone stairways leading from the river level of activiities up to Riverside Drive, about 100 yards uphill. Nothing particularly special abou that, I suppose, but this picture gives you a sense of what's involved.

This is the small dock where the kayaks were launched for short paddling trips along the edge of the river. The kayaks look pretty flimsy to me, but I suppose it doesn't matter much in calm waters like this. I still don't know who provides the kayaks, the life-jackets, oars, and other equipment.

These were the only people that I saw with a map all afternoon; and I can't figure out why they would have needed it. After all, there's very little question about where you are — right on the river — and you can see for a mile or two to the north and the south. But when I zoomed in on the digital image, to get a closer look, it appears that they were looking at a path that had been marked in red on the map, along a stretch of road out in Queens, leading out to Jones Beach. But it would be a pretty long ride from this spot at 72nd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, just to get to Brooklyn, let alone the stretch of Queens further to the east. And so it remains one of life's little mysteries ...

Two lessons from this picture: even old people like iPods, and there are still people who enjoy crossword puzzles. I assume this was a married couple, though I don't know for sure: I watched them for five or ten minutes, and they didn't speak to each other, gave no indication that they were even aware of each other's existence. Ah, yes, the typical happily married couple ... The couple also gave no indication they were aware of their surroundings. There was a soccer game underway in the fenced-off field behind them, and they had the panoramic view of the river and the New Jersey skyline in front of them. But the old man just kept tapping his feet to the music; and the old woman kept making entries (in ink, apparently) in her crossword puzzle ...

Not too far from the elderly couple with the iPod and crossword puzzle, another couple engaged in a different set of activities. The young man strummed on his guitar fairly quietly, and his companion did her best to ignore him while reading her book. Meanwhile, their iced coffee drinks sat on the ground, waiting to be finished off ... I know almost nothing about guitars, but the little knobs and dials on the left side make me think it's an electric guitar; but it obviously wasn't plugged in to anything. But maybe it still functions as an "ordinary" guitar; or maybe the guy was just trying to impress his girlfriend, despite her lack of interest ...

Another couple, sitting on a park bench and looking out over the water, enjoying themselves on a nice afternoon. Actually, I guess they weren't really looking toward the water, since they seem to have been deep in conversation about something ...

Down at the end of the long path that extends southward past the 79th Street Boat Basin, down to 72nd Street, things look much more formal and fancy — with curved guard-rails along the water's edge, and curvy sidewalk patterns. In the background, in the area by the small green signs, is part of the West Side Highway ... I think the buildings here are part of the Trump Tower complex, rising way up (some 50 floors) above the water. We thought about buying an apartment in one of these buildings, a year or two ago, but aside from the fact that it was staggeringly expensive (and presumably even more so today), it also seemed fairly sterile and artificial. There are no balconies or terraces in the apartments, so all you can do is look out through the windows at the stunning scenery below ...

This was taken from the end of the pier that juts out into the river at 72nd Street, looking north toward the George Washington Bridge in the distance. On the right hand side, you can see the 79th Street Boat Basin; and you can get a sense of the various sailboats and powerboats that drop anchor, near shore, for the afternoon or the week.

Looking west across the river, to the New Jersey shoreline/skyline. It's interesting to see how much of the waterfront, which used to consist of dilapidated piers, marinas, or just marshland, is now taken up by neat little townhouses and condos. The high-rise apartment buildings have been around for much longer; many of them were there when I lived on Riverside Drive in the mid-1970s. And the smaller buildings along the top of the ridge are older still, probably dating back to the 1950s or 60s.

Another picture of the townhouses and condos at the water's edge, on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. Sailboats were zipping along on that side of the river, suggesting that they were getting more wind than we were experiencing over on the New York side ...

At the beginning of the 72nd Street pier, there's an outdoor restaurant/snack-bar of some sort. It seems relatively new, and I haven't tried it out. But one fellow seemed content to enjoy the sunshine, while sitting alone at a table with his bottle of Poland Spring water ...

Heading back north along the pathway, I noticed this group off on a playing field that runs along the river. I couldn't figure out whether they had just finished playing some kind of game, or were getting ready to start one; nor could I figure out what kind of sport they were engaged in. No sign of bats, balls, gloves, equipment, or anything that would provide a clue ...

Approaching the 79th Street Boat Basin, a couple pigeons and ducks were enjoying themselves out in the water. The duck on the right side of the picture is swimming in a normal duck-like fashion, but the other birds appear to be standing in, or on, the water — almost as if they could literally "walk on water." But if you look closely at the area by the right-most duck, you can see what's going on: there were some barely-submerged boards or planks of some kind (perhaps the remnants of an old wooden pier or piling), and the other birds were simply standing on them, even though from the shoreline, it was difficult to see what was supporting them ...

During the entire period of time that I watched this couple stroll towards me, and then past me, the young woman was chattering intensely on her cell phone. Her companion seemed unconcerned that he was being ignored for such a long period of time, though occasionally it seemed that he was trying to overhear the conversation. The inscription on his t-shirt, by the way, says, "Man is born free." I hope he keeps that in mind ...

Most of the people whom I saw reading on the park benches had newspapers, books, magazines, and other large objects. But this guy was deeply immersed in a small piece of folded paper. It must have had some incredibly important information, for he continued starting at it for quite a long time, until finally I gave up and moved on past him ...

Another park-bench reader, a little further along the way ... dressed rather oddly, it seemed to me, for such a casual environment. He seemed to be wearing suit-pants from a pinstripe suit, and a white shirt whose tie had disappeared along the way ... and white socks and athletic shoes of some kind. But it was a Saturday afternoon when I took this stroll, and the yarmulka on the man's head made me think that perhaps he had attended one of the synagogues in the local neighborhood, and wandered down to the river for some sunshine and relaxation ...

Most people that I saw on the pathway here were either walking, strolling, or riding a bicycle ... but every once in a while, a jogger would go by, looking serious and determined like this young woman. She was barely running at all, but it seemed to be a very intense activity. The high spiky structure on the far left is the entrance to the 79th Street Boat Basin; and you can see part of the George Washington Bridge in the far background ...

Not everyone was relaxing on the park benches alongside the river; many were content to stretch out on the grassy hillside that leads up to the more formalized "park" portion of Riverside Park. This fellow was typical: sandals off, toes in the grass, enjoying a book of some kind ...

Not everyone was reading on this sunny afternoon; a few people were writing. It wasn't clear exactly WHAT this guy was trying to write on such a small piece of paper — maybe a shopping list of stuff to pick up for dinner on the way home ...

I couldn't quite figure this one out: two women, one bike. Deep in conversation, I thought perhaps they were negotiating which one of them would have the privilege of riding home, while the other one walked. But perhaps they were discussing Aristotle, or the the virtues of the "40 Year Old Virgin" movie ...

Much further up the river, past the tennis courts at 96th Street, I heard the roar of a helicopter going by. This is not such an uncommon event along the Hudson River: there is a surprisingly large number of commercial helicopters, news/weather helicopters, police helicopters, and military helicopters zooming along from time to time. But this one was bright red, and I couldn't figure out what it was up to. It angled over to the New Jersey side on the left, dropped down to someplace that I thought might be a landing pad, but then elevated back up again before ever touching down. Back southward it went, and eventually disappeared from view ...

When you think of New York City and the Hudson River, you don't typically think of jet-skis — just like you wouldn't expect to see someone water-skiing up the middle of the Hudson River channel. But as this picture obviously demonstrates, there are at least a few people who think the Hudson River is a perfectly reasonable place to zoom around on their jet-skis. Meanwhile, in the background on the New Jersey side of the river, another row of the townhouses that seem to be springing up all up and down this stretch of the river ...

Another view of the jet-ski duo, as they zoomed past me, heading up-river. From this perspective, it's a lot more obvious that they're in an urban environment: high-rise apartment buildings line the top of the ridge along the New Jersey side of the river ...

I'm surprised I didn't see more kite-flyers on my walk along the river, but this was the only one. It was located at 96th Street, and the green fence on the right is the set of public tennis courts that relatively few NYC residents seem to know about. I almost gave up on this man's effort to get the kite going, after waiting for nearly 10 minutes for him to untangle a large messy knot in his string. Meanwhile, his young daughter (maybe 5 years old) marched up to him periodically and announced in a loud, determined voice, "Daddy, it's MY turn!" When that produced no results, she stamped her feet and marched away — only to return a few minutes later. Eventually, the man seemed to get most of the knots undone, and let the wind carry the kite up into the air ... but I'm sorry to say that it didn't get much higher than this.

This was the kite-flying display from the other side, looking south toward the 79th Street Boat Basin in the distance. Behind that (probably a mile farther south) are some piers and docks; and behind that (down around 49th Street) is a large passenger cruise ship that was docked for the day. The man and his kite were not faring well at this point; his young daughter had given up entirely and wandered off to play in the grass. Maybe there wasn't enough wind. Or maybe it was a defective kite. ...

This is the pathway much further to the north, beyond the 96th Street tennis courts. The pathway is marked to accommodate both pedestrians and bicyclists, though it's not clear that either group pays careful attention to the marked instructions. The West Side highway is only a few feet to the right at this point; and there's only about 10-15 feet of grass between the asphalt pathway and the Hudson River on the left. Indeed, it hardly even qualifies as a "park" at this point; it's mostly just a grassy bike/jogging path. But even so, it's MUCH nicer than it was back in the early 80s, when I used to jog along this same route; at that point, it was a narrow dirt path surrounded by overgrown grass and weeds, with far too much trash strewn around. I don't know if it's any safer now, but it's certainly a lot more pleasant ...

On my way back south, toward the end of my stroll, I passed by a few people who had brought their dogs along for an afternoon in the pleasant sunshine. This one even had a chair to perch on; he looked quite content as he surveyed the scene around him, while his master (mistress?) enjoyed the fresh air and the breeze.

I took several other pictures of this woman, and while she never seemed to notice me and my camera, she was obviously proud of the way her dog was chasing the tennis ball, and then bringing it back to her. Eventually, they settled down to rest, and I think this picture was the best of the bunch that I took of them ...

I'm surprised that I didn't see more scenes like this along the way — but this was the only laptop computer that I saw during my entire stroll up and down the river. I have no idea, of course, what the woman was doing on her computer, or even whether her headphones were connected to the computer so she could watch a movie or listen to some music; it would also have been interesting to see if she had a wireless connection to the Internet, so she could surf the Web while watching the river and enjoying the afternoon ... From a distance, the black case and white-ish blob in the middle looked an older Mac Powerbook, circa 1997-1999. But on closer view, it's obviously a Dell Windoze machine. Oh, well, we can't all be Mac lovers ...

As I climbed up the hillside from the river level back to the main part of Riverside Park at the end of my stroll, I turned and took one last picture of the peaceful scene below. A family was apparently enjoying its picnic by the river, while a man and his two dogs sat on a park bench and stared across at the New Jersey side ...