Day 8: Getting To The Top of the Empire State Building

I had to make do with the photo of the pigeons on ground. These pigeons were flying from one building on the left to the other from the right, in large numbers. When I steadied my camera waiting for the shot, they landed on the ground and just didn't want to fly again.


These billboards are huge. A few of them in those sizes really make an impact.


Empire State Building (wiki) is the tallest building in New York right now.


This is Rockefeller Center (wiki) building. More accurately, Rockefeller Center is a group of 19 buildings the Rockefeller family built during the great depression. They were second highest employer of workers after the government during that time. The company was so huge afterwards, at 4% of the country's GDP that the government had to break it up.

This is pretty much the most impressive and amazing building project in New York. More on it later when I post the Rockefeller Center tour photos.


This is the view from the top of Empire State Building in the afternoon. The downtown area is clouded with haze. It costs about US$16 to get a ticket to the 86th floor observatory. It's a great picture of modernization.


This is how crowded it was on the 86th floor. An addition of US$10 gets you up to the 102th floor observatory. I guess the perspective won't be much different from the 86th floor, relatively speaking.


Some souvenirs from the tourist gift shop at the top.


This is New York. There's no way this won't be painted over in Singapore.


I only remembered that it cost US$1 for 5 bananas.


The world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, aka The Garden or MSG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_square_garden).


I went for the MSG tour there. These are the 22 ticket counters.


Can't remember how many seats there were. The tour guide said there were as many light bulbs on the roofs as there were seats.


There was going to be a WNBA match later that day. Note that there were no pillars obstructing the views of any seats in this arena. Right at the top near the roof are the expensive VIP viewing suites.

The court area can be turned into an ice skating ring too, for ice skating events.


On the way to the locker room.


That's a lot of Gatorade. The locker room was the last stop.


MSG from the other side.


The world's largest department store, Macy's. It's big and it's crowded.


One of the statues at Rockefeller Center. The buildings are so huge that stretch across streets that you won't even know if you are walking beside a Rockefeller building. That's St Thomas Church in front of the statue.


I can't even begin to imagine the level of marksmanship that went into building the church.


If you're an Apple fan, you'll have to visit the 5th avenue Apple store. I'm sitting outside the store, where months ago, Apple fanatics were queuing for the iPhone.


Walk down the glass stairs to the store underground.




Made a short detour to Central Park (wiki). The Apple's store at the south east corner of Central Park. In the top photo, we see the horse getting its hoofs painted.


Time Square at night.

All the days in New York City:
Day 7: Yatta! New York Time Square
Day 8: Getting To The Top of the Empire State Building
Day 9: A Day At The Museum
Day 10: Gold at Radio City
Day 11: New York Public Library is Grand