Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Manhattanhenge

"Manhattanhenge"
Manhattan, New York, NY
1.Beginning of the sunset 2.The waiting crowd, tripods set-up, bikers waiting to ride towards the west 3.NYPD car shooing away cheering crowd 4.Mahattanhenge at its peak 5.Chrysler building in the backdrop 6.The phenomenon coming to an end 

Sunsets have always been special. Today's, was unforgettable. Manhattanhenge, also known as the Manhattan Solstice is a biennial phenomenon in which the sunset aligns itself precisely with Manhattans street grid structure to create a breathtaKing view along the east-west streets. It derives its name from England's Stonehenge.

This year, it was supposed to take place on July 12 and 13, at 8:25 pm. After spending a disappointing 45 minutes on 57th street, 5th avenue, yesterday, we decided to go as far east as possible. On reaching 42nd and 2nd Av, we were pleasantly surprised to find a waiting (and enthusiastic) crowd. I'll let the pictures do the talking for the view we saw. Finally the NYPD made its way to clear the ballistic crowd and make way for the oncoming street traffic both ways, which was held up for some 25 minutes.

5 comments:

Radhika Mohandas said...

I didn't know about this. The first thing I thought while reading is how we humans artificially have aligned ourselves with nature. In this case, literally. About the photos, they're breathtaking. I want to watch this live!

M said...

And will you also like to travel further to catch the Aurora lights (Canada, winters)? I have a big crush on them.

Pooja said...

@Nocturnal woman : Absolutely! At the first chance I get. Stuff like this feels like nature is playing out its own theatre!

Neel said...

never knew of it... ur blog is becoming informative as well as entertaining :)

Pooja said...

@Neel: Thank you

@Dreamologist: Thanks. Come over to NYC next year when it happens :)