Great views of Manhattan skyline

Midtown from Gantry Plaza Park

New York Harbor from Battery Park

New Yorkers who seldom venture out of Manhattan miss the delights of seeing the sun rising and setting on the island. I recently compiled a list of my favorite places to do that. It's not  exhaustive: I focus on places I can sit with a friend and have a picnic dinner (or breakfast). On Google maps, the list is called "Great Views of the Manhattan Skyline." (The sculptures in Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan are plotted on a different Google Map.)

For suggestions of places to take photos (but not necessarily sit and relax), see 

http://photo.net/travel-photography-forum/00Mgbf

The pics for today's post are among the 350 images on the Upward Glance screensaver CD, available for $15 at  http://www.forgottendelights.com/UpwardGlanceScreensaver.htm .  All images Copyright (c) Dianne Durante, all rights reserved.

Midtown from Gantry Plaza Park

Midtown from the Pulaski Bridge

Midtown from Gantry Plaza Park

Strolling Manhattan

A couple days ago I wandered from 87th to 54th St., as close to the East River as I could manage, to take photos of a few sculptures I hadn't yet seen. Along the way I passed a recently completed New York Hospital building (York at about 69th St.) that has the odd property of always seeming to be in a fog, and bent out of shape to boot. It's certainly striking. For a similar construction, see my post of June 22nd on the new building rising on the northwest corner of 6th Avenue and 42nd St.

South of 59th St. you get great views of the Queensboro Bridge, even on days when it's heavily overcast.

In the Strange Juxtaposition Department, if you walk to the east end of 57th St., you'll find a charming park hovering between the level of the dead-end street and the FDR Drive. Dead in the center of it is this modern copy of a wild boar from the Renaissance.

And finally, in the Bizarre and Pretty categories: a new residential building called Big Blue on Delancey St. near the Williamsburg Bridge (vertiginous views from those lower stories, I would think), and a gorgeous sunset reflected in Central Park's Turtle Pond, which proves algae is good for something besides feeding marine life.