THIS IS “Manhattanhenge!”

Thanks to science wizard Neil DeGasse Tyson, this is now one of New York’s most popular events!

First, the name – a news site explains: “in England, everyone knows the large vertical rocks known as Stonehenge, in the Salisbury Plain of England. For Stonehenge, the special day is the summer solstice, when the Sun rises in perfect alignment with several of the stones, signaling the change of season.”

The article went on to note that “it was Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium, who coined the term “Manhattanhenge” to describe the phenomenon. He was inspired by Stonehenge, where tourists and modern-day Druids camp out on the summer solstice to watch the rising sun align with the prehistoric stones.”

It’s this perfect shot, looking west down one of New York’s wide crosstown streets like W. 57th near Central Park.

Tyson describes it beautifully:

“For Manhattan, a place where evening matters more than morning, that special day comes twice a year, when the setting Sun aligns precisely with the Manhattan street grid, creating a radiant glow of light across Manhattan’s brick and steel canyons, simultaneously illuminating both the north and south sides of every cross street of the borough’s grid. A rare and beautiful sight.”

For these two days, half of the sun will – at one precise moment, sit above the horizon while the other half dips out of view…and my wife Alex and I wanted to see it!

We weren’t alone. That’s Alex just to the left of the tall guy in the blue shirt taking a selfie…people began to form a single line BETWEEN the east and west bound lanes on W. 567th to try and get the perfect shot.

There she is on the far left with the Gucci bag…Oh, and did you think the lanes were closed?

NOPE!

Here’s what happened as cross formed and cars tried to get past:

It was a fun, upbeat and festive bit of madness on the street as the sun began to set to the west!

Imagine a long line of people balanced between the busy lanes of West 57th street in hopes of capturing Manhattanhenge 2023 – because that’s what happened!

The clouds stubbornly refused to leave, obscuring the horizon, and here is what we saw:

As the sun set behind clouds, people just cheered anyway because we gave it the good old college try!

Seeing “Manhattanhenge” that first night was not to be, but here is the best of what Alex captured:

This is a shot across the river from Manhattan capturing it from a previous year in all its splendor – I found this online:

New York is a magical experience no matter where you are – like standing in Central Park to see their wild new “skinny scrapers!”

Who would want to live at the top of one of those? It’s just one new style of building that is wild!

Click here to see them up close!

I had a blast checking out all of New York’s new architecture – I have a long history of walking this incredible city, especially in the magical world of Central Park:

It’s truly one of the most most amazing urban parks! I have walked for hours and hours through it.

That included this ramble through “the ramble”:

I have posted a number of “Hitch hiking” segments, where I go on a cool hike and tie it to an Alfred Hitchcock film – like the thriller “Rear Window!”

Click here for a walk in the park and a great film teaser as well:

All that walking made me hungry, so I ate at one of the New York’s most iconic restaurants!

It’s another “dinner and a movie”, because one of the most hilarious moments in film ever was shot here!

Click for THAT line from “When Harry Met Sally!”

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Categories: Art, Exotic Travel, Memoirs, New York, Pop Culture, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir

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