One objective I had on our 15 hours overnight stay at Crowne Plaza HY36 Midtown Manhattan was take a walk along the High Line, an urban park created along the former New York Central Railroad elevated tracks through west side Manhattan. The High Line runs from 34th Street to 14th Street. The park opened in 2009. Our overnight in Manhattan was due to a United Airlines itinerary change from an SFO-Frankfurt flight for our trip to Milan to a 21 hours overnight transit stop at Newark EWR before a United nonstop flight EWR to Milan, Italy MXP.
Unknown to us at the time we walked out of Crowne Plaza HY36 on 36th Street was President Biden was coming to town to speak about infrastructure spending near Hudson Yards at 34th Street. An army of New York cops were on the streets between 10th and 11th Avenue. We reached the 30th Street entrance to the High Line to find it closed with a sign stating the High Line was closed north of 28th Street, Six cops were standing behind the closed entry gate on the High Line.
While I wanted to snap a wide angle photo at one of the street intersections along 10th Avenue showing dozens of cops on every street corner, I chose discretion and only snapped one photo of a New York City police car.
We had walked past 100 cops or so before I finally asked two cops in uniform what was happening and we learned of President Biden’s visit.
Kelley pointed out Death Avenue Brewing Company Bar & Grill. A historic landmark sign explained why 10th Avenue was nicknamed ‘Death Avenue’.
The High Line
On 28th Street we found the stairway entrance to The High Line. We had to weave through the construction zone for a new elevator access point to The High Line.
Another group of cops were stationed up top informing pedestrians The High Line was closed north of 28th Street and directing people to exit to 28th Street down the stairway.
There is a small platform at 26th Street with fixed binoculars positioned to view 26th Street. As I was looking through the binoculars Kelley pointed out my eyes were displayed on a screen on The High Line over 26th Street.
Kelley had been annoyed with me that I told her a couple weeks before that her eyes do not look blue to me, which is a bold statement from an officially color-blind guy.
The roof top water towers on buildings in Manhattan symbolizes New York City for me. Besides the skyscrapers, this feature is unique for places I have traveled. There are probably many other cities that have this feature. I just do not recall seeing these water towers in other cities. I first really noticed them in 2012 when staying at the W Hotel Union Square.
Returning back to the Crowne Plaza HY36-Midtown Manhattan by 1:00pm to pick up our luggage, we headed to Penn Station for the train back to Newark Airport EWR for our flight to Milan. As we were waiting at the LIRR station for a sign display to post which track the Newark train departed from, directly in front of us a cop pulled out his taser gun and pointed it at a guy coming down the stairs as he yelled, “Put it back!”. The young guy in a gray sweatshirt came to a dead stop on the stairs. A store employee came up behind him and the thief handed over a plastic shopping bag with some items. The thief then smirked as he pulled his hoodie up to cover his head and walked directly past the cop. He left the scene with no resistance from the police officer.
I guess with President Biden in town, petty crimes were not on the main agenda for the police.
In summary, on our Manhattan excursion we ate award winning pizza slices at 11:30pm, saw hundreds of New York City Police officers on the streets at 11am, walked The High Line, photographed some famous landmark buildings and ended our stay watching a crime in action at Penn Station with a near tasing of a thief.
Enough tourist experiences to fill 15 hours in Manhattan on our overnight transit layover in New York City.
New York, New York. Perhaps I’ll see you again in another ten years.
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