And now something different on the shore west of Midtown Manhattan:
USS Intrepid is a historical aircraft carrier commissioned in 1943, one of 24 essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II. Since 1982 it houses the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum, located in Pier 86 in Hudson River, on the west bank of Manhattan, near Hell's Kitchen and close to Midtown. It served USA during World War II and in the Vietnam war. She has visited historical places as Pearl Harbour in 1943, and Okinawa. It is one of the few aircraft carriers in the world that are open to public. Even the interior beneath deck has been converted into a museum, but I think it would be more interesting if they had kept more of the original interior. The captain's tower is comparatively authentic. The carrier is 266m long and can carry up to 100 aircrafts. Between 2006 and 2008 Intrepid was moved to Staten Island for reparations and renovation works. There are great views over Midtown Manhattan skyline and New Jersey from the upper decks of the museum.
We visited the musuem on a Friday, the day before the hurricane Irene was expected to hit New York, so it was a hectic day since we planned to take an early flight in the evening, to escape from the hurricane. It was also extremely hot and humid this day, and there were dark clouds on the sky.
USS Intrepid:
USS Intrepid was often called "The Fighting I" because of her prominent roles during battles. It participated in World War II and in Vietnam.
In 1986, Intrepid was designated a National Historical Landmark.
This Concorde, once operated by British Airways, stands just next to the carrier, as a part of the museum. Concorde was a supersonice airliner that entered service in 1976. It retired in 2003, 2 years after the fatal 2000 Paris accident. Before the accident it was known as the world's safest airliner. An interesting thing is that the first Concorde flight after the Paris accident was on September 11 2001, it landed just hours before the WTC attacks!
Midtown skyline seen from underneath the wings of the supersonice Concorde.
The Concordes used these kind of Rolls-Royce turbo engines.
Ugly highrises in commie block style on the New Jersey side, across Hudson River.
Concorde in direction towards Midtown skyline, here dominated by One Worldwide Plaza. To the right is its RR engine.
USS Growler is a cruise missile submarine. It was the 4th US Navy ship to be named from the growler, a large-mouth black bass! It was laid down in 1955 and participated in the battle of Pearl Harbour, Hawaii.