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October 11, 2004
OHNY: High Bridge Water Tower
Click here to view the photo gallery (16 images).
The highlight of today's OHNY events was the climb up the High Bridge Water Tower. Built in 1872, the tower is approximately 200' tall and was an important part of the city's water system. Today it is no longer used and the 47,000 gallon water tank has been removed. This means that there is a large space at the top with windows facing all directions which provide fantastic views of the George Washington Bridge and the Manhattan skyline.
There are two spiral staircases inside the octagonal tower. The first spiral goes up to the tank room. Then, in the center of the room is a very narrow spiral staircase which goes up to the highest, windowless level of the tower. This smaller staircase seems suspended in the middle of the room because it is not attached to the wall. I'm not a huge fan of heights and the first part of the climb was no problem for me but the second flight looked pretty scary. Finally, after some encouragement from the friend who accompanied me, I started up the second staircase. After what seemed like an eternity we reached the top. This is when I realized that the climb down was going to be ten times worse. I caught my breath and took a few photos which came out blurry because my hands were literally shaking and my knees were wobbly. On the way down I stepped very slowly, concentrated very hard, tried to ignore the 15-20 feet of open air between the stairwell and the wall, and didn't think about the 200 foot drop just underneath the thin metal stair treads. I was breathing heavily and had the cold sweats, but I made it.
I don't think any spiral staircase has ever scared me as much as this one did... but it was worth it. Check out the gallery of photos.
Other photos from the weekend are over on my photoblog.
Posted on October 11, 2004 at 11:09 AM
Comments
did you go on the saturday tour or sunday one? I was on the sunday tour in the bronx that ended at the tour. It was cool.
cheers
marc
Posted by: marc at October 11, 2004 11:47 AM
I went on Sunday. Sounds like you might have been on the Croton Aqueduct walking tour in the Bronx. I wanted to do that but was reluctant to sign up for the four hour tour because I didn't want to miss some of the other places that were open. How was it?
Posted by: manyhighways at October 12, 2004 6:31 AM
Oh man, you got to this one too. Next year, next year. At least I made it to the Jefferson Market library this time.
http://whatisee.org/mt/archives/entries/000362.html
Posted by: whatisee at October 12, 2004 11:07 PM
I thought the walking tour in the bronx was really cool. We walked along the aqueduct past a reservoir down to the bronx side of the high bridge.
I'm sure that the people in the neighborhood thought we were studying urban poverty (a bunch of white people walking through a heavily minority area).
I'd do one of the tours in Westchester. It's close to the train and easy to get to.
m
Posted by: marc at October 13, 2004 10:36 AM