……………………………………(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on November 20, 2024)

 

The Port Authority says it’s the world’s largest free-flying American flag and it hangs from the upper arch of the bridge’s New Jersey tower. The flag weighs 450 pounds and is 90 feet long by 60 feet wide and flies on these nine holidays:

• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
• Presidents Day
• Memorial Day
• Flag Day
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• September 11
• Columbus Day
• Veterans Day

I like to photograph it on Veterans Day (November 11) in the morning because it’s not too hot and not too cold AND there’s something major to shoot beforehand that’s right next door: Ross Dock.

Ever heard of it? It’s a spit of land (more like a gob) that juts out into the Hudson River just north of the bridge at the base of the mighty Palisades.

Why the morning? Because the sun is shining brightly on the full-strength Fall colors of its east-facing trees.

 

Though there are a couple of ways to reach Ross Dock, the best one starts at an entry point south of the GWB on Hudson Terrace in Fort Lee. The road heads north and takes you right under the bridge, where I took this shot (click to slightly enlarge):

If you squint a bit, you can see the Little Red Lighthouse to the right of the New York bridge stanchion.

 

By the way, click to enlarge whenever you see “PANO”.

 

The road continues around half of a circle, where you bear to the right to head down through the Palisades to the Ross Dock entrance. I don’t have to worry about parking fees because Summer’s over and it’s a holiday.

Right away, I noticed some strange shapes I hadn’t seen there before:

I have no idea why they were there.

 

After parking, I took a PANO of some green playground equipment against the Palisades (which are NOT mountain-shaped – that’s just a function of panoramic-ing from a low perspective (whatever’s closest looks bigger and taller):

 

I turned around towards the Hudson River and saw this big ship upriver that looked rather stationary:

The gull flying in was a nice bonus.

 

The ship and some nearby gulls:

 

Just the gulls:

(Hey – the ship got its own picture……….why not the gulls?)

 

A major PANO!

You can see that the Palisades have flattened out a bit.

 

Another PANO featuring the sun, the bridge, Midtown Manhattan in the distance and colorful New Jersey:

You can also see the halfway-horizontal flag being blown out on the Jersey tower. That wind is a good sign for the on-bridge visit a little later.

 

Adding a little Ross Dock to that last picture (PANO):

 

Another good reason to do this in the morning – the sun reflecting off the Hudson River:

 

Getting closer to the bridge……………

 

…………and to its flag:

 

Speaking of flags, here are 3 on Ross Dock near the visitor center and the gorgeous Palisades:

 

Never saw this before:

Would you come here with all this beauty surrounding you just to read a book?

 

This was probably the little kid’s favorite memory of the visit and then – as per the sign – he exited stage left:

 

PANO: I’m now driving my car on the road that connects Ross Dock to something just on the other side of the bridge…….the Hazard’s Dock boat ramp:

I just passed a sign that said that only cars that are towing boats are allowed on this road. Well, there’s not much boat traffic in November (and they let me do it every other year, so…………….).

 

A little further along this road are some stone steps that look like they lead you to nowhere:

The Palisades are part of the Palisades Interstate Park (https://www.njpalisades.org/about.html), which is about 12 miles long. It includes many hiking trails and these steps lead you up to one of them.

 

I’ve not quite reached Hazard’s Dock yet, but I AM under the GWB and stopped the car to take this picture of a site that not everyone’s seen. Unlike last year, there’s a lot of work being done there, hence, the fence:

That dark steel bar that’s just above the river and blocks out a lot of the NYC side, was unavoidable from my driver’s seat, but if you have a magnifying glass, you might be able to make out the Little Red Lighthouse, just to the right of the NY tower’s base. I don’t know what all that green stuff is on the bridge’s underneath…………..netting?

 

Finally – the Hazard’s Dock Boat Ramp:

Rather anticlimactic, wouldn’t you say?

 

I don’t think this closeup helps much:

 

But it gives me a chance to do a difficult PANO that cuts the top of the tower off (but the flag is still horizontal…..ish):

 

So now I have to take a vertical shot to show that it’s all there:

 

AND I also get to take a better shot of the Little Red Lighthouse:

(Note: that winged structure on the far right just above the trees is half of the uptown Port Authority Bus Terminal.

 

Time to exit river level and finally make my way onto the bridge.

 

So I’m now once again on the road in the Palisades that goes under the bridge. You’re NOT allowed to stop on this skinny two-lane road, but I wanted a shot of the underneath WITHOUT the fence and the metal bar blocking the NY shore view, so I not only stopped, but I also got out of the car to take the shot (“But officer, proper composition demands that I do that!”).

Don’t tell the cop, but proper composition was negated by bad PANOing. To get the shot, I’m supposed to start at the bottom and lean straight back as I move the phone upward. However, uneven road pavement (yeah, that’s it!) must have tilted me a bit to the right.

 

If that’s not bad enough, something FOR REAL and VERY ODD happened during editing. I honestly have NO idea how this happened and I wouldn’t know how to reproduce this result if my life depended on it, but it IS kinda funny because it’s the exact same picture as the previous one:

It looks like something extremely HUGE landed on the New Jersey tower of the bridge while I was under it) and almost flattened everything. It made a normal vertical picture into a massive horizontal PANO.

Except for the added-on watermark, it’s identical to the previous picture in every way. It IS the same picture!

WTF?!

 

So finally, I made my way up to Hudson Terrace – the Fort Lee street that’s above the Palisades, yet still under the approach lanes to the bridge. It’s where I usually park when I want to get on the bridge…………..and parking meters don’t matter today because it’s a holiday.

 

Last year, my sister Geri was visiting from out of town. We had once been on the bridge’s southern walkway years ago and decided to do it again, but that walkway was closed for repairs, so we took the slightly less-accessible northern walkway, which has lots of stairs before you even get on the bridge and then you have a million bicycle riders and some joggers to deal with ON the bridge.

I was anxious to get back on the southern walkway.

But guess what? As I drove past the entrance for that walkway, I saw a big “CLOSED” sign, so I wound up doing this again:

 

I DID get one decent shot from the top of the stairs:

 

I wonder if they’d let me climb up these cables:

Oh wait…………..I just noticed the big blocking screens that prevent such stupidity.

 

 

Of course, there are some interesting sights to see to the north on this walkway. Remember that big stationary boat I first noticed from Ross Dock? It hasn’t budged…………….and there appears to be some small pleasure craft whizzing past it:

 

Let’s zoom in on them before they go under the bridge:

That’s a police boat! And I don’t see no stinking badges on the couple in back. (Reference:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqomZQMZQCQ)

Maybe it’s a holiday PIP ride (that’s PIP – Palisades Interstate Police – not PIMP). Looks like fun.

 

Now somebody’s heading upriver…………..

 

…………..and moving toward that stationary boat:

 

Changing subjects, another good thing to see from here is Ross Dock:

For all the good pictures I took from there, I should at least include a picture of the place (and the colorful Palisades).

 

SO……………we haven’t seen any decent flag shots yet (and that’s why I’m here, right?) So how about 7 of them that I took while moving from one side of the New Jersey tower to the other? (use the stars’ flag location to figure out which side I’m on)

Look closely at that last one where all those steel points appear to be painfully poking the flag.

 

We’re not done with the flag yet. I’ve still got a couple of interesting items in the grand finale.

 

I still wanted to be on the South Walkway. I wish I knew why it was closed (I had asked a guard on the North walkway about it, but she had no idea. She DID say that she thought it might be for another year – Oy!)

I DID take this shot from the North to try to see what was going on with the South:

There’s a lot of stuff there, including what look like temporary cables – which tells me nothing – but you know it’s serious when you see a Port-O-John there

 

Remember all those bicyclists and joggers I mentioned earlier? I HAD to get SOME pictures of them, right? But very few (like, none) are eager to pose, so I went into stealth mode and picked out three shots that showed some variety and made a PANO out of them:

Their stories from left to right:

 

And now……………on to the videos!

 

“Tow Trucks & Bicycles on the GWB 11-11-24”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5vCrmQiRmQ

(A very short bit of nonsense I strung together with leftover video bits…….BTW – that third “bicycle” rider was moving way beyond the 15mph limit)

 

 

THE GRAND FINALE – The Dance of the Flag

PART 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljf6VXMzc-A

 

Part 2 – the closeup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ATzk1x8A_k

(Hit the full-screen button to enlarge……….it’s kind of mesmerizing.)

 

 

WHEW! I’M KAZAUSTED!! (not from the shoot………….but from putting this monster together!)

Think I’m kidding? (35 revisions later……………)

Thanks to Barry Rubinow for his assistance.