Saturday we headed to Sandy Hook beach on the Jersey Shore. To get there from Manhattan we took about a 1/2 hour ferry ride. The boat picked us up at 34th St and the East River. We were pretty early because the ferry boat web site warned of large crowds. They were right, there was a pretty big crowd, and my guess it will get larger later in the season.
The boat has two indoor decks (with air conditioning!) and one outdoor deck.
Of course they serve snacks and cool refreshments (perfect on the ride home).
On the way to Sandy Hook we found great seats at the front of the outdoor deck. We had a great view, warm sunshine, and a cool breeze - what a way to travel. I love it when getting somewhere is part of the fun!
Along the way we had views of downtown Manhattan, the lower bridges of Manhattan, the Verranzano-Narrows Bridge, and a few old light houses.
The Manhattan Bridge in the foreground and Brooklyn Bridge in the background.
The Verranzano-Narrows Bridge.
"When it opened in 1964, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was the world's longest suspension span. The ends of the bridge are at historic Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn and Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island, both of which guarded New York Harbor at the Narrows for over a century. The bridge was named after Giovanni da Verrazano, who, in 1524, was the first European explorer to sail into New York Harbor.
Its monumental 693 foot high towers are 1 5/8 inches farther apart at their tops than at their bases because the 4,260 foot distance between them made it necessary to compensate for the earth's curvature. Each tower weighs 27,000 tons and is held together with three million rivets and one million bolts. Seasonal contractions and expansions of the steel cables cause the double-decked roadway to be 12 feet lower in the summer than in the winter.
Located at the mouth of upper New York Bay, the bridge not only connects Brooklyn with Staten Island but is also a major link in the interstate highway system, providing the shortest route between the middle Atlantic states and Long Island.
In Brooklyn, the bridge connects to the Belt Parkway and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and to the largely residential community of Bay Ridge. On Staten Island, which saw rapid development after the bridge opened in 1964, it joins the Staten Island Expressway, providing access to the many communities in this most rural of the city's five boroughs."
And an old lighthouse.
