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| George Bellows: Men of the Docks, Courtesy of the National Gallery, London, England |
Whatever the era, the traveler is always pulled between looking outward and in.
Until
recently, the printed page pulled people inward: commuters read the paper on
the 8 AM from Scarsdale
or people on ocean liners sat in steamer chairs and read novels.
The latest
pull inward is what Southwest’s flight attendants call “portable electronic
devices,” phones, computers, tablets and game consoles. At first these were regulated or tolerated. But now, transportation companies cater to
technology users. Mega Bus has free
wi-fi and for an allegedly small fee, Southwest and other airlines will let you
surf the web at 30,000 feet.
Sometime soon,
travelers may be pulled even more inward, if airlines allow in-flight phone
calls. After sitting behind someone on a
transcontinental flight in the 1980’s, who had more credit card points than
sense and had to call everyone and say nothing, I am as eager for in-flight
cell calls as I am for a rectal exam.
Sleeping and
reading are the two things that most often pull me away from watching the
journey.
On a recent
bus trip from Albany to eastern Long Island , after waking up from a short nap, I decided
to spend more time watching the trip.
The height of a bus offers a better view of the roadside than a
car. On the way home from Long Island, I
got to see a beautiful old house on Long Island . Driving by the same place in the car, the
view was obscured by a hedge.
During the
Megabus leg of the trip from Albany to Manhattan , streams, rivers
and ponds along the Thruway were locked in ice.
At other times of the years, these waters are open or moving, from the
current or wind. But nothing says winter
like white and cold-blue ice.
Later, thoughts
of Doctor Zhivago gave way to a
moment from Larry McMurtry and The Last
Picture Show. On the north side of
Interstate 80, in Bogota , New Jersey
The Queen
Anne theater observation shows something important about looking outward. The best view of building and sign are from
the eastbound lane. If you are going
west, the roadway is so low that the sign is not visible and it’s hard to see
the outline of the theater.
The main bus
entrance to Manhattan
is the Lincoln Tunnel. The highway comes
over the top of the Palisades , an ancient volcanic
ridge. As the bus comes through a cut in
the Palisades, travelers can see a delightful panorama of midtown Manhattan and New
York Harbor Empire State
Building
If you do
not look fast enough, you miss the view as the bus spirals down and into the
tunnel entrance.
Before
plunging into the tunnel this trip, I saw how Manhattan and the Harbor have remained
constant in an ever-changing metropolis.
Shipping
and docks in Hoboken
have been replaced by waterfront apartments.
On the West Side of Manhattan, a new generation of skyscrapers will soon
join the Freedom Tower
At the turn
of the century and in the 1940’s, the painter George Bellows and photographer
Andreas Feininger captured white steam rising from steam locomotives, power
plants, cargo ships and ocean liners. Working
in oils and black-and-white, Bellows and Feininger each perfectly captured the
hard, sharp quality of winter light and the simple, stripped down colors in the
landscape.
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| Midtown Manhattan, 1946 by Andreas Feininger, courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Most of the
things that generated the steams in Bellows’ and Feininger’s times are gone,
replaced by other, more modern things.
If Bellows
and Feininger came back to the edge of the Palisades
today, they might mourn the departure of trains, cargo ships and ocean
liners. But they would be happy to see
that the City remain vital - - under the same hard, sharp light they saw.
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