Today I spent a day in New York City. I visited the Museum of Natural History, and was astonished about the wealth of exhibits. It includes of the largest collections of dinosaur fossils in the world, the largest meteorite in the world exhibited, and seemingly endless collections of ancient art and artifacts. I was particularly impressed with the exhibits of the evolution of the human species. It reminded me of how long in the making we have been and how far we have come, and it made me think about how dangerous and disruptive we have become as a species going forward. What will natural history museums 1,000 years from now show about us?
When I had some extra time, I went downtown and checked on the World Trade Center.
One World Trade Center now has its antenna, and with a height of 1,776 feet, it is the highest building in the United States by far. The World Trade Center dominates the Manhattan skyline again. The crane at the top shows there is still construction going on. This is 12 years after 9/11.
Then I went to Bryant Park – it seems there are always protests.
This time there were many activists showing signs about Turkey, wrapping themselves in the Turkish flag, performing chants and dancing in drum circles. It seemed peaceful enough. It was fun to watch for a while
But that was only appearances. Turning around the other way, you can see police lining the entire periphery of the park. There were literally hundreds of officers surrounding the area. Dozens of police vehicles were parked in the surrounding streets, some of which were closed to traffic.
A couple of blocks away, all was quiet on Wall Street. The statue on the left marks the place where George Washington took the oath of office for President in 1789.
As I was walking north from Wall Street, finding a subway station to go back to Grand Central Station, I looked west and got a nice view of One World Trade Center in the background, framed by the tall buildings of the financial district.
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