Gatsby had his green light across the harbor. For me, bridges on the horizon always seem to signal something.
I hadn't been to this spot in months. Today I took a little detour over that way on my way home from work. It is odd, at least for a waterfront area in New York, in that it seems to open up every time I see it. And the bridges are somehow clearer against every sunset.
I mean that literally as well as metaphorically. The old Fort Totten Army base, which is near the foot of this bridge, has been turned into a park and its buildings are being given over to civilian--or other--purposes:
The bunkers in the background are very similar--and are in very similar condition--to the ones in Fort Tilden (at the other end of Queens, at Breezy Point) and Fort Hancock in Sandy Hook, NJ. As I understand, those bunkers were built during the Spanish-American War of 1898 and were little used after that.
As much as I enjoy the beauty of the water and landscapes around all of those places, it is a little disconcerting to know that those places were all used for the purpose of conducting war. I hope that they will never be used that way again, just as I hope la Place de la Concorde, where I have enjoyed a stroll or two, is never again used as it was in the days of Robespierre.
For now, the place has its past and I have my moment in it.
Then there was the ride home, part of it along the paths in Fort Tilden, along Long Island Sound and underneath the bridges I saw in the distance, very close to where Gatsby saw his green light.
I hadn't been to this spot in months. Today I took a little detour over that way on my way home from work. It is odd, at least for a waterfront area in New York, in that it seems to open up every time I see it. And the bridges are somehow clearer against every sunset.
I mean that literally as well as metaphorically. The old Fort Totten Army base, which is near the foot of this bridge, has been turned into a park and its buildings are being given over to civilian--or other--purposes:
The bunkers in the background are very similar--and are in very similar condition--to the ones in Fort Tilden (at the other end of Queens, at Breezy Point) and Fort Hancock in Sandy Hook, NJ. As I understand, those bunkers were built during the Spanish-American War of 1898 and were little used after that.
As much as I enjoy the beauty of the water and landscapes around all of those places, it is a little disconcerting to know that those places were all used for the purpose of conducting war. I hope that they will never be used that way again, just as I hope la Place de la Concorde, where I have enjoyed a stroll or two, is never again used as it was in the days of Robespierre.
For now, the place has its past and I have my moment in it.
Then there was the ride home, part of it along the paths in Fort Tilden, along Long Island Sound and underneath the bridges I saw in the distance, very close to where Gatsby saw his green light.