UNISPHERE IN QUEENS, NY

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is the site of the U.S. Open tennis tournament.  On our first day in New York City, we walked through the beautiful park...

and arrived at the Unisphere.

Built for the 1964-1965 World's Fair by U.S. Steel as a symbol of world peace, based on the fair's theme, Peace Through Understanding, the Unisphere is 140 feet high, 120 feet in diameter and weighs 900,000 pounds.  It is one of the largest globes ever made.

 

Since the continents are the heaviest parts of the all-steel sculpture and they aren't evenly distributed, the Unisphere is top heavy. Very top heavy. It was carefully engineered to account for the unbalanced mass.

The Unisphere is centered in a large, circular reflecting pool and is surrounded by a series of water-jet fountains designed to obscure its tripod pedestal. 

The effect is meant to make it appear as if it is floating in space.

All photos in this post were taken by me during my trip to New York City in September, 2012.

DAY ONE IN THE BIG APPLE

As an anniversary present to ourselves my husband and I traveled to New York City for three days.  I was really excited because it was my first trip to the Big Apple.  After living in Chicago for nearly 25 years I never had any desire to see New York City (what does it have that I can't see in Chicago?).  But after my husband went to New York City last year to visit relatives and came back with pictures of Ground Zero and the surrounding area, I decided that I wanted to go there too.

Our first day really had a "sports" theme to it.  We saw:

The New York Mets' Stadium...

Banners showing past Mets' players hang outside the stadium.

Then we walked across the street to see where the U.S. Open tennis tournament is played at the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center:

Here is Arthur Ashe Stadium where the finals are played:

The Court of Champions celebrates the winners of the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament.

Leaving the tennis center, we took the subway to the Bronx to see the other baseball stadium, Yankee Stadium...

where we met the famous New York Yankee, Mickey Rivers:

From Yankee Stadium we traveled to Harlem to see the Rucker Park basketball court.  Many who played at the park have gone on to play in the NBA, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving and recently Kevin Durant. The court is named after Harlem teacher and playground director for the New York City Parks Department Holcombe Rucker, who started a basketball tournament in 1950 in order to help less fortunate kids stay off the streets and aim for college careers.

Leaving Rucker Park we took the subway down to Times Square.  I'll talk about that in another post.

All photos in this post were taken by me during my trip to New York City in September, 2012.