07/12/2026
Me: "Look at this thing I heard about, I want to go do it."
*proceeds to spend hours researching the perfect time, location, parking garage and dinner*
New York: "haha that's what you think! Frozen zone! Try again!"
Me: *spends another multiple hours making a back up location plan, away from the Pfizer building*
New York: "Just kidding, it's mostly safe, you can go there."
Me: *goes back to original plan*
We arrived around 6:30pm at which time, the prime spots were long gone with people already on the back side of the bridge and the people in the front, already spilling out into the road, that was not closed to traffic. We find a spot out of the way of both vehicles and pedestrian traffic, between 2 parked cars on the back side of the bridge. I now know, this was a futile effort. By 8pm the entire road was blocked with shoulder to shoulder people, people with step stools, people on shoulders, selfie sticks holding phones as high in the air as they can reach while the sun slipped away behind the clouds. Many lessons were learned today. Including the realization that Manhattanhenge really runs from the first event back in May to this one in July. We could have come days earlier with no crowds. The sun will be slightly higher in the sky, but I bet you would at least be able to see it, which would have been an improvement on July 11th. That being said, sunset was beautiful, it was a wonderful learning experience and I can't wait to do it next year, but better.
July 11, 2026 at the Tudor City Bridge
