My Pictures of

The Five Boro Bike Ride

May 2, 1999

Four friends and I and roughly 30,000 other cyclists did the forty-two mile New York Five Boro Ride on May 2, 1999.

Jonas Tegenfeldt is a postdoc working with Bob Austin in our department. He brought a friend, Emily Reeves. I mentioned to my freshman Physics 104 class that I was doing the ride and could take some other riders. Tresha Edwards said she'd like to do it and she brought along Devjani Sengupta, another freshman also in physics 104, in Dave Hogg's class. Tresha's going to major in chemistry and Devjani in molecular biology.

We met at 4:15 am in the U-store parking lot and loaded the bikes in the van. We got two inside and three outside on a hitch rack. There are only four seats so someone had to sit on the floor! Tresha and Devjani took turns on the floor - respect for their elders!

We made it to Staten Island, parked, assembled the bikes, and caught the 6am ferry to Manhattan with about two minutes to spare. Arriving in Manhattan, we rode to the start. That's two miles not covered in the official 42 mile total! Speeches started at 7:30 and the ride itself started at 8am.

We made it to the festival at about 1pm and left a little after 4pm, returning to the U-store parking lot by about 6.

The rest of the story is in the pictures below.

ON THE FERRY Emily, Devjani, and Tresha on the Staten Island Ferry. This is just a few minutes past sunrise! BATTERY PARK Battery Park. After finding a spot near the front (about 3/4 mile North of here on Church street), Devjani and I came to the park to get her vest which had not shown up in the mail, even though she had pre-registered.
WORLD TRADE CENTER The World Trade Center Towers as seen on the way from Battery Park to the front of the ride. Interesting Moire pattern produced by the beating of the window grid against the digital camera resolution. (Pictures were taken in 640 x 480 mode.) START CROWD Some of the crowd waiting for the start of the ride. The banner hanging across Church street is the official starting point. In case you can't read it, it says "Bike New York." We were about three blocks from the banner.
MORE CROWD More of the crowd waiting for the start, this time looking South on Church Street (opposite to the direction of the ride). The crowd goes as far as you can see. AWAITING THE START Jonas, Emily, and Tresha waiting for the start. We had good weather, but it was chilly in the morning.
JONAS ON WALL That's Jonas sitting on top of the wall trying to get a panoramic shot of the crowd at the start. BEFORE CENTRAL PARK 1 Just before Central Park we made a stop. Here's the view looking back along the Avenue of the Americas.
BEFORE CENTRAL PARK 2 Here's the view looking up the Avenue of the Americas towards Central Park. The sign at left center should give you an idea why we stopped! QUEENSBORO BRIDGE That's me, with some other riders, at about the center of the Queensboro bridge which connects Manhattan and Queens. In the background is the East side of Manhattan.
IN ASTORIA PARK Here's our whole gang in Astoria Park, Queens. From the left, that's Devjani, Jonas, me, Tresha. and Emily. That's the Triborough Bridge and the view is generally to the South with the East side of Manhattan in the background on the left of the picture. BQE VIEW We stopped at the top of a "hill" on the BQE (Brooklyn Queens Expressway). Here's the view back towards Manhattan (to the North). By the way, when I told Devjani that we would get to ride on the BQE, she was puzzled for a minute and then said, "I thought you were talking about magnetic field and charge." Makes a physics professor feel good!
TRESHA ON THE BQE Tresha makes it to the top of the "hill" on the BQE. EMILY AND DEVJANI ON THE BQE Farther down on the BQE we stopped for another photo-op. That's Emily and Devjani and in the background (to the South) is the Verrazano Narrows bridge over New York Harbor.
ED AND TRESHA ON THE BQE Here are Tresha and I on the pedestrian walkway that runs between the BQE and the harbor. TRESHA AND DEVJANI ON THE BQE Tresha and Devjani pose in front of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.
VERRAZANO BRIDGE RIDERS We stopped at the midpoint (of the lower level) of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Here's a view looking back towards Brooklyn. That's Devjani on the left. DEVJANI ON THE VERRAZANO NARROWS BRIDGE A better shot of Devjani on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. We wouldn't let her take off the turquoise jacket because its distinctive color was easy for us to spot and it helped keep the group together.
EMILY ON THE VERRAZANO Emily arrives at the top of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. MANHATTAN AND BROOKLYN The view looking roughly North from the center of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. In the background is Manhattan with the Empire State Building almost in the center of the picture and the World Trade Center to the left. In the foreground is Brooklyn with the BQE running along the edge. Towards the left is a pedestrian overpass. The pictures we took from the BQE were just this side of that overpass.
SHIP IN NEW YORK HARBOR Another view from the midpoint of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. This ship has just passed under the bridge. Later when we were driving home we would spot this same ship with tugboats helping her in the harbor. The view is to the Northwest and that's Staten Island in the background. JONAS, EMILY, AND DEVJANI Jonas, Emily, and Devjani on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. We were waiting for Tresha to catch up. Eventually we decided she must have gone by while we were ogling the view. It turns out she hadn't and had been looking for us in the rest stop just before the bridge. This was the only time we had to use a reunion center (at the festival) to get the group back together.
THE RAMP BEHIND THE FESTIVAL Some sponsors' tables and part of the stage at the festival in Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island. In the background is the Staten Island end of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. If you look closely, on the lower ramp, you can see the heads of cyclists descending towards the festival. There was a steady stream of cyclists all afternoon. We left the festival a little after 4pm and they were still coming! VERRAZANO BRIDGE FROM THE FESTIVAL The Verrazano Narrows Bridge provides a spectacular backdrop for the Fort Wadsworth festival. This point is about 39 miles from where we started in Battery Park and there are about 3 miles to go to get back to the ferry parking lots and our van.
TRESHA AT THE FESTIVAL Tresha and some of our bikes at the festival. LUNCH AT THE FESTIVAL Emily, Tresha, Devjani, and Jonas have lunch at the festival.
DANCING 1 Here are Devjani (far left) and I dancing (well trying, in my case) to the music of the Soul Cruisers. The woman in the starred pants was having a great time! DANCING 2 Here's another shot of us dancing. I guess it's a good thing it was a bike ride and not a dance contest! These photos by Jonas.
TRESHA NAPPING It looks like 40 miles wore Tresha out! ENJOYING THE MUSIC While Tresha sleeps, Devjani and Emily enjoy the music of the Sensational Soul Cruisers.