My Pictures of

The Five Boro Bike Ride

May 5, 2002

Five friends and I and roughly 30,000+ other cyclists did the forty-two mile New York Five Boro Ride on May 5, 2002. Here are pictures of last year's ride.

This year's crew included Alana Benjamin '02, Yuri Dancik '00, Kate Eisenberg '02, Elliot Holland '04, and Devjani Sengupta '03. Believe it or not, I've had all of them except Alana in one of my physics classes at one time or another! Elliot and Devjani are veterans of Bike New York; the others are rookies (at least as far as Bike New York is concerned). Alana will be doing a cross country tour this summer. Elliot is on the Princeton Cycling Team.

We met at 4:15 am in the U-store parking lot and loaded the bikes and got organized. Devjani, Yuri and one bike went in Devjani's car and the rest of us and five bikes went in my van. We headed to Staten Island, where we parked and caught the ferry to Manhattan and the start of the ride. Unfortunately we got separated. Alana, Kate and Elliot took the 6 am ferry, and Devjani, Yuri and I caught the 6:30 am ferry.

The rest of the story is in the pictures below.

Click on a thumbnail to see a larger picture.

Alana and Kate at the parking lot near the Staten Island Ferry. This is a little after 5:30 am and the sun isn't quite up yet. Some of the crowd waiting for the 6:30 am ferry.

Yuri and Devjani waiting for the ferry. You may notice that Yuri has neither a helmet nor a vest. He joined us pretty much at the last minute. Yuri and Devjani on the ferry. We are in the passenger area on the right side of the lowest deck.

Me and Devjani on the ferry. Yuri had to register at the Battery Park registration tables.

Now Yuri has a vest. Given all the pre-ride rhetoric about there possibly not being any day-of-the-ride registration, and how if there were, the lines would be long because IDs had to be checked, registration was surprisingly smooth! He did have to show a photo ID, but there was no long wait. In memoriam. The view from almost the same spot in the 1999 ride is here.

Some of the riders waiting at the start. After registration, we rode up Church street until we met the end of the pack. We waited at Church and Warren Streets. This view is to the west. Devjani waiting at the start.

Yuri waiting at the start. He's got a helmet! He bought a brand new one at one of the temporary bike shops set up along Church Street. Still waiting at the start. This is the view looking uptown (north) on Church street. Somewhere out of sight is the Bike New York Banner that marks the official start and is the location of the reviewing stand.

Yet more waiting at the start, but now we can see the banner. How did that happen? Apparently this year, the organizers tried a staggered start. So the first group left at 8 am and then subsequent groups were held at the start and allowed to go after 6th Avenue had cleared out. We left about 8:35 am. I don't know if we were the second or third group to go. The other half of our party, Alana, Kate, and Elliot, left at 8 am. The staggered start did seem to allow for a nice smooth ride uptown along 6th Avenue. But all good things come to an end. Eventually we got to the backup at the entrance to Central Park. You can see some trees in the park in the distance.

Here I am at the Central Park backup. While we were waiting, a parade went by. I'm not sure what the parade was for, but they had a troop of bagpipers, people dressed in military uniforms, and then people wearing suits and dresses. Notice that we're at 51st Street. One has to get to 59th Street to get into Central Park!

More of the parade. They crossed from east to west. A couple of blocks later, we heard them coming back the other way! The ride takes us through Central Park, Harlem, into the Bronx, back to Manhattan, then over the Queensboro (59th Street) Bridge into Queens. There was a bad bicycle crash on the downhill side of the Queensboro Bridge which caused a huge backup and we basically had to walk over the bridge (with lots of stops). So I took a couple of pictures. This view is to the northwest. I'm not sure if that's Manhattan or Roosevelt Island in the East River. I'm guessing Manhattan.

Another view from the Queensboro Bridge. This time to the northeast. Roosevelt Island in the East river is to the left and Queens is to the right. In the distance, the suspension bridge is the Triborough Bridge (connecting, Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx) and behind it is the Hell Gate Railroad Bridge. Yuri at the Astoria Park rest stop in Queens. This is approximately half way through the ride. At least as far as distance! We met up with the rest of the group here, but then decided it would be too hard to keep a group of six together, so we split up again!

The Hell Gate Bridge from Astoria Park. Yuri and Devjani on the drive that leads out of Astoria Park.

Me, Yuri and Devjani at Astoria Park with the Hell Gate Bridge in the background. Yuri, Devjani, and me at Astoria Park with the Triborough Bridge in the background. Behind Yuri is my bike. In addition to my pinwheel, I've added a flag for this year's ride.

Yuri and Devjani overlooking New York Harbor with the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in the background. This is along the Belt Parkway with Brooklyn on the left and Staten Island across the harbor. Me, Yuri, and Devjani with Staten Island in the background.

There was a big backup waiting to get on the Verrazano Bridge. We have to go down this street to the light, make a right, then make another right onto the on-ramp and finally, where the on-ramp merges into the bridge lanes, one can start pedaling! Part of the problem is construction on the bridge which makes the on-ramp only one lane. (Three lanes on the Belt Parkway are trying to squeeze down to one.) There was a backup last year due to this construction. Another reason for the backup was all the cops and "men-in-black" scrutinizing the crowd and pulling people out that had no vests. Of course, while this was happening, a container ship was entering the harbor under the bridge and I'm sure the "men-in-black" had no idea what was in most of the containers! An efficient deployment of security resources! The view from the center of the Verrazano Bridge with Brooklyn and the Belt Parkway in the foreground and Manhattan in the background. The skyline sure looks different this year.

Riders coming from Brooklyn. Riders headed to Staten Island.

The view to the southeast from the center of the Verrazano Bridge. More of Brooklyn. I think Coney Island is out in that direction somewhere. Devjani and Yuri at the center of the Verrazano Bridge. My GPS measured the elevation to be 25 feet on the Belt Parkway and 255 feet here in the center of the bridge.

Yuri and me in the center of the Verrazano Bridge. All possible combinations: Devjani and me at the center of the Verrazano Bridge.

After you ride down the Verrazano Bridge, you come to Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, where the end of ride Festival is held. Amazingly enough, with all those people (25-30,000), I ran into someone I know from other rides. Here are Bob and Carol from Binghamton. I see them on the annual Great Finger Lakes Bike Tour (pictures from the most recent are here) and also saw them on the Erie Canal Ride in August, 2000. The Verrazano Narrows Bridge forms a wonderful backdrop for the Festival.

Well, I held it all day, but I finally had to give in and get in line! Devjani and Yuri taking a break at the Festival.

We met up with the rest of our group at the Festival. Here are Elliot, Alana, and Kate taking a rest. Devjani and Yuri are in the background. We arrived at the Festival about 2:40 and left around 4. There were still 3 miles of riding to get back to the parking lot and then a long drive home! I had three hotdogs and an ice cream bar at the Festival. Nobody else seemed to be hungry! I had my GPS unit on this ride. Here's the track recorded by the GPS unit overlayed on top of the USGS 100K topo maps. (The maps have a boundary running right through the area of interest, so I had to mosaic two maps together.) I believe I turned on the GPS when we got to the place we would wait at the start. Note that through Manhattan, there are drop-outs and large excursions. These are due to hiding of the satellites by the buildings and/or multipath reflections off the buildings. There are also drop-outs in Brooklyn where we rode on the bottom level of a two level expressway (the Gowanus?) and on the Verrazano Bridge, where we were on the bottom level. Note when we stopped to take pictures on the bridge and were near the edge, the GPS could pick up some satellites, but there was apparently a large error, because we certainly didn't wander around that much!

	Alana and Kate at the parking lot near the Staten Island Ferry. This is a little after 5:30 am and the sun isn't quite up yet.		Some of the crowd waiting for the 6:30 am ferry.
	Yuri and Devjani waiting for the ferry. You may notice that Yuri has neither a helmet nor a vest. He joined us pretty much at the last minute.		Yuri and Devjani on the ferry. We are in the passenger area on the right side of the lowest deck.
	Me and Devjani on the ferry.		Yuri had to register at the Battery Park registration tables.
	Now Yuri has a vest. Given all the pre-ride rhetoric about there possibly not being any day-of-the-ride registration, and how if there were, the lines would be long because IDs had to be checked, registration was surprisingly smooth! He did have to show a photo ID, but there was no long wait.		In memoriam. The view from almost the same spot in the 1999 ride is here.
	Some of the riders waiting at the start. After registration, we rode up Church street until we met the end of the pack. We waited at Church and Warren Streets. This view is to the west.		Devjani waiting at the start.
	Yuri waiting at the start. He's got a helmet! He bought a brand new one at one of the temporary bike shops set up along Church Street.		Still waiting at the start. This is the view looking uptown (north) on Church street. Somewhere out of sight is the Bike New York Banner that marks the official start and is the location of the reviewing stand.
	Yet more waiting at the start, but now we can see the banner. How did that happen? Apparently this year, the organizers tried a staggered start. So the first group left at 8 am and then subsequent groups were held at the start and allowed to go after 6th Avenue had cleared out. We left about 8:35 am. I don't know if we were the second or third group to go. The other half of our party, Alana, Kate, and Elliot, left at 8 am.		The staggered start did seem to allow for a nice smooth ride uptown along 6th Avenue. But all good things come to an end. Eventually we got to the backup at the entrance to Central Park. You can see some trees in the park in the distance.
	Here I am at the Central Park backup.		While we were waiting, a parade went by. I'm not sure what the parade was for, but they had a troop of bagpipers, people dressed in military uniforms, and then people wearing suits and dresses. Notice that we're at 51st Street. One has to get to 59th Street to get into Central Park!
	More of the parade. They crossed from east to west. A couple of blocks later, we heard them coming back the other way!		The ride takes us through Central Park, Harlem, into the Bronx, back to Manhattan, then over the Queensboro (59th Street) Bridge into Queens. There was a bad bicycle crash on the downhill side of the Queensboro Bridge which caused a huge backup and we basically had to walk over the bridge (with lots of stops). So I took a couple of pictures. This view is to the northwest. I'm not sure if that's Manhattan or Roosevelt Island in the East River. I'm guessing Manhattan.
	Another view from the Queensboro Bridge. This time to the northeast. Roosevelt Island in the East river is to the left and Queens is to the right. In the distance, the suspension bridge is the Triborough Bridge (connecting, Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx) and behind it is the Hell Gate Railroad Bridge.		Yuri at the Astoria Park rest stop in Queens. This is approximately half way through the ride. At least as far as distance! We met up with the rest of the group here, but then decided it would be too hard to keep a group of six together, so we split up again!
	The Hell Gate Bridge from Astoria Park.		Yuri and Devjani on the drive that leads out of Astoria Park.
	Me, Yuri and Devjani at Astoria Park with the Hell Gate Bridge in the background.		Yuri, Devjani, and me at Astoria Park with the Triborough Bridge in the background. Behind Yuri is my bike. In addition to my pinwheel, I've added a flag for this year's ride.
	Yuri and Devjani overlooking New York Harbor with the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in the background. This is along the Belt Parkway with Brooklyn on the left and Staten Island across the harbor.		Me, Yuri, and Devjani with Staten Island in the background.
	There was a big backup waiting to get on the Verrazano Bridge. We have to go down this street to the light, make a right, then make another right onto the on-ramp and finally, where the on-ramp merges into the bridge lanes, one can start pedaling! Part of the problem is construction on the bridge which makes the on-ramp only one lane. (Three lanes on the Belt Parkway are trying to squeeze down to one.) There was a backup last year due to this construction. Another reason for the backup was all the cops and "men-in-black" scrutinizing the crowd and pulling people out that had no vests. Of course, while this was happening, a container ship was entering the harbor under the bridge and I'm sure the "men-in-black" had no idea what was in most of the containers! An efficient deployment of security resources!		The view from the center of the Verrazano Bridge with Brooklyn and the Belt Parkway in the foreground and Manhattan in the background. The skyline sure looks different this year.
	Riders coming from Brooklyn.		Riders headed to Staten Island.
	The view to the southeast from the center of the Verrazano Bridge. More of Brooklyn. I think Coney Island is out in that direction somewhere.		Devjani and Yuri at the center of the Verrazano Bridge. My GPS measured the elevation to be 25 feet on the Belt Parkway and 255 feet here in the center of the bridge.
	Yuri and me in the center of the Verrazano Bridge.		All possible combinations: Devjani and me at the center of the Verrazano Bridge.
	After you ride down the Verrazano Bridge, you come to Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, where the end of ride Festival is held. Amazingly enough, with all those people (25-30,000), I ran into someone I know from other rides. Here are Bob and Carol from Binghamton. I see them on the annual Great Finger Lakes Bike Tour (pictures from the most recent are here) and also saw them on the Erie Canal Ride in August, 2000.		The Verrazano Narrows Bridge forms a wonderful backdrop for the Festival.
	Well, I held it all day, but I finally had to give in and get in line!		Devjani and Yuri taking a break at the Festival.
	We met up with the rest of our group at the Festival. Here are Elliot, Alana, and Kate taking a rest. Devjani and Yuri are in the background. We arrived at the Festival about 2:40 and left around 4. There were still 3 miles of riding to get back to the parking lot and then a long drive home! I had three hotdogs and an ice cream bar at the Festival. Nobody else seemed to be hungry!		I had my GPS unit on this ride. Here's the track recorded by the GPS unit overlayed on top of the USGS 100K topo maps. (The maps have a boundary running right through the area of interest, so I had to mosaic two maps together.) I believe I turned on the GPS when we got to the place we would wait at the start. Note that through Manhattan, there are drop-outs and large excursions. These are due to hiding of the satellites by the buildings and/or multipath reflections off the buildings. There are also drop-outs in Brooklyn where we rode on the bottom level of a two level expressway (the Gowanus?) and on the Verrazano Bridge, where we were on the bottom level. Note when we stopped to take pictures on the bridge and were near the edge, the GPS could pick up some satellites, but there was apparently a large error, because we certainly didn't wander around that much!