Gantry Plaza State Park

Long Island City

Gantry Park 16 by Karen Johnson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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I never knew about Gantry Plaza State Park until the night photography meetup group I belong to had a meetup here last Saturday night.  Gantry Plaza State Park is located in Long Island City, New York, in the borough of Queens and consists of 12 acres of beautiful riverside views.  It has  by far one of the most spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline.  The large towers in the above photograph are called gantries and they were used to load and unload railroad cars and barges back in the days when Long Island City was industrial.  Today Long Island City is comprised of luxury apartments, art institutions and galleries.

These are wooden lounge chairs set up at the end of one of the piers in the park where you can sit and read a book or just enjoy the view.

Gantry Park 17 by Karen Johnson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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The sun is starting to set.  I shot this from the same pier where the lounge chairs are located.  This is looking down towards the Williamsburg Bridge.

Gantry Park 4 by Karen Johnson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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A view of one of the luxury apartments buildings located on the former Pepsi-Cola Bottling site.  The Pepsi-Cola sign was placed on top of the bottling plant in 1938 and thanks to the neighborhood community and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission it was restored and erected in Gantry State Plaza.

Gantry Park 14 by Karen Johnson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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I love these coin operated  viewing binoculars that are located within the park.  The white specks are stars, not dust.  The UN and Empire State building are in the background.

Gantry Park 2 by Karen Johnson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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View of the UN from Gantry State Park.  This was taken at what is known as the “Blue Hour” .  The “Blue Hour” occurs right after the sun has set and lasts about 45 minutes.  It is my favorite time to photograph at night.  You can  see a white streak to the right of the photograph which is the an airplane trail I caught.  When you use slow shutter speeds you catch a lot of these trails.

The Blue Hour

Gantry Park 1 by Karen Johnson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Looking through one of the gantries.

Ganry Park 5 by Karen Johnson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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View of the Ed Koch Queensborough  bridge.  The red light on the pier is from the Pepsi-Cola sign.

Gantry Park 6 by Karen Johnson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Steel bridge walkway over the East River in Gantry Plaza State Park.

Gantry Park 11 by Karen Johnson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Last look at the gantries at night.

Gantry Park 10 by Karen Johnson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Tags: Astoria, Blue Hour, City, East River, Ed Koch Queensborough Bridge, Empire Sate Building, Gantry Plaza State Park, Long Island City, Manhattan, Manhattan Skyline, New York, New York City, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, New York State Parks, night photography, NYC, Parks, Pepsi-Cola, Pepsi-Cola Bottling Plant, Pepsi-Cola Sign, PepsiCo, Piers, Queens, Queens County, Queensborough Bridge, Skyline, sunset, UN, UN Building, viewing binoculars, Williamsburg Bridge

• March 18, 2012
• Landscapes, New York City, Photography
• 10 Comments