Sunset Skies

Sunset over Manhattan (Click picture for larger view)

"Up in the heights of the evening skies I see my City of Cities float
In sunset's golden and crimson dyes:
I look and a great joy clutches my throat!
Plateau of roofs by canyons crossed: windows by thousands fire-furled --
O gazing, how the heart is lost in the Deepest City in the World."
~ James Oppenheim, "New York from a Skyscraper"

Every evening the sun sets in the west over Manhattan. The red disc sinks rapidly, within a span of ten minutes the light fades and the sky is left with rich blues, purples, reds and yellow. This evening the skies are for the most part clear and the skyline of the city stands out against this colorful backdrop. It is not yet twilight, that time when, one by one the lights begin to appear in the skyscrapers and the city starts its other life. There is a breeze, cooler here on the rooftop terrace than in the apartments below. The sounds in the street are different than those in the heart of Manhattan, Times Square; no noisy taxis or blaring horns, just people walking dogs, babies in carriages with parents carting groceries, men and women returning from work in the city, or bicyclists fresh from a turn in Prospect Park. Brooklyn has its own nightlife, some young and hip but other more family oriented. So close to Uptown, yet so different.

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