Free Aerial Views

When I was coming back from Canada, my flight inbound for Laguardia dropped altitude and then sailed right past the airport, continuing on south. And the people on board got a tour of the entire island of Manhattan while we reoriented ourselves for landing. I got to pick out miniatures of all of the landmarks and the places I know far better, where I used to live and where I live now. I apprehended the shape of the island in general, recognizing it exactly from maps and evenings spent poring over google satellite images. I got to see that little uninhabited island in the East River, for example, with a crumbling uninhabited building on its shore (one day I will rent the sloop at the South Street Seaport and make it take me there). We circled around Battery Park and flew back up the west side, past all the dominoes in midtown and the broccoli in Central Park, then so low over Harlem that when we turned back towards Queens at 125th St I could make out the people standing in line for the bus I would soon be getting off of, to transfer to the subway. And it was kind of terrifying, in that people really did fly planes into buildings, almost not worth it.