We switched to the tower elevator, got off on the floor we thought the decks were on, and got right back in the elevator: we had gotten the floor right, but unfortunately it was currently occupied, the elevator opening onto a small foyer right in front of an active office. One day, a friend and I walked into the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, at the time a shabby office building with an outsized portion of dental offices (it’s informal nickname was “the Tower of Pain.”) A bored guard at the desk never looked up from his paper. In 2005, my curiosity got the best of me. The Empire State was by far the big boy on the block–despite the depression and the (at least) six other options available, access to its observation deck still cost $1.10–twice as much as the next priciest decks, and the equivalent of $18 today.Ī 1997 Metropolis Magazine article by Robert Neuwirth and Seth Robbins about abandoned observation decks detailed five more: the Paramount Theatre building in Times Square the Park Row building, now home to the J&R complex 22 William Street downtown the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower in Madison Square and also one in Brooklyn: The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building. The WPA guide to New York City, published in 1939, lists seven observation decks open to the public–The Chrysler and Woolworth buildings the Chanin Building (across 42nd Street from the Chrysler Building) two narrow towers on Wall Street: the Bank of Manhattan Building (now the Trump Building) and 70 Pine Street (now the currently-under-renovation AIG building) and of course our familiar friends the Empire State Building and the RCA Building (now Top of the Rock). But I always retained my first love, observation decks, and wondered what other views had been stolen from the citizens of New York City.Īnd as it turned out, a lot had been. Losing this building, and its view, led me to see as much of the city as I could–subway tunnels tops of bridges old rail lines abandoned aqueducts, courthouses, and hospitals–and eventually lead me to write a book, Hidden Cities. But my particular lesson came quickly and starkly. But sometimes forgotten is that we also lost two other views: the view from the Crown of the Statue of Liberty, and the view from the top of the Riverside Church Carillon, both of which closed in the aftermath of the destruction of the World Trade Center.Įveryone in New York eventually internalizes that the city we know is temporary, the places we love always at the mercy of destruction in some way, shape, or form. That September, along with a lot else, we lost that view.
After taking the short set of stairs from the observation deck to the roof, I thought it was the best $10 I ever spent. I had no idea that, in good weather, tourists were also allowed on the roof. It was a beautiful summer day, and admission was only $10, but there was still no line. On a whim one day, while visiting a friend who worked in the basement of the World Trade Center, I took a trip up to the observation deck. I first moved to New York in the summer of 2001.
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