Visiting the One World Observatory is definitely an experience to partake of when in lower Manhattan. They offer the option of booking your ticket/s ahead of time for a specific time slot or you can take your chances and just go stand in line for the tickets and admittance.
Once tickets are in hand you go through the security check, get to explore the bedrock upon which New York city is built and in the elevator to the top, experience a time lapse of New York from long ago to the present in an elevator that takes you up 102 stories in 47 seconds.
It is a bit breath taking when you get to see how high up you are and how much you can see! From here you are free to wander around the top and try to recognize what you are looking out at; there is an option (for an extra fee) of an iPad that will help you identify the city below. You can learn about the city’s neighborhoods, culture and history from an interactive presentation and the guides that are there to help if you have questions.
There’s a restaurant and a gift shop at the observatory too but I was there for the 360° views. One view was of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island but I didn’t have the lens to capture it well unfortunately (I brought wide not a zoom) so I won’t be sharing that with you. It was fun looking down and spotting areas that I had been walking around and looking up at.
Looking out towards Jersey City, New Jersey where I was staying.
The Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges that take you over the East river to Brooklyn and Queens.
Looking north towards midtown Manhattan and the Empire State Building as well as all of the construction of new buildings that never seems to cease.
The west side with it’s piers, the Hudson river and Hoboken, New Jersey.
Visitors taking in the views.
As with a lot of things in New York, the tickets for the observatory, starting out at $34.00, are a bit pricey but short of hiring a helicopter which will cost you far more, where else are you going to get views like these? Have you been up in One World Observatory or another very tall building? Don’t be shy, let’s talk.
Teri 📷
Images by T.Dashfield Photography 
Stunning photos, Teri! My daughter lives SOMEWHERE down there. I love her to the moon, and back, but I personally don’t see how she does it! Must be a 25+ something thingie…. and also a J.O.B. outta of college.
Thank you for sharing!
Thanks, Mickey. I could never live there either but love visiting. What part of town does she live in?
She lives on the East side of Manhattan. Not too far from Central Park. Nice area of town, though! I’m crazy proud of her!
Very nice area and very proud poppa 🙂
Great aerial shots.
Thanks, Tim.