Leonardo Piers, NWS Earle, New Jersey

Another beautiful piece of infrastructure with an unsettling piece of history. The Leonardo Piers stick out more than two miles from the New Jersey shore into New York Harbor, splitting out into this elegant trident shape. Why so far? Because back around the time of World War 2, this is where the military used to load up ammunition into ships, and if something went wrong this way it would at least be somewhat isolated.

Edgemere Landfill park, Rockaway, NY

This beautiful green swath of gently sloping park near the dense-packed boundaries of New York City is, of course, a decommissioned landfill repurposed into a recreation zone.

Rebuilding breakwaters, Long Beach, New York

Cranes out half-submerged in the breaking surf as the rebuild the breakwaters that control erosion and beach migration along the Southern edge of Long Island.

Long Beach, New York

Dense parallels of beach-side settlement along the southern ocean-side edge of Long Island.

JFK Airport Runway 4R approach lights

A long bar of approach lights injects a complementary color into the shadings of water and earth in the shallow waters around JFK Airport in New York.

Salt marshes outside JFK Airport, New York City

Carved and meandering patterns in the salt marshes on the border of JFK airport. The carved straight lines are likely remnants of mistaken anti-mosquito ditching efforts in the early 20th century.

"From New York to the World", JFK Airport

I loved this luminescent painted glass statue in the heart of a JFK terminal: "From New York to the World", it declares, in its wonderfully parochial (and also somewhat true) City-centric view of civilization.

Sand Patterns, Smith Point, Long Island, NY

Patterns of dark and light sand and shell fragments rippling across the edge of this Long Island beach.

Sunset over Smith Point, Long Island, NY

Golden liquid sunset over a beach halfway out Long Island.

Smith Point boardwalk, Long Island, NY

Out in the relative wilderness of Long Island, a boardwalk through the dune vegetation behind a beach on the ocean side.

Empire State Building, New York City

Instantly recognizable in its form, the Empire State Building rises up above Manhattan.

Newshounds, New York City

I'm not sure what this statue was actually called, but as I passed, I could only imagine it being called "Newshounds."

Rooftop cisterns, New York City

Another shot of New York's remarkable rooftop water towers, clustering together to make another aspect of its skyline unique.

Rooftop cisterns, New York City

Another relic of New York's ancient history as a modern metropolis: many buildings in the city still have their water pressure maintained with wooden rooftop water towers. While the technology may be old, the towers are in constant use, lasting about the same amount of time as a wooden roof (a few decades) before needing repair and replacement by one of the two companies that still maintain them.

Ragu spaghetti sauce, New York City

Ancient and faded advertisement for Ragu spaghetti sauce slowly fading along the bricks of a building in Midtown Manhattan.

Mural, New York City

From luxury to poverty: this mural appears to depict working class New Yorkers of a prior generation.

Indoor forest view, New York City

The same lobby, having cycled forward to a scene of sunlight shining through a forest canopy, blending remarkably well with its reflections in the banks of elevators.

Indoor waterfall view, New York City

Reflecting images of a waterfall, playing on gigantic screens in the dim lobby interior of a luxurious building in Lower Manhattan.

Colored paving stones, New York City

Area of colored paving stones spicing up an otherwise bland plaza.

Hyperboloid atrium, New York City

Elegant curving structural members flowing up from the floor of this atrium in two places.

Holland Tunnel ventilation tower, New York City

This ten-story concrete blockhouse, on the other hand, is quite easy to identify: it is one of the two ventilation towers for the Holland Tunnel, exchanging air to keep the commuters beneath the river from suffocating. Wherever you find long, heavily trafficked tunnels, look for air exchangers like these hovering above the surface nearby.

Mystery fortress in Lower Manhatten

This extremely tall concrete fortress of a building in Lower Manhattan fills an entire block and has no windows, no signage, and only a single door. My guess is that it's either a telecommunications or electrical hub of some sort.

Staggered tower, Lower Manhatten, New York City

Another intriguingly juggled and offset tower, this one in the midst of Manhattan and seeming to increase in its perturbations as the floors go higher.

Building block tower in Jersey City

An intriguingly architected tower across the river from Manhattan in Jersey City, looking like somebody's playing Jenga with its offset clumps of floors.

9-11 Memorial, New York City

Here stands the great somber hole of the September 11th memorial at the World Trade Center.

Roof extensions of World Trade Center transit hub, New York City

Long pointed spears forming the roof of the transit hub by the new World Trade Center. To me, it feels quite reminiscent of the shards of fallen building on 9/11, and I cannot believe this similarity is accidental.

World Trade Center, New York City

From farther back, the World Trade Center slotted into the skyline and, of course, ongoing construction all around.

World Trade Center, New York City

The new World Trade Center, leaning down visually over the onlooker near its feet.

Wall Street heliport, New York City

The immense concentration of wealth in lower Manhattan also makes it eminently understandable (if perhaps not reasonable) to find a dedicated heliport right next to Wall Street on the river, presumably the better to move the super-rich in and out of the city quickly.

Stepped skyscraper, New York City

New York was one of the first places to ever really build skyscrapers and start figuring out what it means to be a true metropolis. One of the legacies of that history is step-pyramid skyscrapers, left over from one of the prior sets of laws for controlling sun and shadow in the streets.

Skyscraper, New York City

Near-uniform waffle-wall of windows patterning the side of another New York skyscraper.

Skyscrapers, New York City

Beautiful reflective towers of New York City, blurring my ability to distinguish between the city and the sky.

Container ship headed for New York Harbor

A mighty and heavily loaded container ship heading into New York Harbor. Coming into JFK airport, one is reminded by the highly populated seas that, whatever else may be going on there, one of the key foundations of New York City's prosperity is still its status as an active trading port.

Bridge over Salt Creek, Elk Grove, IL

Bridge between neighborhoods and park in Elk Grove, Illinois.

Cul de sac jungle, near Chicago O'Hare Airport

A beautiful looping tangle of cul-de-sacs near the Chicago airport.

Coralville Dam, Iowa

I am delighted with this perspective on the big water-control dam just upriver of Iowa City. We are looking down from upstream at several stories of untapped capacity, the controlled flow on the left side and the emergency spillway across the exposed fossil beds to the right.

Snake on the Kewash Trail

Walking one morning on the Kewash trail, a lovely long rail-trail conversion about an hour south of our house, I encountered this approximately meter-long snake. I always give snakes cautious distance, especially after an incident as a kid in which I discovered that if you hold too far behind the head, a snake can actually bend around and bite you on the finger you're holding it with. This one particularly warned me off, however, by popping up the tip of its tail and buzzing: if indeed it was a Timber Rattlesnake, then this was my first actual poisonous snake encounter in the wild.

Purple utilities, Iowa City

Livid purple marks highlight these utilities for construction: I just really liked the color, which I haven't previously seen used for this purpose, and its form in little hazy discs

High rise faces, Iowa City

A dozen or so floors up in one of the tallest buildings of Iowa City, these two giant faces look down inscrutably on passerby. Part of me suspects that they are chairs, and another part would really just prefer them to be a work of creepy art.

Burro mural, Iowa City

Mural of a settler with burro and wagon, concealed within a downtown alley. You might never notice this from a car as you pass by.

Iowa River foam

More intriguing shapes in the foam of the Iowa River.

Iowa River foam

Abstract forms in one morning's foam on the Iowa River.

Blooming front yard, Iowa City

Tulips, dandelions, and violets all across our front yard this spring. I don't know why so many homeowners are viciously anti-dandelion: I love their cheery yellow heads bobbing all across the green.

Protective parents, Iowa City

Two geese like protective bookends around their goslings. In case you haven't found this out yourself, never ever get close to baby geese: their parents are scarily huge and aggressive when they feel their kids are aggressive, coming at you hissing and flapping and quite willing to injure you if necessary.

Barn quilt pattern, Iowa

Many barns in Iowa have these "quilt squares" on them, each a unique sigil like some sort of family crest. This one, though, makes me think of nothing so much as a colorful QR-code.

Charleston bridge

One last sight of Charleston, South Carolina: the graceful diamonds of its biggest bridge, silhouetted in the light of dawn.

Cooper River, Charleston, SC

One more set of lovely Cooper River lines, including a spanning causeway and a mazeway of connecting smaller alternate channels.

Cooper River, Charleston, SC

A closer look into the curves of the Cooper River: I love the shapes and the jagged little spikes of the little flooded tributaries. From their shapes, I think this must be estuarial and the lines and plains all salt marsh.

Cooper River, Charleston, SC

The spiraling flats of the Cooper River just above Charleston, South Carolina, shining dimly in the lowering sun.

Boeing plant, Charleston, SC

One other piece of Charleston industry that I didn't know of until I went there: apparently there is a great big Boeing plant manufacturing jumbo jets right next to the airport, its products seen lined up here in their final pre-delivery state.