15. Plane

[futurebird]

←- →The first time I came to New York City it was by jet plane. Flight remains, I think very futuristic, taking a plane ride is bound up with all kinds of symbolism, freedom, the future, finding new beginnings

Comments

[dabroots]

Very nice. I can imagine seeing it first by plane.

My own first surface view of New York City was at Astor Place, after riding there by subway from Grand Central after riding Amtrak there from New Orleans (when Amtrak still stopped on that side of Manhattan.O)

[hortensio]

If our leaders become at all serious about cutting carbon emissions we'll find that air travel is much more limited than in the past. The moments described in these works of fiction will seem mysterious, even hard to imagine for our grand children, they will wonder at the fact that people once took to the sky so carelessly.

You know, I'd totally take a boat to Britain and a train across Europe to get home to Bulgaria if I could. Problem is: there are no non-cruise passenger boats across the Atlantic anymore. And if there were, I don't think they would be much cleaner than airplanes - given the demands of speed and what-not. That's NY-Bulgaria; most of my life was Ethiopia-Bulgaria - an itinerary where surface transit is completely impossible.

Airplanes are a good thing. I mean, not all of us have the luxury of being able to get where we're going without taking a plane. And not all of us have the luxury of time to spend 22 hours on a train from New York to Chicago, for instance. Never mind the symbolism: air travel is fast.

[futurebird]

Yes, but I take the train.