Approaching Albany, NY from 787N
Many people appreciate the spectacle of the Fort Pitt tunnel. Far fewer seem to share my thoughts on the best approach to the Albany skyline. In part, I’m one of the select few that really appreciates Empire Plaza as an architectural statement. It’s dramatic and austere.
The Empire Plaza exit off of 787N is part of this tangled mess of interchanges all piled up on each other. When the highway designers looked at the problem of blending several different threads of traffic, they must have thrown up their hands and said, “Screw it, we’ll just build more layers.” These ramps pile up on one another until the very tallest is many stories in the air- it towers over even large buildings.
And it’s that ramp that you take to enter the city. You climb up, like you’re on a roller-coaster. At the peak, you’re staring out into space. And then it performs a 90ยบ turn and you’re on a steep downhill ride into Albany, NY. The road takes you straight into Empire Plaza- literally- it goes through the complex and comes out the other side. In a matter of seconds, you go from hanging in space to a subterranean underworld and then find yourself disgorged at street level, into a nice, Victorian-era urban core.
Albany is a small city, with an interesting, if not distinguished, skyline. But entering the city that way ranks as one of the most dramatic and beguiling experiences.
NIGHTNIGHT by DEDDY
