New York City: Express Trip Through My Favourite City (August, 2019)

New York City wasn’t in the plans. But, it was. In August, I took an express weekend trip through the northeast of the United States. The goal was simply to capture video for our YouTube Channel.

You see, POV driving tour videos was something that was sort of stumbled upon by accident that turned out brought a lot of traffic (and revenue) to the channel. People apparently like (love?) watching someone else driving around.

Manhattan Time Lapse Driving Tour

This is the time lapse version of the journey around Manhattan. The full, real-time version can be found below.

After a few years of producing these videos, it became obvious that it was the smaller cities that people wanted to see. It makes sense, sort of. Bigger centers like Toronto, Montreal, Boston and New York City have all been well-documented. Smaller locations like London (Ontario), Buffalo, Windsor and Sudbury simply have not.

So, where in North America can you drive around a whole bunch of small to medium sized cities, all crammed in a relatively small part of the continent? Why, the northeastern U.S. would be the answer to that question.

How does New York City come into the equation? A. It is one of my most favourite places on Earth. B. You must pass by anyway if you’re journeying from New England back toward places like Scranton, Binghamton and, eventually, home in Southern Ontario, Canada.

It basically would be a shame to at least not drive through Manhattan on a summer Saturday evening and take in the sights.

New York City Driving Tour: Manhattan Perimeter

Here’s the full, real-time video. The show starts at the Triborough Bridge and finishes up in New Jersey after crossing the George Washington Bridge.

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Video edited with Corel VideoStudio Ultimate 2018.

About The Drive

I am not an expert of driving in New York City. My guess is, the smoothness of the journey in the videos above is not the norm. However, it’s a pretty straight forward drive.

It would have loved to be in the passenger seat with the camera shutter nearly always pressed down. I certainly wouldn’t have minded getting stuck in traffic.

In fact, the best red light I’ve ever been stopped at was the one right after exiting the tunnel below Battery Park. The view, seen in one of the photos included here, is a pretty spectacular look at the Freedom Tower.

In all, this took less than an hour before I was heading west through New Jersey. The timing was perfect with the light fading just as I was done recording.

Next time? On my next visit, I will be staying longer than an hour. It’s been several years now since I explored the streets of Manhattan and long to do it again. As for driving tour videos, next time I would like to brave the traffic of the interior roads.

Photo Gallery

It would have been much nicer to be on a stable piece of ground with a tripod attached to get photos from this trip. But, the few shots I got were decent. For larger versions, simply click on the individual pictures.

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