New York City at Night

September 11, 2002

Sts036-39-14

Provided by: NASA Human Space Flight
Summary authors & editors: Jim Foster

This nighttime photo of New York City from the Space Shuttle (mission STS036-39-14) was taken in early March of 1990. New York is perhaps the most brilliant urban complex in the world as observed at night from space. Though a chunk of the Big Apple was damaged to its core in the terrorist attack one year ago today, the spirit of the city and the resolution of its more than 8 million inhabitants remains strong.

The brightest area on the photo above is the borough of Manhattan, and the dark strip near its center is Central Park. At the lower end of Manhattan is the financial heart of New York, where nearly 3,000 people lost their lives when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center was brought down. The Bronx is to the upper right (northeast) of Manhattan. Brooklyn (south of Manhattan) and Queens (east of Manhattan) are located on the western end of Long Island. Staten Island is west of Brooklyn, across the Narrows, which is the entrance to Upper New York Bay. The cities of Elizabeth, Newark and Jersey City (all in New Jersey) are the bright blotches to the north of Staten Island - west of Manhattan.

"let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations"

The above passage is from the last sentence of Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865.

Related Links: