{"id":1863,"date":"2011-04-07T08:05:50","date_gmt":"2011-04-07T12:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=1863"},"modified":"2011-04-07T08:05:50","modified_gmt":"2011-04-07T12:05:50","slug":"rusting-relics-and-regal-stares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=1863","title":{"rendered":"Rusting relics and regal stares…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Rocket Thrower statue at Flushing Meadows<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We set out for Queens last weekend, to explore Flushing Meadows \u2013 knowing only that it had a zoo \u2013 and that’s where the US Open Tennis is played.<\/p>\n

Wow \u2013 were we in for a surprise. The Great Gatsby. Alien Spaceships. A giant see-through planet. The park is overflowing with marvels.<\/p>\n

The park was a dump – literally. In ‘The Great Gatsby’ F Scott Fitzgerald called it ‘valley of ashes’.\u00a0\u00a0It was cleared and became the site for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. The ashes were used in the construction of a nearby freeway. The profit was supposed to be used to redevelop the park for the people of Queens.<\/p>\n

45 million people came to the fair\u2026 but the organisers lost roughly 20 MILLION dollars on the event. Not a good thing and the ‘wonders’ on display were all removed.<\/p>\n

Undeterred \u2013 they held another worlds fair there in 1964. 51 million people came this time \u2013 and they lost even more money.<\/p>\n

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Pavillion or alien spaceship?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not many buildings remain \u2013 but those few are really worth a visit. The rusting remains of the New York State pavilion are fascinating. They should also be familiar to anyone who watched the movie Men In Black \u2013 you see those round observation decks \u2013 they really are alien spacecraft!<\/p>\n

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The Unisphere<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since 1989, the parks department has been rehabilitating Flushing Meadows. It’s a fabulous place for a day out \u2013 filled with families \u2013 and people like me staring the these amazing relics..<\/p>\n

The Unisphere is HUGE! It’s the height of a ten storey building.<\/p>\n

What’s even more fascinating is that it’s built on the base originally used for the Perisphere, which was the centrepiece for the earlier fair.<\/p>\n

Oh yes \u2013 there is a zoo too.<\/p>\n

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Someone we met at the zoo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few hours later and ever so slightly sunburnt we headed back into Manhattan \u2013 but we’ll be back. There’s more to explore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We set out for Queens last weekend, to explore Flushing Meadows \u2013 knowing only that it had a zoo \u2013 and that’s where the US Open Tennis is played. Wow \u2013 were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-my-travels"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g6jm-u3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}