Walk #34

walk34pic.jpg

13 April 2005
4:16 pm to 4:42 pm
Heads: 66
Tails: 47
Total intersections: 30
Ending point: Corner of State Street and Bridge Street
Latitude/longitude: 40:42.13.02N/74:00.51.84W
Distance from home: 0.5218 miles
Literature received: None
Coin: 1982 quarter (P)

I walked around in tight circles near my home, repeatedly passing the tall and skinny Millennium Hilton. I wondered whether they advertised their rooms as having an extraordinary view of the World Trade Center pit.

My circles gradually got wider, and after twenty minutes, I squirted south, heading down Greenwich Street. I emerged in Battery Park, stepping out of the shaded canyons of lower Manhattan into the late-afternoon sunshine, thinking about the joy of Daylight Savings Time. A little girl skipped through the park wearing a foam Statue of Liberty crown. Puffed-up pigeons courted each other.

The coin led me to a Korean War memorial in Battery Park, where I counted the death tolls for all the various countries that participated in that conflict. The United States (54,246 dead) ranked second behind the Republic of Korea (58,127). There was a roll call of countries sent by the United Nations: Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Ethiopia. Who knew that Norway had two deaths in that war?

I strolled out of the park, against the flow of commuters: thousands of people walking towards the ferry, heading for a home on the other side of the water.