This is a photo I took to show the view from where we were standing when we heard the news that cases of the h1n1 Virus were found a few miles away.
The waiting room was an international petri dish.
It reflected in many ways, in modern dress, the crowds who once occupied Ellis Island, visible from where we stood.
They too were a petri dish, with public health officials waiting to shove tongue depressors into their throats.
No tongue depressors here.
The ferry upon which we sailed to Staten Island was fairly full.
They don't allow you to stay on board for the ride back. You need to leave and re-enter the terminal, so, it deposited us ashore directing us back around into Richmond County's St. George Terminal.
Just as we were settled back onto the same boat, with good perches for the photographers, we were told they were taking the boat out of service.
It was one more walk around where we joined the people gathered to take the next ferry. That’s when I took this snap. When the next ferry arrived from Manhattan, it spit out its human cargo, 2/3’s of which promptly walked around back into the terminal to join us.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia
What should have been a pleasant sail across Upper New York Harbor, with promised views of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and the churches of Brooklyn, turned into a dash for seats in the middle.
It was like riding on a wide body jet, in the center aisle.
When we spewed forth from the boat, I don’t know how many thousands of us, the crowd soon blended into the mass of tourists visiting lower Manhattan on this first really nice day of 2009.
If that many people suddenly showed up in our home town, it would be an event. Here they do it every half hour without a blip of notice.
