Politics
A Ride at the Top of Manhattan
The Beam, at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, allows visitors to recreate the famous photo of construction workers perched high above the city.
Good morning. It’s Friday. Today, and on Fridays through the summer, we’ll focus on things to do in New York over the weekend.
Credit…Todd Heisler/The New York Times
“There’s Queens, out beyond the East River.” That is the last thing I remember thinking before the “aieeeee” moment.
It happened 800 feet above Midtown Manhattan. I was sitting on a replica of the I-beam in the famous black-and-white photograph of construction workers on a lunch break, with Manhattan spread out dangerously far below.
Those guys had it easy. Their I-beam did not spin 180 degrees the way mine did — and even though I knew it was going to, my stomach lurched.
New observation decks have opened in New York City in the last few years, touching off what my colleague Mekado Murphy described as a dizzying competition for visitors’ attention and dollars. These are high places with high prices. The Beam, as the ride I was on is known, costs $25, in addition to as much as $61 for admission to Top of the Rock, the multifloored space in 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Photographs taken as ticketholders pause in front of backdrops on the way in — or on the I-beam — add to the tab.
