
Eerie photo produced by a standby camera with an insanely powerful
flash. This is the theater stage. You can actually see the back wall
of the building's shell behind DC. |
Occasionally, we head off on missions with
no target in mind. 2 out of 3 of these trips will yield something
worth exploring. This was one such evening.
We arrived in a park along the east right in Manhattan, and proceeded
south below the williamsburg bridge. Here we found an accessible
fenced in area with trailers and access to the base of the bridge.
The trailers were either of a flatbed variety or locked up tight
with construction equipment, making them rather useless. The base
structure of the bridge provided a space for practicing climbing
techniques, etc.
Eventually we moved further south, wrapping around a huge abandoned
structure. Only as we came in off the river to the front of the
structure did it become apparent that it was a large abandoned amphitheater.
It was fenced in pretty well, wire along the back side and huge
iron gating along the front. We were not prepared with wire clipping
tools, and climbing did not seem a plausible option given the fences
shakey, unstable nature. Nevertheless, we found a way to curmvent
the spike-topped iron gating, carefully making our way down the
audience rows to the stage. Large craters and holes lined the cement
and tar in the seating area and just in front of the stage.
Entering the structure could not be simpler: you walk right in
from the middle of the stage. You can also climb the face of the
building rather easily, if so inclined. While coated in graffiti,
there were no homeless or menacing people present. Beyond the stage
lays a large 2 story structure overlooking the river. It is a vast
open space with no rooms. To the sides there may have been small
rooms and access to a basement which may lay beneath the stage.
However, we did not venture to far in given our lack of flashlights
on this evening.
Getting into this site proved by far easier than exiting. When
we did make our exit, it was directly into a gathering of joint
smoking kids from the ghetto across the street. They just looked
at us as if we were insane, until a bold one asked Rabbit for a
light, to which she scared his pants off by using some flash paper.
That broke the ice enough for us to stay and chat awhile with them.
Further evidence that you can be outnumbered 20 to 2 and come away
just fine, so long as one of the 2 has a certain 2 something's that
the potential opponent will stare and drool at.
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