“Manhattanhenge”: A Spectacular Sight Brings Hundreds to the Streets of New York City

For a few minutes of Instagrammable spectacle: Hundreds of New Yorkers and tourists came out on Tuesday evening to admire, mobile phones at arm’s length, the furtive appearance of the setting sun perfectly aligned between the rows of skyscrapers that criss-cross the island of Manhattan.

At 8:12 p.m., as expected, the sun, forming an orange ball in the still blue sky of New York, rose in the distance before disappearing, at the end of the east-west axis drawn by the streets of Manhattan, like the 42nd running through Times Square.

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People use their cellphones to photograph ‘Manhattanhenge’, the moment the sun is aligned between the rows of skyscrapers that criss-cross Manhattan Island, on May 30, 2023 in New York (AFP/Ed JONES)

“It’s a magnificent event. And it’s a totally New York moment,” enthuses Jeanette Wolfson, a science teacher on Long Island, the island that extends east of New York, came take pictures to show to his students the next day. And remind them that, contrary to the visual impression, “it’s not the sun that sets, it’s the earth that turns and goes from light to dark”, smiles the 47-year-old teacher.

The phenomenon attracts many photographers armed with telephoto lenses, as well as tourists and New Yorkers, who do not hesitate to stop on the roadway, very briefly affecting the ubiquitous traffic of SUVs, yellow taxis and bicycle delivery men who make up the landscape. city ​​of the Big Apple.

– “Something unique” –

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A disguised man crosses a street in New York on May 30, 2023, at the time of “Manhattanhenge”, when the setting sun is lined between the rows of skyscrapers that crisscross the island of Manhattan ( AFP / Ed JONES )

Camera around his neck, Patrick Batchelder, a 59-year-old photographer, assures us that what matters are “people”. “The photo itself is not that important. It’s being in the middle of the crowd, and enjoying seeing something unique in New York”, explains this regular.

The event occurs four times a year, for two days, approximately three to four weeks before and after the summer and winter solstices. It bears the name “Manhattanhenge”, an allusion to Stonehenge, this great megalithic monument in the south of England, crossed in the center by the sun during the summer and winter solstices.

In New York, according to the checkerboard plan of the island of Manhattan drawn in 1811, the city is cut out like a grid between 14th and 155th streets.

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The setting sun is lined between rows of skyscrapers that criss-cross Manhattan Island, a moment known as “Manhattanhenge”, on May 30, 2023 (AFP/Ed JONES)

On its website, the New York Museum of Natural History recommends taking advantage of “Manhattanhenge” at 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd or 57th streets, to admire the moment when “the city frames the sunset” , as summarized by its astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Those who missed it on Tuesday evening will be able to try their luck again on July 12.