An empty vessel

It doesn't look like much on a rainy day ... or any kind of day

Two years ago, on our trip to New England, TG and I spent a day at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

I don't think I've ever told you about that unusual experience, and soon perhaps I will, but today I want to tell you about something we saw after our day at historic Green-Wood.

As in, we were en route from Brooklyn to Dobbs Ferry, New York, where we would spend the next several nights.

Our drive took us through the Bronx, where I wanted to stop by what had once been a home of Edgar Allan Poe.

(You may or may not recall that, earlier in 2019, we visited Poe's grave and another of his homes, in Baltimore. My interest level runs high.)

But first we had to travel the entire western edge of Manhattan, along the Hudson.

It was a thoroughly rainy, foggy day, and it had been that way for the entire day.

In fact, part of my fascinating as-yet-untold story of our visit to Green-Wood involves the inclemency of the weather and how it affected the coming true of that long-held dream of mine.

At any rate, we had traveled all day the day before, and this was the first real day of our trip, and it had rained all day, and we had been out in it all day, and we were eager to reach Dobbs Ferry (a scant twenty miles to the north) and have some supper and go to bed.

It was basically rush hour, but only on a benign Tuesday. In New York, though, that's like all the Fridays in most other cities, rolled into one.

I was looking out of the car window when I saw, disappearing above us into the fog, the One World Trade Center.

Although One World Trade is the tallest building in the United States (as well as the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere), I could see no more than twenty stories up.

It was the fog.

We continued northward towards the Bronx and, some minutes later, I again looked to my right and was transfixed by an oddly shaped structure.

I exclaimed and pointed it out to TG, who I'm sure glanced over at the strange thing. But then we were past it and it was only later that I determined to find out what the thing had been. Or rather, what it was.

I knew it had not been part of the landscape the last time we'd visited New York City, which was eight years earlier, in 2011. I would have noticed.

Turns out it was -- and is -- something called, simply, Vessel.

Vessel is owned by, and is the centerpiece of, Hudson Yards (sort of a city within a city), and is described on the web site as a focal point where people can enjoy new perspectives of the city and one another from different heights, angles and vantage points.

Except, I hope you don't want to actually do that. Because for the second time in its short life, Vessel is closed to the public.

Indefinitely, this time.

Why? you may be asking. 

Because jumpers.

One World Trade doing a disappearing act

I mean no disrespect, and no, I do not refer to those dresses we wore as children, over a top of some type.

When I say jumpers, I mean those who jump. To their deaths. From high places.

I know; it is a depressing and morbid subject. I myself am afraid of heights (although not pathologically so; I have been to the Empire State Building and Sears Tower observatories, plus the tippy-top of the Louisiana State House, and I did not faint).

(I may go up but as a rule I do not look down. And thank you but no see-through ledges or tilt experiences for me.)

Back to Vessel.

Beset with criticisms and controversies, Vessel (basically sixteen stories of interconnecting staircases that go nowhere), which has been compared to a honeycomb and a rib cage, was not open long before trouble began in earnest.

Vessel opened to the public on March 15, 2019. After a honeymoon period of less than a year, the first jumper accomplished his goal on February 1, 2020. The second jumper checked out on December 22, 2020. The third jumped on January 11, 2021.

After that, Vessel closed while its creator, owners, and promoters tried to come up with a solution. They even hired a suicide expert (?????) who suggested installing net barriers, or high glass.

But ultimately they did nothing except reopen, on May 30, 2021. As a condition, however, it was decreed that, if you wanted to visit Vessel, you had to do so as part of a group of at least two.

In other words, you couldn't get in if you were all by your onesie.

(Because common sense dictates that someone determined to jump from Vessel could not possibly manage to separate himself or herself from the person they came in with, long enough to jump.)

Another new rule was, after the first hour that Vessel was open each day -- during which hour, admission was free -- you had to pay ten dollars (unless you were age five or under) to get in.

(Because common sense will tell you that no one intending to jump to their death will do so before eleven o'clock in the morning. And they won't pay for the privilege at any hour of the day.)

So like New York! Get them in their pocketbooks! What's in your wallet that we can get out of it? If you intend to jump, you have to bring a friend and it will set you back a sawbuck apiece!

That plan worked -- if you can call it that -- for exactly two months, or until July 29, 2021, on which date a teenaged boy, accompanied by his parents and sister, jumped.

Can you imagine? My heart hurts for all involved.

But it points up the sheer lunacy of thinking that we -- that anyone -- can control anyone else. People! People are going to do what they are going to do.

Besides. Try to conjure up in your mind the number of places there are in New York City, from which a person could jump, if that is what they had decided they were going to do.

Windows. Balconies. Rooftops. Basically so many, the number cannot be calculated. 

Chad and Erica a/k/a Cherica went to San Francisco last fall. One of the more exciting things they did was traverse the Golden Gate Bridge by car.

If you have time and are so inclined, read this long but riveting article about Golden Gate Bridge jumpers from the unique perspective of one of the bridge's many full-time painters.

Since it opened in 1937, one month before my mother was born, seventeen hundred people have jumped to their deaths from the Golden Gate Bridge.

(Probably many more, actually, since nighttime jumpers are not necessarily seen and recorded.)

Yes; there are things in place to inhibit jumping. Some even work, in some cases. But still, they come. And they jump.

It happened in Queens

Meanwhile, just last Friday, a 46-year-old Brooklyn resident described as a "liquor company CEO" did a backflip off a fifth-story deck of Citi Field in Queens, New York, landing on concrete.

It happened during a Dead & Company (a band consisting of former Grateful Dead members) concert. 

(The pirate will do you a solid and refrain from commenting on that last bit.)

I do believe liquor was involved in more ways than the deceased's professional title.

Proving once again that if you play stupid games, you are likely to win stupid prizes.

A concert goer who saw the whole thing from one level up remarked: I wish I didn't see it happen. It kinda killed the mood.

A driver working outside the stadium saw the victim "flip" and hit the ground. He described the man as way too drunk. You could smell it.

A security guard who was also present had this to say: The people are inebriated, and people are intoxicated.

Indeed. And no one made them take the first drink, or the last one, or any in between.

Here is my take on the whole thing. I am responsible for my own health. I am not responsible for yours.

If you need my help in some area of your life and I am able to provide it, I will. Just ask.

But I am not going to be able to make your health decisions for you, and I would not presume to do such an intrusive thing.

In return I ask that, as long as I am conscious and in my right mind, no one presume to make mine for me.

In fact, if someone tries it, I may suggest that they go jump in the lake.

And that is all for now.

=0=0=0=

Happy Monday

Comments

[Mari]

Trying again! This was a cool place and it's sad it had to close down.
And - I totally agree on making our own health decisions. It's a funny thing - they talk out of both sides of their mouth. You know - my body, my choice - when there is actually another body involved. But for the vaccine - they want to mandate it. Hmmm.

[Jennifer]

@Mari ... YES! That is exactly it. Try making any sense of it. xoxo ... ps did you comment once before and I never saw it for approval? That is so weird ...

[Audrey]

THIS is a test.

[Mari]

I did comment before - it's really crazy that none of them show up.
I had that happen once with a post and it made me paranoid. I didn't want people to think I was just ignoring their comments...

[betty]

This is so weird because I did comment on this post. I loved how you wrote the last few paragraphs and I think I know what you were referencing! I read the article about the painter on the Golden Gate Bridge. There is no way I could do that job!

When we lived in San Diego, a bridge was built from San Diego to Coronado Island (there was a way to the island that didn't involve crossing water but it was out of the way and usually avoided). Before the bridge was built ferries transported people/vehicles across it. After the bridge was built there were always those potential jumpers that would close the bridge while law enforcement and the like would deal with them. We never heard the outcome of bridge closings. I hope they were able to diffuse the situation and talk the jumper down.

Hope this one went through!

betty

[Jennifer]

@Audrey ... thanks my girl. I see you xoxo

@Mari ... well it must have been a temporary glitch because now I see you! Thanks for trying again my friend xoxo

@betty ... I see you! I'm so sorry that your other comment was lost in the ether. I think bridges are fascinating to begin with. If you ever have an opportunity to read or watch something about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, don't miss that. WHAT a story. That's my favorite bridge of all time and I have stood on it and taking its picture, although it was at night and I had no idea what I was doing, haaaha! The story told by the GGB painter that haunted me the most was the one about the teenage boy who went there and jumped, and left a note saying that he was going to just go ahead and go, because he was happy. That made me cry. Here's the link to his Find a Grave page: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/118094677/kyle-emerson-gamboa ... xoxo

[Bijoux]

Trying again . . .
I have another Blogger friend who often visits NYC and did a beautiful post on the Vessel. I’m terrified of open air heights, so I have no desire to climb it. However, I’ve traveled by car over the Golden Gate Bridge five times and it’s always as exciting to me as the first time. I skimmed the link you posted and enjoyed reading it.

We have a bridge nearby that crosses the Cuyahoga Valley and has the most stunning view of the trees in the fall. Unfortunately, it had attracted too many jumpers in the last decade and now we have high fences that partially block the view. It has created quite a controversy.

[Jennifer]

@Bijoux ... thanks for coming back and now we have success! I guess I just don't understand thinking that we can keep people from doing whatever they're going to do, although I do understand wanting to somehow mitigate a potentially dangerous situation. But when it comes to a bridge from which there is a stunning view, and then you add something that blocks it, that is just sad. Everyone suffers because some disturbed person *might* do something wrong. It's tragic. Like the whole class having to stay in from recess because of one knucklehead. I guess you could research and read and write for years on the subject of bridges and those who have jumped from them! I imagine that view from the GGB to be really something. I hope you got some good pictures although Erica says it's almost impossible to get anything from inside a moving car. xoxo

[Gayla]

Bizarre! Totally bizarre. It is a tragic thing that someone despairs and stops living in that place of isolation. Nothing can be done, removed, closed, or shut down to stop that process... if the person cannot be reached and encouraged, given heart, made to want to live... That being said, if I owned a place that was corrupted and burdened by such action, I'd lose heart to keep it open.... interesting post.

[Jennifer]

@Gayla ... so true, all. It is sad that such despair exists and so often we are unable to alleviate it. God be our hope and helper! xoxo

[Barb]

Did you miss me, Jenny? I've missed you and your posts. I've been off the computer and doing my thing outside while the weather is fine and before the snow arrives. Bob and I are astounded at the need to control others that is happening just now in our country. The censorship, the shaming, the finger-pointing are at an all-time high. I am very wary of control tactics and don't think they work for long. People must be masters of their destiny - no government or business or influential person should attempt to direct another's action. As you point out, it absolutely doesn't work. Where there's a will, there's a way (and I'm glad for that bit of freedom of choice, though some may make what I deem a poor one...). I'll keep reading to catch up. Hope all of you have been well.

[Jennifer]

@Barb ... YES I missed you, and think of you often, my friend! You know I'm always here for you and I know where you are too and don't forget it, haaahahaa! I have been off the computer a lot too but I need to get back up to speed. Sorry I did not see your comments until today. I too am hyper-aware of control tactics and they scare me too, especially the boldness of those who wish to control us as a society. Shaming NEVER EVER works with me. Just, never. I am oblivious to shaming because I know instantly that it's a ploy with an ultimate motive that is not being stated. I will continue to exercise freedom of choice and YES others may think my choices to be poor ones but that's their prerogative and does not alter my decisions ... just as THEIR decisions are not altered by what I might think! I hope you all are doing well too as autumn approaches! I hope you will post something about the first snow! xoxo