Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: 400VC

I could tell by looking at this building that it predated the Civil War at the very least, as Neo-Classical architecture of several American styles was generally in style from the Revolution until then. I was quite surprised, however, to find out that it dates to 1791, making it one of the oldest buildings in Saratoga, but GigiSaratoga (on Flickr) has now informed me that this building is really from 1856. As an institution, though, this was the first church to be established in town (umm...unless I'm misinterpreting what I'm being told).

This church was built in 1871, and was restored in 2007, winning several awards in the process. It is primarily a concert venue today, however, as I noticed when I visited. This is one of the other well-preserved buildings in Saratoga.

While the last shot was the result of poor luck, this shot was the result of good luck. I was stopped for coffee at Dunkin' Donuts in Fultonville (the same one mentioned before, just across the river), and I saw this sunset. I got my N80 out of the car and took two shots, with this one being the darker and I think better bracket. I've also edited this slightly, and may edit it more in the future.

Fonda is one of the last towns on the Mohawk River westbound before Lock 17, and the start of the Barge Canal. Fonda is on the north bank of the Mohawk, whereas Fultonville is on the south bank, and slightly to the west, and is the official location, from what I can gather, of Lock 17. Fonda is also the home of Fonda Speedway, a dirt car racing track on the Mohawk River at the small fairgrounds there (although it's virtually invisible from the road, being hidden by a high wooden fence). I took this shot as a second best of this double-stack train, however, not thinking of the canal or the speedway. I had meant to get the locomotives, but my camera jammed, leaving me to photograph these very North American double stacks. In most other parts of the world, trains can't carry sea containers two-high, as the loading gauges in most countries outside the U.S., Canada, and Mexico don't allow it.

Although several historic buildings of note survive in Saratoga, this one is probably my favorite, is it is the most dated and the most unusual to see still standing in the U.S. Most of these burned down or were abandoned and torn down during the 1960's-1990's, and many are still under threat. This hotel, built in 1877 for people visiting the supposedly therapeutic Saratoga Springs, still hosts all manner of tourists....in the summertime. When I visited, it had closed for the winter.

We actually weren't on an A380 for this trip, as the only one Air France has is the one seen above. Instead, we were on an A330, which is not extremely common, but not very rare either. I took this was we were flying over Albany, NY, on our way to Newark Libery International Airport in New Jersey (the literature now says New York since they think it's clearer, but Newark is still in New Jersey, whatever they say). Running left to right (really north to south) is the Hudson River, but that delta that you can see there is where the Mohawk flows into the Hudson, hence Albany's historic importance. The larger island to the right (south) is Van Schaick Island, and the smaller one to the left (north) is Peebles Island. The much smaller island in front (to the west of) Peebles is Simmons Island, and the pair of islands to the left (north) are Goat and Second Islands. The area on the shore in front of (to the west of) Simmons Island is the Albany suburb of Cohoes. Albany is the northern limit of navigation on the Hudson River (the Erie Canal, now the Barge Canal, connects the Hudson with the Great Lakes via the Mohawk Valley), and it's connected to the Mohawk River in Little Falls. Between Albany and Little Falls, Locks have been built in the Mohawk to facilitate navigation, and to the west of Little Falls the two waterways are seperate. Albany is also the State Capital of New York, being a politically acceptable distance from New York City, which controversially has a larger population in its metropolitan area (which spans three states) than the rest of the State. The State has, officially, a population of 19,541,453, and New York City has 8,363,710 officially, but the total metropolitan area of New York is about 18,000,000-19,000,000 people, depending on how you measure it. Even if taken in isolation, the figure of 8,363,710 represents close to 43% of the population, so it's easy to see why people are concerned about the city having disproportionate influence in a State that overall is politically different from the City. This isn't the first time the capital has been moved north, either. Originally New York City WAS the capital of New York, but in 1777, it was moved to Kingston, and only in 1797 was the capital moved permanently to Albany. The city of Albany is actually older than New York, however, dating to 1540 when it was established as the French trading fort which later, under Dutch ownership, became Fort Nassau in 1614, and then Beverwyck from 1654-1664. The town acquired the "Albany" name in 1664, after the British invasion. There's a Wikipedia article available here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany,_New_York

This was another shot that I took of the A380 with the next roll of film. Unfortunately, I had to change rolls as it was taxiing towards us, but luckily, it was going very slow. This might be my best of the bunch.

This is maybe my best-ever photo of New York City, taken from our A330 as it approached Newark. The only editing I had to do on it was up the contrast, as the plastic airliner window generally wrecked the contrast on all my aerials this trip (ice may have had as much to do with this as the plastic). You can see the Empire State Building in the rear center of the shot, and if I'm not mistaken the river is the Hudson, since we were on approach to Newark on this flight.

I didn't originally know all the specifics of this yard, as I'm not from the area, but was clearly a New Jersey Transit yard since the trains are EMU's, and the yard is on the wrong side of the Hudson to be a Metro North yard. Stevensiegel260 gave me this on Flickr: "Technically, your photo is not of Newark... it's of the Town of Kearny. To the right is the Pulaski Skyway heading toward Jersey City, which is on the other side of the Hackensack River. The train lines are New Jersey Transit's Midtown Direct/Morris & Essex Lines and the Port Authority's PATH rapid transit line." It's not too far from Newark Libery International Airport, where we would be landing on this trip.