Running with the 'Phants

I'm about to post a ridiculous number of photos in a single entry, but I want to tell this whole story in one shot, and I still don't have a good sense of how photos are best presented, so at least this way they're all in chronological order.


11:30pm ET Thin crowds already forming at the metal gates set up along 34th street.

35th street at the mouth of the Midtown Tunnel, the crowd is giddy with anticipation



Upstairs neighbor. I can't imagine what he thought was going on if he didn't know we were waiting for elephants.


Coming up on half past midnight and still no elephants. A girl nearby got a call from her friend at the other end of the tunnel. The elephants had been there and were on the way. Just another 10 or 15 minutes. The crowd was literally crawling the walls. Some entertained themselves by cheering on the turning of the traffic light: "Green! C'mon Green!"


The first elephant emerged.

Everyone gave the one-hand camera salute.

Someone mentioned that they would be moving quickly, but this was faster than parade pace. Not the leisurely lumbering I expected.

Flash! Flash!

There were horses too, followed by ponies. But enough of that, the elephants are making their way to 34th street and around the corner. With collective whoop, the crowd started to run. Run! A nervous and confused motorist pulled up along a group in front of me as we ran across 35th street to try to head the elephants off at Park Ave. "What's going on??" "Elephants!"

This is the shot I came to get. Elephants and the Empire State Building. I'm not sure what those specs are. I think it's all the light reflecting off the lens.



Elephants cross 5th Ave.





This way to the Garden.