Imagine Lexington Avenue as a River

A few interesting things I learned while reading The World Without Us

- There is enough steel wire in the three-inch main cables of the George Washington Bridge to wrap around the Earth four times. Every year baby peregrine falcons hatch at the top of the GWB's towers. Grass, weeds, and ailanthus trees bloom in metal niches high above the water and have to be weeded out.

- If New York City were abandoned and there were no people and no power to work the pumps that drain water away from the subway tunnels, they'd flood completely in days. 36 hours if a hard rain fell.