Pachyderms on Parade
Every Spring the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus comes to Madison Square Garden. All of the large animals are transported on a train, but there is no way to get a freight car into Manhattan. So each year, two nights before the start of the circus the Queens Midtown Tunnel is shutdown at midnight so that the elephants and horses can march from Queens, under the East River, across town on 34th Street and into the Garden.
Carmen and I got there a little after midnight and had no clue what to expect. It is no small feat to close down a tunnel and major thru fare in NYC so I anticipated that there would be road blocks, police command centers, and plenty of New York’s finest. But aside from a few hundred people milling around on the street holding cameras – life, and traffic, went on as normal. Finally around 12:35 we could start to see the lights from a police car coming from the East – followed closing behind by what appeared to be a bejeweled herd of elephants. We dodged a couple of cabs and rushed across to the North side of the street as the pachyderms appeared to be heeding traffic laws and staying in their lane. Road blocks were never put up, the traffic wasn’t stopped except on Broadway. At the rest of the intersections cars just waited at a red light as elephants rushed past.
Bello, the Ringling clown, rode on top of the first elephant.
A total of ten elephants were linked trunk-to-tail.
Before we left I had looked at a bunch of photos from last year’s “parade” and I was shocked at how bad the photos were. I was certain that I was going to get some great artistic shots of elephants framed against the city night. I hadn’t taken into account that there would be a thousand other wannabe photogs wielding digital cameras with the same idea all sprinting down 34th street trying to keep up with the herd of elephants. The elephants weren’t waiting around posing for pictures either. The handlers kept things moving at a pretty good clip.
I didn’t get a good shot of it, but there were a couple of Shetland ponies bring up the rear. It is probably good they kept them separated from the elephants. Ringling could end up with some flattened ponies. The worst job of the evening had to be the street sweeper on poop control at the back of the line. Ten elephants and a couple of dozen horses bring the typical city funk to a whole new level.
NYC is so trendy that even the elephants get stars tattooed on their hips.
No self-respecting event in NYC goes down without a protest. PETA was there is in full force. Their chant: “Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho! How many elephants have you killed today?!” Based on their poster, I would guess no more than two… tops… just a guess though.
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