Nation & World

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Not as pretty as it sounds 7/26/08   CONTACT THE HERALD Do you have a news tip? newstips@heraldnet.com | 425.339.3400   Published: Saturday, July 26, 2008 Balloon rides celebrate Central Park Associated Press NEW YORK -- Want to look down on the rich and famous? Go eye to eagle-eye with a winged predator? See the sun rise over Queens? How better to do this than from a balloon 30 stories above Central Park? The opportunity arises, so to speak, on Friday when a private company begins offering rides over the 843-acre park for $25 per adult and $17.50 per child. Other than the wicker basket accommodating a pilot and four passengers, there's not much to suggest the Jules Verne classic, "Around the World in 80 Days." No roaring flame providing hot air; instead the balloon is filled with helium, an inert, nonflammable gas. And no soaring for miles; the 45-foot-diameter envelope is tethered to the ground and raised and lowered by a winch for a 10-minute hover above the park. "Get a spectacular daytime view of Central Park and bustling streets, or wait until sundown and float above dazzling city lights," says the AeroBalloon Web site. But it adds that the best time is early morning, "when the winds are most calm and the sunrise view is extraordinary." The flight will also offer a pano­rama of posh hotels and luxury high-rise apartments bordering the park, not to mention celebrities walking their dogs. The rides serve to mark the 150th anniversary of Central Park, the nation's first major urban park, created by architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and opened to the public in 1858.

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