Maggers Wrote:SPOILER ALERTS FOR FATAL ERRORS.....





As often happens, Paul writes a book where a key scene takes place at a venue I recently visited. It happened again in FATAL ERRORS. I'm referring to the scene that takes place on Randall and Ward Islands, under the Triboro Bridge, when Jack is desperately trying to find a way to get his motorcycle to LaGuardia airport to reach Gia and Vicky, and he runs into a couple of thugs along the way. I loved that part of the story; I love Jack's non-Otherness fix-it sort of situations.

A few weeks ago, Liam and I took a very long walk from our place to the northern tip of Randall Island, that's roughly 68th Street to about 128th Street. We walked and walked, got to the Island and were desperate to find a place that sold water, fluids of any sort. We'd made a conscious and foolish decision to not tote water; we assumed, again foolishly, that you could buy water anywhere in the City. Not so on Ward Island. We had to tramp all the way to the tippy top of Randall Island to the golf complex before we found sustenance.

On the way, we marched up the middle of the Island and found ourselves underneath the very long ramps leading to the Triboro Bridge. And fiddle-dee-dee to calling it the RFK Bridge. We saw a big sign reminding people to do that, and I thought what a waste of money to make such a sign.

Part of me wanted to get a picture of the HUGE trestles holding up the ramps, but by that time I was cranky and cross and dying of thirst. We will go back and I'll get a pic, 'cause it's quite a view, in a dark and dangerous sort of way. That space has been used in many movies. It's perfect for the bad guys to take someone there and off them without any interference. It's also visually arresting.

I have shots that show nearly every place that Paul mentions in that scene. I was pumping my fist while reading it. I'll post one here and then create, if I can, an album for the Triboro Bridge/Randall and Ward Island scene. I don't know that I can create more than one album, though. Any one know? Edited to answer my own question: Nope, can't make more than one album.

This picture is me on the southern tip of Ward Island with both the Triboro and the railroad bridge (that's a small replica of the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia!) looming in the background. You can get a sense of the strong and deadly currents of Hell Gate in the water behind me, which Paul also mentions in FATAL ERROR.

Maggers Wrote:One of the many things I love about FPW's books is his accuracy in settings and locales. That's why I started this thread, though I think I didn't make that point very clearly. What Paul describes in his New York locations is absolutely accurate.

For instance, he mentions the railroad bridge and how there was no access to it from Jack's vantage point. Here's a couple of pictures showing that, which I just happened to take the day Liam and I were at Ward and Randall Island.

Consider how spooky that place must be in the dark. That particular section of the Island was completely deserted when we were there, and even in broad daylight it was creepy.

The last picture shows how very high the Triboro Bridge is, and how narrow the strait of Hell Gate is. Narrow though it may be, it has treacherous currents, which Jack knew.

Peter Wrote:And that's New York? I honestly thought it would be busier, even away from Times Square and so on.

Maggers Wrote:SPOILER ALERTS FOR FATAL ERRORS.....





As often happens, Paul writes a book where a key scene takes place at a venue I recently visited. It happened again in FATAL ERRORS. I'm referring to the scene that takes place on Randall and Ward Islands, under the Triboro Bridge, when Jack is desperately trying to find a way to get his motorcycle to LaGuardia airport to reach Gia and Vicky, and he runs into a couple of thugs along the way. I loved that part of the story; I love Jack's non-Otherness fix-it sort of situations.

A few weeks ago, Liam and I took a very long walk from our place to the northern tip of Randall Island, that's roughly 68th Street to about 128th Street. We walked and walked, got to the Island and were desperate to find a place that sold water, fluids of any sort. We'd made a conscious and foolish decision to not tote water; we assumed, again foolishly, that you could buy water anywhere in the City. Not so on Ward Island. We had to tramp all the way to the tippy top of Randall Island to the golf complex before we found sustenance.

On the way, we marched up the middle of the Island and found ourselves underneath the very long ramps leading to the Triboro Bridge. And fiddle-dee-dee to calling it the RFK Bridge. We saw a big sign reminding people to do that, and I thought what a waste of money to make such a sign.

Part of me wanted to get a picture of the HUGE trestles holding up the ramps, but by that time I was cranky and cross and dying of thirst. We will go back and I'll get a pic, 'cause it's quite a view, in a dark and dangerous sort of way. That space has been used in many movies. It's perfect for the bad guys to take someone there and off them without any interference. It's also visually arresting.

I have shots that show nearly every place that Paul mentions in that scene. I was pumping my fist while reading it. I'll post one here and then create, if I can, an album for the Triboro Bridge/Randall and Ward Island scene. I don't know that I can create more than one album, though. Any one know? Edited to answer my own question: Nope, can't make more than one album.

This picture is me on the southern tip of Ward Island with both the Triboro and the railroad bridge (that's a small replica of the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia!) looming in the background. You can get a sense of the strong and deadly currents of Hell Gate in the water behind me, which Paul also mentions in FATAL ERROR.

Bluesman Mike Lindner Wrote:A tiny point...

There is no Twelfth Precinct in Manhattan.