NYC Elephant Walk 2009

Someone told me last year about the annual Elephant Walk, but I didn't make it out. I wanted to be sure that this was one thing I did before I moved away from New York, so last night five of my friends and I stayed up until after 1:00am on a weeknight (hey, we're not young undergrads anymore!) to see this once in a lifetime sight: ten elephants, nine horses, and two ponies walking across 34th street in Manhattan.

When the Ringling Bros. circus comes to town, their mile long circus train is too long to come into the city. If it did park at Penn Station, could you just imagine trying to get all those elephants up the escalators? So, every year the circus train parks in Long Island City and the elephants walk through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and across 34th Street to Madison Square Garden at about midnight.

It was a chilly night at 32 degrees, so we waited inside a Dunkin Donuts on 34th between Madison and Park in anticipation of the elephants' arrival. We went straight after class, so we had a couple hours to goof off.


Poor Laura came after work, so she was unprepared for the cold wearing just her scrubs and a jacket. When we ventured outside as the time drew near, we had to find creative ways for her to stay warm, like standing in a phone booth to block the wind.

Finally, just before 1am, the elephants approached our spot.


Photo via semyon's flickr.

Unfortunately, my little camera and the lack of light doesn't do this justice, but it was so exciting to watch all the elephants walking trunk to tail so close to us. As they passed, we started walking along toward the subway, and people were running to keep up. Elephants walk surprisingly fast, faster than they look. The whole night, we just heard people randomly yelling (in anticipation, for the arrival, and for the parting) "Elephants!" It was a great experience, feeling that we were part of this New York tradition, waiting with hundreds of other strangers just to see elephants walking in the street. Definitely fun, and definitely worth the lack of sleep. Thank God for coffee!