NYC Skyline, NY Live Cam

The Manhattan skyline stands across the East River from Long Island City, in Queens, where this camera is mounted. Midtown fills the middle of the frame.

The East River is not a river. It is a tidal strait joining Long Island Sound to the harbour, the current reversing about every six hours and running fast enough at Hell Gate to have wrecked ships regularly until the rocks were blasted out in the 1880s.

The blocks the camera stands in were warehouses and factories until the 2000s and now hold more new high-rise flats than anywhere else in the city. The bridge to the left is the Queensboro, opened in 1909.