The Telectroscope

I wish it would have been here permanently. They could easily make it a paid attraction. It was the first time I did anything like this. Since then I have called people and waved from web cams. But this was just too cool and so much fun!
I e-​mailed people in London to meet me at a certain time in front of the
Telectroscope and they did. Look at the picture I have. It is priceless. It is a family in London and see the bridge in the background!
I wish it would come back!

Really cool… until some schlub in London wrote something profane on the white board. Now you just wave at the people via the screen. Bummer…

Location: Few steps away from the pier with Brooklyn Icecream Factory. Next to the Brooklyn Bridge.
No. the golden drill smashed into the boardwalk isn;t REALLY a telescope straight to London but that’s basically the whole concept.
When we got up there. we heard waving gets overrated so we did the next best thing. put long hair infront of face and tilt head down. One guy in London side just calmly filmed the whole thing. I just stared straight at the people. Besides a girl in tie dye with hulahoops. nobody outrageous came by but it was definitely a cool very cheese smile joy worthy experience.
It ended this Sunday (BOO! Come back) but If I had the funds and power. I would pop these up everywhere!

The Telectroscope is an extremely amusing social experiment. What do you do when you can see people, but can’t talk to them? Answer: wave like a goofball! Mouth things, and point a lot! Make up your own dialect of sign language!
The Fulton Ferry Landing is basically my front yard, so I wandered downstairs the other day to have an ice cream and see what all the hullabaloo was about. There were maybe 10 or so people in front of the Telectroscope, trying desperately to communicate with the Telectroscope-​goers in London. I just stood there with my vanilla chocolate-​chunk and watched the madness.
As it turns out, waving gets old pretty quickly – you wave, smile awkwardly, and wave again because you don’t know what else to do, but feel like you haven’t been there long enough to just turn around and leave. It’s only human nature to want to talk to people you can see (and who can see you), so of course everyone was trying to call the Londoners. I looked on for at least 15 minutes as everyone attempted to sign or write out their cell numbers (who knows the country code here?), or transcribe the cell numbers that those across the pond were attempting to sign. All to no avail. It was kind of sad, really. Sad and also absurd. And awesome.
I can only imagine, though, what everyone in London was thinking about me – who is that creepy girl with the ice cream just staring at us? Why doesn’t she want to talk to us? Americans are CRAZY!

The Telectroscope is like Skypeing with folks from London… only without sound. And that, I think, brings out the creativity (and silliness) in people. We’ve watched people trade dance moves and there’s this man (NY side) who was trying to suggest to a Londoner to give him their cellphone number so he could call them. I wonder if anyone has snagged a date while the Telectroscope was there. There’re these ladies who are so dedicated in watching this thing– from cleaning the glass, to lighting the area at night, not to mention, entertaining people at the other end when Fulton Ferry Landing is empty. Yes, this is open 24/​7, rain or shine and free of charge. The Telectroscope will be there till the 15^th of June, so hurry!
Date of Visit: 6÷04÷08

Sunny in Brooklyn, rainy in London. Suckers!
Check the website for closings.

In 19^th century London, a crackpot Victorian engineer named Alexander Stanhope St. George dreamed up an undersea tunnel to serve as a speedy traffic conduit from London to New York. (He hated travel by boat)
His traffic corridor was never realized, but his enterprising great grandson Paul St. George recently discovered the mysterious blueprints of his great-grandfather’s incomplete dig. The younger St. George has installed fiberoptic cables running under the Atlantic, through the completed tunnel, from the Brooklyn Bridge to London’s Tower Bridge, allowing New Yorkers and Londoners to greet each other in real time, across the pond!
St. George’s story is so intriguing and fanciful – and it really is quite a marvel to wave at our friends over in London and see them wave back. In fact, it’s so much fun to tickle our brains with St. George’s fantasy, don’t you dare think for a second about skype, cellphones, the internet, streaming video or other inventions of our non-​Victorian age, or your creeping doubts may just ruin this enchanting tale.
Go see it for yourself, until June 15^th.