COVID Dystopia: As the Scientists Stared in Horror

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This NYC tsunami scene is based on 9/11. The black steeple is Saint Paul’s Chapel downtown which was just a few blocks from the collapsing towers but miraculously was unscathed.

In the early height of the pandemic NYC was ground zero for the unchecked spread of the virus in America. The Republican president at the time offered little help since NYC is known to be a Democratic stronghold. The thought was to let the Democrats die. The policy of denial and minimization however backfired since Republicans began taking no precautions and died like flies. We have surpassed 1.5 million deaths from COVID in America and that number continues to rise. America leads the world in weekly confirmed COVID deaths. According to Our World in Data 890 Americans are dying every week from COVID as of the start of March. On average airlines carry 300 passengers per flight. In terms of the number of deaths,  COVID is still resulting in about 3 airline crashes a week. Yet this is no longer news worthy as the economy is the priority. With an election coming up it is better to ignore the virus, claiming victory than to clean the air in schools and public buildings.

This scene was reanimated to be sure the resolution was high enough for a large movie screen. When I started animating I thought 1920 by 1080 would be a high enough resolution for each scene but I was wrong. Many scenes needed reworking so they are double that resolution.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Saint Paul’s Chapel

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Saint Paul’s Chapel at 209 Broadway (between Fulton and Vesey Streets) New York, N.Y was built in 1766. St. Paul’s was the tallest building in New York when it was finished.  It is Manhattan’s oldest surviving church building. Land for the church was granted by the Queen of Great Britain at the time, Queen Anne, and was designated in the Parish of Trinity Church.

In 1776, during the American Revolution, the Great Fire of New York destroyed one-third of the city. But a bucket brigade saved St. Paul’s.An archivist discovered an ancient bucket int he rafters of the church which could have been from that historic effort.

On April 1789 General George Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States and then went to worship at St. Paul’s Chapel.

The chapel regularly hosts community events, concerts, and art exhibitions. It is open to visitors daily and worship services are held in the chapel every Sunday. Saint Paul’s Chapel welcomes over 1 million visitors every year.

In 2016, the church underwent an extensive restoration to modernize and repair the building. The interior was repainted, and landscaping was added outside. The church got air conditioning installed, repairs to the steeple, and a production room for webcasting.

St. Paul’s Chapel was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and an official New York City Landmark in 1966.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Saint Paul’s Chapel

Posted on by Thor

Saint Paul’s is a chapel building of Trinity Church, an episcopal parish, located at 209 Broadway, between Fulton Street and Vesey Street, in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1766, it is home to an active worshiping community.

Architects of the Chapel were  Andrew Gautier, James Crommelin Lawrence, and possibly Thomas McBean.

When it first opened in 1766 as an outreach chapel of Trinity Church to better serve its expanding congregation, St. Paul’s was a “chapel-of-ease” for those who did not want to walk a few blocks south along unpaved streets to Trinity. A decade later, the Great Fire of 1776 destroyed the first Trinity Church, but St. Paul’s survived, thanks to a bucket brigade dousing the building with water.

On April 30, 1789, after Washington took the oath of office to become the first President of the United States, he made his way from Federal Hall on Wall Street to St. Paul’s Chapel, where he attended services. He worshiped her often afterwards while NYC was the nation’s capitol.

On September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center buildings collapsed just across the street, yet there was no damage to St. Paul’s, earning it the nickname “the little chapel that stood.” St. Paul’s became the site of an extraordinary, round-the-clock relief ministry for the rescue and recovery workers that lasted nine months.

Tamid: The Downtown Synagogue has held services in St. Paul’s Chapel since 2012, and the chapel frequently hosts interfaith prayer events.

St. Paul’s Chapel, is the oldest public building in continuous use in New York City.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Saint Paul’s Church

Posted on by Thor

Built in 1766, Saint Paul’s Chapel  is the oldest surviving church building in Manhattan. It is a chapel building of Trinity Church, an episcopal parish, built on land granted by Anne, Queen of Great Britain. Saint Paul’s is located at 209 Broadway, between Fulton Street and Vesey Street, in Lower Manhattan, New York City.

Built of Manhattan mica-schist, St. Paul’s has a classical portico, boxy proportions and domestic details that are characteristic of Georgian churches.  The church’s octagonal spire rises from a square base.

The church has historically been attributed to Thomas McBean, a Scottish architect. Recent documentation published by historian John Fitzhugh Millar suggests architect Peter Harrison may have instead been responsible for the structure’s design.

Upon completion in 1766, the church was the tallest building in New York City. It stood in a field some distance from the growing port city to the south and was built as a “chapel-of-ease” for parishioners who thought the mother church inconvenient to access.

The Hearts of Oak, militia unit organized early in the American Revolutionary War, was composed in part of King’s College students, who would drill in the Chapel’s yard before classes nearby. Alexander Hamilton was an officer of this unit. The chapel survived the Great New York City Fire of 1776 when a quarter of New York City (then confined to the lower tip of Manhattan), including Trinity Church, burned following the British capture of the city after the Battle of Long Island during the American Revolutionary War.

George Washington, along with members of the United States Congress, worshiped at St. Paul’s Chapel on his Inauguration Day, April 30, 1789. Washington also attended services at St. Paul’s during the two years New York City was the country’s capital. Above Washington’s pew is an 18th-century oil painting of the Great Seal of the United States, adopted in 1782.

The rear of St. Paul’s Chapel faces Church Street, opposite the east side of the World Trade Center site. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, which led to the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, St. Paul’s Chapel served as a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers at the WTC site. For eight months, hundreds of volunteers worked 12-hour shifts around the clock, serving meals, making beds, counseling and praying with fire fighters, construction workers, police and others. Massage therapists, chiropractors, podiatrists and musicians also tended to their needs. The church survived without even a broken window. Church history declares it was spared by a miracle sycamore tree on the northwest corner of the property that was hit by falling debris. The tree’s root has been preserved in a bronze memorial by sculptor Steve Tobin.

In 1960, the chapel was named a National Historic Landmark; it was also made a New York City Landmark and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. When St. Paul’s Chapel remained standing after the September 11, 2001, attacks and the collapse of the World Trade Center behind it, the chapel was subsequently nicknamed “The Little Chapel That Stood”.