Connecting the Show with Reality (beware): Landmarks

[Aska_Badoura]

I downloaded Google Earth the other day... and promptly got stuck for hours. It's not like I didn't have anything better to do, but I got distracted, and... this looks like I have too much time on my hands. I don't, I just made time anyway. :p Okay, some useless facts that might be interesting:

I was drifting around the various lakes and ponds in Central Park, just to see if the pond in the show is a real place. I discovered that the structure the Turtles are living under is Belvedere Castle, after I noted the name on the map and then did an image search for it. (Of course, I'd heard of it, but didn't know it well enough to recognize it by sight). The drawing is not completely accurate: it's grown some windows, lost others, and towers have rearranged themselves, but it's still pretty obvious it's supposed to be Belvedere Castle, I think. The castle is host to a weather station, and the Henry Luce Nature Observatory.



Now, I think they chose to put the Turtles in this location, because it's a cute reference: the name of the body of water is Turtle Pond!

The castle's on the upper left of the lake. The structure across from the castle is the Delacorte Theater, where they host "Shakespeare in the Park".


And I'm sure you'll want to know that in "Prodigal Son", the manhole they went down to get to the reservoir station was on 79th Street.

The only thing that bursts my little bubble: in every photo I've seen, there's been lots of people at the castle, and plunked out there in the grass surrounding the place: in the overhead photo, all those white dots on the shoreside are people's blankets. How the heck do you work the kinks out of, or even use, a blasted retractable helicopter pad without half the city seeing you?! They took a big risk, using it in midday to go fly to Area 51. Heh, never mind air-traffic control...

And if there's ever a drought, I think I read somewhere that the reservoir is the emergency water supply.. what a surprise to find the station lived-in.

I always did have a problem with the guys living somewhere that may have people in it any second... I thought the same of their subway lair in the movies/TNM. It's obviously based on the City Hall subway station (there aren't any others, in reality, that look like that), and, while it had been left alone for several years, they now have tours in it.

Oh, and for you Gargoyles fans: the 23rd Precinct Station of the NYPD is not a clock tower. Darn. Of course, it was rebuilt since the Canmores blew it up, so hey, maybe it does look like that now.

So much for realism. :p