NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2022 Sep 5, 19:36 -0700
Don Seltzer, for my position from the photo, you got:
"Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike (western spur)
40°49’13.52”N
74°02’15.31”W"
Nice. That's spot on the spur! You're certainly dead on in azimuth, but like the last puzzle that ended way down on Sandy Hook, there's greater uncertainty along the line of sight. In this case, the error ellipse is just a few feet wide and maybe 80 feet long, oriented with the long axis of the ellipse running northwest to southeast. My solution for my position is
40°49'13.8"N
74°02'15.7"W,
which is northwest of yours by about 40 feet. I am sure that my position is more nearly where I was because I have additional information which I did not include in the original setup: I was southbound in the left lane.
I solved this one by looking for the match in Google's Street View images. It's possible to get a matching position to about five feet (<2 meters) accuracy. Here's a direct comparison with the skyline from my original image on top and Google Street View below. I can find no differences apart from minor lighting effects and small changes resulting from the different camera altitudes. My photo was taken by holding my phone to the window (while driving) about three feet above grade while the cameras on the Google trucks are around eight feet above road level.
I was able to snap this photo safely because I was adrift in a current. The current was flowing southwest at about 6 knots and carrying me along with it. Normally on this stretch of the concrete river, I can fly along above the current at about 70 knots.
Frank Reed