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For people like Norman which are not so rich more than 100 dollars for a ticket from Acela Express in Northeast USA seems not so affordable, also, from Boston to New York City 340 kilometers(211 miles) for 4 hours…umm… may be a bit ridiculous … more worse is that Norman can’t drive in the east coast of USA, so what should Norman do? After the consult by internet for a long time had Norman eventually decided to choose the cheap and fast american bus for the highway. This time Norman decides to take the bus along the east coast, firstly from Boston to New York City, then from New York City to Cherry Hill, at the end from Philadelphia to Washington D.C (by the way stop at Baltmore). We shall firstly look at the history of greyhound, by the time which the greyhound was formely established there were certainly a greyhound. The greyhound bus comes from Greyhound Lines, Inc., this company was founded by the Swedish immigrant Carl and others, at the beginning, the businesses of Sir Carl went not so well, he had worked by a mining company but was fired; then went to sale the cars. In USA, the salesman should firstly buys the car and then sales it. But Sir Carl eventually have not sold his cars successfully…oh, that’s no sense…I should not say that he was not success, at least he has achieved a business, that is, the business to himself! So what he has done later is to think that how he should use the car, in the year 1914 he with other people which I have mentioned to begin the bus service business, the legend of Greyhound start from this time. Originally one ticket is for USD 15 cents, it’s was unimaginable at that time that this is the embryo of the mega bus company which becomes a billion dollars yearly after 100 years. The name Greyhound which was firstly formerly applied by Greyhound line was in 20s of 20 century, greyhound is a kind of dog indeed, in China it’s also called Geli dog, they came from middle-see area. Those dogs have slim bodies, they seems to be the athletes from born, they were always be used to take the race of speed, the maximum speed of dashing for them is 70 kilometer per hour (43.5mph), so that’s the reason why the greyhound line name himself after Greyhound. In the USA, at the beginning of 20th century people were used to take train to connect the cities, but the bus influence the sale of train tickets after world war I by reduce the sale of train tickets. In the year of 1921 there was a campaign about building quality road called “Federal Highway Act of 1921”. That years happened to be the year which the first intercity bus of American highway rolls off the production line. Surprisingly, the survey which the president of Northeast Railway USA carried out was that by the route which bus didn’t operate the trains could also not profit. Because Ford have introduced the production line the cost of cars declined, the people who can drive cars would like to drive cars, those, who didn’t, could take bus, so it’s not strange to get such results. At that time the Northeast Railway seems Ford as a culprit, may be Ford thought that: Why me? ~
Greyhound bus to 1940s and the scenic of repair, the power of the buses of that time is from the combustion engine of Ford.
The greyhound half double decks GX2 scenic cruiser and the Greyhound station at that time, in 1950-60s, these kinds of half double decks was very popular, also in Germany, with one deck at front and two decks at behind.
The scenic of second floor.
The MC-6 Greyhound Bus in the 1970s
The Greyhound MCI 102C3 bus of 1980s, the Greyhound Line Inc. Canada is the same company of Greyhound Line Inc. in USA, the bus service of Canada began about around 1929, and merged with Greyhound Line Inc. in USA in 1935. Then they start the service for Mexico around the year of 1958, but the businesses there are mainly about the connections between USA and Mexico instead of between the stations in Mexico. There are 3 languages on the Greyhound Bus, English, French and maybe the Spanish.
The Greyhound bus nowadays, with seems from outside do not exist so huge differences with his ancestors 30 years before, but with little differences of equipment such as the seat for disabled only, Wi-Fi and the American standard power socket. The bus stops at the special bus stop with waiting room, parking lot, they are in regular.
As the day to take the bus was the day, which Norman flew to the USA from China, Norman had already decided, with the time difference and the information of sunrise and sunset Norman has finally decided to plan the visit programs between 6 am to 11 am and have a rest on the greyhound bus. It took me 2-3 hours to sleep on board, that is the way to save the time of travel and the energy, and you should know that, due to the fee of hotel per night and the cost of traffic, the every minute during your travel worth dollars.
After several hours of “tore off” down the high way the greyhound finally reached the destination—Manhattan Port Authority Station, it’s naturally dash smoothly all the way on the highway and, but the traffic jam was extremely heavy when the coach reach the Manhattan from the North of New York City, when Norman think again about the narrow streets in Manhattan and finally realized that those roads are not so easy to pass by.
Although Norman is not familiar with the total situation of the society of USA, but when you take the Greyhound coach from Boston to New York City and as soon as you have passed the Hudson River at the east side of Manhattan (This river is the wide river and easy to be recognized when the Coach early reach the end) you can see the two different poles clearly of the Manhattan island
As you can see the Manhattan Island from North, even when you not reach the island, you can see the skyscrapers with different contours, and when you first get the north side of the island you can first see the area where poor people live, because of the jam the live there and the disorder streets can be seen clearly.
Then by the time the coach step by step pass more streets you can see the Row upon row of financial buildings with the elites of the world in suit; Finally the coach parks at the South of Manhattan, the place which the real world financial center with World Trade Center, Headquarter of United Nation and Wall Street located. The same thing is that the tall buildings fully occupy the Manhattan and surrounded by “Parking Lot”, but the residents of the buildings are the two poles of the world.
The narrow streets connects north and south of Manhattan, and these streets are used by all the people which struggle for live. The elites and the poor people take the same subway, the glory and the gloomy may just separate from one street. The whole Manhattan is a lively Broadway, and the actors, with different appearances but with the same essence from the root, to perform the stories of everyday from all over the world.
This scenic, is the spectacle of Manhattan, the history of raise and sink have been continuing in Manhattan from at least 100 years ago. After two days of visit in Manhattan (With more introductions from the articles in the future) Norman start to experience the Boltbus, This trip is from the 34 street of New York City to Cherryhill in New Jersey (A village of USA, near Philadelphia).
Compare with Greyhound Line, which specially connect the big cities of USA, the Boltbus seems not be so conscious. The page of Boltbus is very simple, and the whole company with only about ten different routes in Northeast and West Coast. Norman have searched the stop for Coach in the New York City and finally found that the stop was at the terminal of subway 7 at 34 street near the glass house with the simple waiting line like bank, coaches were parked with other cars, it seems like a bus of village, but for the coach itself, it seems to have not huge difference compare from those from Greyhound.
Initially the Boltbus is the branch of Greyhound, it start operation in 2008 so it doesn’t have formal history. Bolt in English means thunder, the fast same meaning like Greyhound: With the sudden of thunder bolt carry you to the destination.
One difference between USA and China is that, the temperature is Fahrenheit but not Celsius, so as the preparation for the travel in USA you can search the transfer form of the Fahrenheit and Celsius and make a screenshot so that you can be clearly in mind when you see the weather forecast, also you know now that what means Norman when Norman says that the temperature of the street is above 80 degree. By this temperature it’s comfortable for people under sunshine to wait for Boltbus, but you’ll soon feel comfortable when you get into Boltbus. |
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