01
In search of the future
New York still fascinates us enough to make us stay longer than planned. And yet something is missing from the promise of the future that the city embodied for us thirty years ago.
Journeys
America’s East Coast
Four weeks from Washington to Toronto. We seek out familiar images of America — and encounter stories along the way that change how we see the country. Through monuments, cities and New England, all the way to Niagara Falls.
Route
Four weeks from Washington to Toronto
Eleven main destinations, several stops along the way and almost 1,500 miles on the road — through New York and New England to Niagara Falls.
Explore the route and its stopsPhotography
America between skylines and water
Monuments, cities, coastline and, finally, the thundering water of Niagara Falls.
See the photographs from this journeyHighlights
What stayed with us
02
Betsy Ross
We get off at the Betsy Ross House because the courtyard looks like a café — and begin to understand how America turns history into national stories.
03
Watching for buggies
We stake out country roads in our hire car, looking for horse-drawn buggies. Later, we reflect on why the Amish seem so unfamiliar to us and yet command our respect.
04
Good Vibrations
In Provincetown, we find ourselves just outside the mainstream as a straight couple. With Paige Turner and out at sea, we discover how exciting it can be not to be at the centre of things.
05
Niagara Falls from every angle
From America to Canada, from viewpoints, steps, tunnels and twice from a boat: we tried almost every perspective on Niagara Falls. These are the experiences we would plan exactly the same way again.
More to explore
Stucco or exposed concrete
Newport’s mansions bring to mind King Ludwig II of Bavaria and his extravagant palaces. Behind them lies a larger question: what are wealth, history and good taste meant to make visible in our homes?
The spy, the statue and the CIA
Yale commemorates Nathan Hale, and so does the CIA. Yet with no known portrait to work from, the famous statue probably does not really look like him.
The falls reclaimed
Factory buildings, chimneys and thick pipes right on the Niagara Gorge: a historical photograph shows how thoroughly a landscape can be built over — and that it need not stay that way.