Last July I was passing through the north end of Fort Tryon Park and noticed a fascinating development in the playground near Dyckman and Broadway. That playground, like many in the city, has splash fountains for kids to cool off in. The FTP fountains though are a little different: a large ring of a dozen or so vertical jets of water that shoot up from holes in the pavement and reach twenty, maybe twenty five feet in the air. they look like decorative jets that you might see in front of the Bellagio in Las Vegas, or in front of a corporate office somewhere.
Anyway, while I was walking by, some kid's big plastic beach-ball rolled into this maelstrom of rising water. The ball was immediately sucked in and hurled upwards, where it stayed suspended near the top of the jet for a surprisingly long time (seemed like a good thirty seconds or so) -- anyway, long enough for the ball's owner to laugh delightedly, and call out to his buddies to take a look.
Before you knew it, one kid's accidental discovery suddenly became a copy-cat sport.
Three or four other kids ran to grab their own inflatable objects (other beach balls, balloons, whatever) and thrust them into the jets. Up they rose, up they stayed: twisting, floating, finally falling. Placing their bare feet over the sprays, the kids then discovered they could alter the force and direction of the water, and begin to control how long the beachballs and balloons remained aloft, how much bobbing and spinning they did, and so on.
It was beautiful, like seeing the watery equivalent of a pipe organ being played by a group of barefoot child musicians. The next evolution will either be world records (longest time aloft, highest reach, etc.) or my personal recommendation: an artistically choreographed waterjet and beachball show.
Any artists out there want to take this on?
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