This, my friends, is how you want to vacation on St. Maartens… With a ginormous metal tube flying 40 feet above your head every 15 minutes as you try to relax on the beach. No, that’s not photoshoped. Other amazing photos of the civil engineering atrocity can be seen here.
[via Kottke]
Smooth Harold is penned by Blake Snow, a freelance writer and new media expert living the good life with a wife and three kids. The site covers what he does for a living, what it's like to be a father, what he thinks about his surroundings, and what he does to entertain himself when not talking in the third person. He can be reached by email.
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May 8th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
You may or may not have noticed this, but St. Martin is a tiny island. I am not a geography expert, but I’m guessing that landing a plane on a tiny island involves flying over a beach at some point. And I’m also going to assume that, since it is a fairly popular international tourist destination and all, there is more beach to enjoy than the 30 foot strip directly underneath the flight path. It almost looks as if the people in the photos might even seem to be enjoying that “civil engineering atrocity.”
May 8th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Revere Beach near Boston is very much like that, except the planes fly parallel to the length of the beach. It’s actually pretty trippy how big the planes are and how slow they look like they’re flying.
December 22nd, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I live on St. Maarten / St. Martin which is a dual nation, small, Caribbean island. This beach is located at the strt of the runway of Princess Juliana International Airport. This beach is called Maho Beach, as it is also the beach of the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort. This picture is taken from the Sunset Beach Bar (where topless ladies drink free). If you want more information about St. Maarten/St. Martin, visit http://www.stmaarten1.com
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I went to st. maartens for the first time last year….it was FANTASTIC! I found the planes going over the beach a surprisingly pleasant thing to watch…. We are taking our two kids there in a couple of weeks and plan on taking them to watch the planes come in! i would totally recommend st. maartens as a place to go for vacation!
May 24th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
14 square miles of land mass, covering 36 square miles of land and water. 85,000 residents and a million tourists a year…put the landing strip anywhere you want, you’re going to end up with the same result when you’re talking about having a land mass that is 3.74 miles by 3.74 miles to work with.