As we meander our way back across the US to Minnesota (we’re currently in Ohio) I’m still reminiscing about what an enlightening two weeks we had in New York City! Some incredible work was done on HardFork and amazing memories were made.

My brother, Curt, works for Saks Fifth Avenue and we’ve been trying to arrange a trip to the city for years and it finally happened last week. Curt treated us to an awe-inspiring behind the scenes tour of the flagship Saks Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan.

The store was built in the 1920’s, and although the public areas of the store have been updated, many of the employee areas have not. We were escorted by my brother and Saks’ chief engineer through a labyrinth of hallways and secret elevators to the rooftop for some stunning views of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and Rockefeller Center.

Aside from the million dollar views from the rooftop, we saw many incredible sights on the inside, including -- an original DC electric motor that helped power the store almost a century ago...the cork-lined fur vault, where rich socialites stored their valuable furs during the summer months, private showrooms for celebrity shoppers, as well as the HVAC equipment that keeps Saks’ flagship store comfortable for its well-heeled clientele.

Next came what was probably the most unique sights of them all, an elevator large enough to carry a semi truck (with trailer) down to the basement loading dock. This was truly a marvel of engineering.

Here are some still photos of the elevator as well as a video of the lift in action.

Next came a self-guided tour of Saint Patrick's Cathedral. We could almost imagine the Kennedys worshipping on Sunday as an explosion of color filtered through the stained glass windows.

Last but not least, we hopped onto the subway to the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn to tour the new @sndbox headquarters. Just look at that intricate tile work on those subway walls.

It was so nice to hear more about current and future @sndbox initiatives and have a fun and inspiring conversation with @voronoi, @hansikhouse, and @natureofbeing. @natureofbeing just happened to be in the city for work and it was a pleasure to finally meet her face-to-face.

Our conversation just reinforced my belief in the power of Steemit and @sndbox as a whole. These are great people, doing great work, and I urge you all to follow and support them.

@natureofbeing, Me, @voronoi, @hansikhouse, and @dougkarr.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Have a great week everyone!

(Please Note: In an effort to combat spam/bot comments I will soon begin downvoting/flagging these types of comments in my post responses. Spamming is NOT the way to prosper on Steemit, creating interesting content is. These spam comments are negatively affecting this platform and I'm going to begin to do my part to help, I urge you all to do the same.)

Yours in the Chain,

Eric

Please follow our official Steemit account for the film series @hardfork-series. Did you miss our last post? If so CLICK HERE to read it!

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