2. George Washington Bridge

Still June 5

I'm still running on the thrill of having my first lock down, but I want more. It's somewhat early in the evening and I live near one of the locks. I had planned on saving that toward the end since I knew I could definitely get it, but I also didn't want to wait forever for my next unlocking, so I headed up to the George Washington Bridge.

The book detailed the lock being at the third gate, and I suppose in my quest for adventure, I entirely overlooked the first pair of gates you walk through on the pedestrian walkway of the bridge. Having overlooked this, I headed out to what is in actuality the fourth gate (and fifth and sixth - unlike the first sets of gates, these were all individual which was red flag #1). This was farther on the path (red flag #2) than I anticipated being, and directly in the line of view of the security guard stationed on the bridge (red flag #3). It also led to some potentially dangerous areas (red flag #4). After trying - in vain - to open some of these very wrong gates, I ask the watchman if he knows where the gate is, and he sends me back the way I came.

Shortly after, I see the gate - the exact same one as pictured. I also see the lock and come to a number of realizations.

-The gate pictured in the passport is the gate that contains the padlock. I assume (correctly) that all the photos included in the passport are of the exact location of the lock.
-Unless I can't count in adventure mode, the lock was at the second set of gates, not the third. (It turned out to be the former - I passed the overlooked third set on my way back).
-Upon unlocking the padlock...the padlock unlocked. The padlock the Key went to was merely attached to an already open gate. I understand why - some areas were probably harder to get full access to for random strangers to unlock that others (can you imagine giving free reign to thousands of people to close and open one of only two pedestrian walkways on a bridge that saw both foot and bike (and of course in the street, vehicular) traffic? Or worse, access to the earlier mentioned Scary Areas?). However, there was still a little something anticlimactic about this one. Probably mostly because I couldn't leave a note, or at least not one that wouldn't get blown away or destroyed in the rain.

Ah well. I again encountered no one while unlocking - though did see a few people with the passports heading up right as I reached the base of the footpath. The sight of others on my mission cleared away any grievances and brought back into the line of fire the important part:

2 locks down. 22 to go.