Best dramatic approach by car
 

Any takers? The only ones I could think of are:<BR><BR>Approach to New York from the Queensborough Bridge.<BR><BR>Approach to San Francisco from Golden Gate or Oakland Bay Bridge.<BR><BR>Driving into Monument Valley.<BR><BR>Driving into Las Vegas at night.

Boston from Mystic River Bridge.

Washington DC, sort of, from George Washington Parkway onto Roosevelt Bridge.<BR>View from Memorial Bridge is full of the Lincoln Memorial, but you don't get the panorama of the city as much. Unlike most cities, also, DC looks pretty good as you approach it from the south on the train.

Not sure of names of streets but:<BR><BR>approaching Los Angeles from the Hollywood Hills<BR>panaramic view of LA is amazing.

Coming over the hill from Nevada and seeing Lake Tahoe below you.

Not a city, but driving through the barren boring desert and coming over the hill, it all looks like a moonscape-and there spread out before you is Lake Mead.<BR>The bluest water, in the middle of that dry dull desert!

Yosemite Valley via the Wawona Tunnel.

I agree with emerging from the Waldo Tunnel in Marin to face the Golden Gate Bridge and SF behind it, best on a foggy day when the bridge is partly obscured - amazing. Also I like Seattle as you cross Lake Washington on I-90, go through the Mt. Baker tunnel and emerge to the downtown skyline and the end of the Interstate - all the way from Boston it comes to end at a baseball park. How cool is that?<BR><BR>Also I think it's the Eisenhower Expressway (I-290?) in Chicago where you drive toward that awesome skyline and then under the Post Office and over the river, boom.<BR><BR>And what about crossing Memorial Bridge into Washington DC, past the Lincoln Monument and onto the Mall?<BR><BR>My fave non-city vista, though, is climbing a low rise westbound on I-90 in South Dakota, to be confronted with the Missouri River spread out below, looking like a sea in the prairie. Whoa.

Much smaller city, but the approach to Cincinnatti from Kentucky's I-71 is amazing. The metro Cincy airport is actually in northern Kentucky (across the Ohio River).

"Approach to New York from the<BR>Queensborough Bridge".<BR>You can't see much from the streets approaching the bridge and when crossing the bridge there is little to see in front of you and what you can see clearly is to the north and that isn't anything to write home about.<BR>Are you sure you don't mean driving over the George Washington Bridge to the city with its great view of the downtown skyline.

Leaving Manhattan by way of the Throgs Neck bridge will give you an incredible view of the NYC skyline.

I was surprised at the nice view on entering Pittsburgh via the Fort Pitt tunnel.<BR><BR>Actually, I think the best view of New York is from the New Jersey Turnpike, Newark Bay extension, between exits 14A and 14B. You can see the Statue of Liberty and from the tip of Manhattan to well past the Empire State building. At night it is spectacular.<BR><BR>Sadly, what is missing from that view makes the drive even more more poignant.

ryan-the view from North Bergen,NJ and Guttenburg along the Palisades gives you a closer and breathtaking view! And you are so right, what is missing breaks your heart each time you look.

NJgirl, I don't disagree that the view from Weehawken, et al is great. However, in the context of the question, from those areas, you're not technically approaching the city in my mind. Once you get down by JFK Blvd and the entrance to 495, the view by the tunnel isn't great.

The Million Dollar highway from Silverton to Ouray, CO. You go over the crest of the mountain and there in the valley is the quaint town of Ouray.<BR><BR>I don't know the road number but you go out the east entrance of Custer State Park toward Mt. Rushmore. You go through several tunnels and as you look in the distance Mt. Rushmore is framed by the tunnel.

ryan-<BR>Unless you are approaching the GWB to approach NYC by way of Weehawken ;o)

Great topic!<BR><BR>I wish I had something as dramatic to share as some of the posts above. The best I can do is:<BR><BR>New Mexcio: Approaching the Rio Grande Gorge on (I believe) Highway 84 heading west (toward Abiquiu). It's relatively flat desert and then as you hit the bridge you see the ground fall away into a huge gorge--breathtaking and unexpected view.<BR><BR>Much less dramatic, but interesting anyway is the drive on Highway 52, heading North from Winston-Salem, NC. You get some nice views of a lone mountain (Pilot Mountain, crowned with a huge rock dome), that becomes larger and larger as you head right for it. And if you drive up to the park on top, after a long winding climb through the trees, you finally get a great, nearly 360 degree view of the surrounding low-land, a patchwork quilt of farms, pastures, and forest. If you continue on, you go right by the base of Pilot Mountain on 52, and then proceed on 77 North to the Blue Ridge Mountains, which come into view piece-meal at gaps in the roadside tress, until finally they seem to fill the sky.

This one is a little obscure, but it takes your stomach away. Outside of Taos, New Mexico is the Royal Gorge bridge. You are driving along in the desert, looking at the flat, dry land that goes on forever when you approach a bridge. You have no idea how deep the canyon is until you look down while driving over it. It is a 700 foot drop to a scenic river in the base of the canyon. <BR><BR>Just did it for the 2nd time last week, and I had the same reaction as 13 years ago.

Driving east on I-70 out of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Mountains, mountains, mountains, then at a certain point you come over a small rise to see the plains stretching flat ahead of you, all the way to Kansas, with Denver in front. Then you see the sign that says (I'm paraphrasing): "Truckers, beware, you still have 4.5 miles of steep, winding roads to go." As if to say - you're not on those plains yet.

I agree with the approach to Pittsburgh through the Fort Pitt Bridge. Also driving through the Florida Keys, especially crossing the 7 Mile Bride and the Bahia Honda bridges, the views are spectacular.