NEW YORK — The Police Department said a large balloon flew over the city Sunday, the first day of a two-day project to measure the heights of the city’s buildings.
Police said the balloon was aloft about nine hours in lower Manhattan and is expected to fly more than 13 hours Monday in midtown.
Police said the balloon would be about 800 feet in the air as it collected data for a private architectural firm that is conducting height surveys of Manhattan buildings.
Sunday’s flight came on the clear day when many New Yorkers were showing off their best spring outfits in the annual Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue. The New York parade began in the 1880s as a strolling display of Easter finery.
Attire included pastel suits and dresses, and traditional hats, as well as some zany costumes.
On Sunday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York celebrated Easter Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral amid massive construction scaffolding at the altar. The church is undergoing a $175 million project to fix cracks and clean walls darkened by decades of soot and pollution.
Dolan prayed for the young people who died in the South Korean ship sinking, as well as two New York children who perished in a fire on Saturday.
The Easter weekend observances started Friday when Dolan, bearing a wooden cross, led thousands of faithful across the Brooklyn Bridge.