America's 234th birthday was celebrated with a gorgeous display of fireworks. Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular was over the Hudson River for a second year in a row, drawing thousands of people to the West Side Highway to see 40,000 shells explode in 26 minutes from six barges. And while some people were disappointed the fireworks weren't over the East River again, these photographs (above) and this video (below) show that the pyrotechnics could even be seen from Brooklyn and Queens.
Thank you to the Gothamist readers who shared their beautiful photographs and videos! And if you were curious what these fireworks look like before they are shot into the air, we got a behind-the-scenes look last week.
