Furthest Distance you've seen the Philadelphia Skyline and the Roxbourgh Antenna Farm (Washington: power lines, pollution)

[drive carephilly]

Originally Posted by Leon2014

Comcast tower 974 feet
WTC observation deck 1250 feet

That comes out to 67 miles miles max to see just the tip. So it's not even close. The viewing points would have to be at least 3200 feet high combined to have line of sight at 80 miles.

The top of the tower would represent only 0.02 degrees (72 arcseconds) at 80 miles. About the same as looking at planet Venus with the naked eye. Way way way out of the range of what the human eye can resolve without optics.

I think you might be overplaying this a bit.

On a clear day you can plainly make out different buildings on the Philly skyline from the Delaware Memorial Bridge or from the Delaware River-Turnpike Toll Bridge. The Del Mem Br is at least 30 miles and the deck is only 180 ft. up. If you put another 10 miles in between the city isn't going to disappear from sight.

The problem with being able to see stuff at a good distance is being there on the right day. Visibility sucks - and not just because of particulate pollution but also because it's a pretty humid part of the world. But that doesn't mean that if you're not up in the Comcast tower or Liberty Place on a clear winter night with a good northwesterly breeze blowing that you're not going to be able to see some pretty far away stuff.

[JonasNewsch]

Originally Posted by Clark Park

Can the Philly Skyline be seen from any of the office or apartment towers in Wilmington, DE?

I heard the skyline can be seen from the top of the Rollins building located on Route 202. I'm not sure about the downtown Wilmington buildings. I would assume the skyline can be seen from the tallest Wilmington building, the Chase Manhattan Center as well.

[jennifercheswold]

You can see the skyline on a very clear day from the 276 Pennsylvania Turnpike Bridge around Bristol, PA

[Sammy215267]

With the new CITC building being built do you think the skyline will be more visible then it is now esp. from further distances ?

[Leon2014]

Originally Posted by drive carephilly

But that doesn't mean that if you're not up in the Comcast tower or Liberty Place on a clear winter night

That's the thing. When 2 objects are so far away, and curvature of the earth comes into play, most of the optical path will travel very close to the ground, where the dirt, pollution and air temperature whirlwinds create too much optical distortion.

[kidphilly]

Germantown Pike at just South of 363 in Montgomery county

[kidphilly]

I swear I have seen what looked like the tops of the building over the trees heading on 95 South in NJ just before crossing the Scudders Fall bridge back into to PA - at the beginning of the downslope just past the Trenton Airport - it has to be very clear and is only for an instant - I always think it is but am never sure

[ChuckG2008]

Very interesting discussion! Especially regarding seeing the Comcast building from the top of the new WTC. Unlike when you try to see the Philly skyline from somewhere in interior PA, the terrain is almost completely flat from NYC to center city Philly. That'd make me think that from the very top floor of One WTC, one could at least faintly make out the top of the Philly skyline

[eastwestcoast]

Originally Posted by kidphilly

I swear I have seen what looked like the tops of the building over the trees heading on 95 South in NJ just before crossing the Scudders Fall bridge back into to PA - at the beginning of the downslope just past the Trenton Airport - it has to be very clear and is only for an instant - I always think it is but am never sure

I can confirm this is true. You can see the top of the Comcast Center and that's about it, but it was definitely there a few weeks ago when I was driving down on a clear winter day.

[jocta282]

On a very clear day, I see the tips of of the Philly skyline from the highest point on the Saint George's Cable Stayed bridge in Delaware (Route 1). I might be mistaking the tips of the industrial landscape along the Delaware River, but I am certain the tips of Comcast, One Liberty/two liberty, and Mellon Bank are visible from this vantage point. The measured distance is about 38 miles