U.S. News

Tuesday, Nov. 17, 1998 Associated Press

Glenn returns to Canyon of Heroes

Pioneer astronaut's first N.Y. ticker-tape parade, in 1962, largest ever

Associated Press

   NEW YORK - In a swirl of confetti and shredded paper, John Glenn made his second trip through New York's Canyon of Heroes in a parade Monday saluting his return to space 36 years after he became America's first man in orbit.
   Dressed in a blue flight suit and perched in an open convertible beside his wife, Annie, the 77-year-old pioneering astronaut was applauded by a crowd of thousands who lined the 14-block route along the office towers of lower Broadway.
   "It truly rates the word awesome," Glenn said at a ceremony after the parade at City Hall, where he and other crew members of the shuttle Discovery were presented with keys to the city by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
   Glenn's first ticker-tape parade on March 1, 1962 after his Mercury flight is considered the largest ever in New York. An estimated 3,474 tons of confetti and ticker-tape rained down along a seven-mile route.
   Police said Glenn's parade was attended by 500,000 - a figure that appeared generously inflated.
   Glenn, who retires from the U.S. Senate next month, joins a list of individuals and sports teams honored with more than one ticker-tape parade. Others given that tribute include the New York Mets and New York Yankees, former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, Dwight Eisenhower and Amelia Earhart.
   

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