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Truck driver builds a model of New York City with over 800,000 buildings, now a museum exhibit

Truck driver builds a model of New York City with over 800,000 buildings, now a museum exhibit

C2🇨🇳 中文 → 🇺🇸 English

September 18th, 2026

Truck driver builds a model of New York City with over 800,000 buildings, now a museum exhibit

C2
Please note: This article has been simplified for language learning purposes. Some context and nuance from the original text may have been modified or removed.

🇺🇸 English

For more than two decades, truck driver Joe McCann has devoted his spare time to meticulously constructing an elaborate scale model of his hometown, New York City, using balsa wood and foam board as his materials.

二十余载以来，卡车司机乔·麦肯利用闲暇时光，以轻木与泡沫板为材，精心构筑了一座宏大的家乡纽约市比例模型。

Once it was completed, his daughter persuaded him to showcase this sprawling subterranean behemoth—encompassing more than 800,000 structures—on TikTok.

竣工之后，他的女儿说服他将这处蔓延无度的地下室巨构——囊括逾80万座建筑——呈现于TikTok之上。

These video clips went viral almost instantaneously.

这些影像片段几乎转瞬之间便引爆了热度。

Today, McCann's model is on display at the Museum of the City of New York.

如今，麦肯的模型正在纽约市博物馆展出。

After witnessing his TikTok video amass more than 10 million views within a single week, the museum promptly reached out to him.

博物馆方面在目睹其TikTok视频于一周内斩获逾1000万次观看后，旋即与他取得了联系。

The exhibition, titled "He Built This City," opened in February along Manhattan's Museum Mile, adjacent to Central Park, and will run through October 12.

这场名为“他建造了这座城市”的展览于2月在毗邻中央公园的曼哈顿博物馆大道揭幕，并将持续至10月12日。

"I never actually harboured any real intention of completing it, because the very process of building it was far too captivating in itself," he remarked during a recent visit to the exhibition.

“我实则从未真正萌生过将其竣工的念头，因为搭建它的过程本身太过引人入胜了，”他在近日参观展览时如是说道。

Elizabeth Sherman, the museum's chief curator, observed that this model is nothing short of a rare masterpiece, whose allure is capable of captivating social media devotees while equally winning over traditional museum audiences.

博物馆首席策展人伊丽莎白·谢尔曼指出，此模型堪称一件稀世之作，其魅力既能俘获社交媒体拥趸，亦能赢得传统博物馆受众的青睐。

"I often sense that people yearn to embrace the entire city—a city that can never truly be known, never fully grasped—and a bird's-eye view is precisely one way of beholding it," she remarked.

“我时常感到，人们总渴望将整座城市拥入怀中——这座无从被真正了解、无从被彻底掌握的城市，而鸟瞰，恰恰是观照它的一种方式，”她说道。

"Nowadays, few works can reach every individual in such a manner. We are captivated by the energy it unleashes."

“如今，鲜有作品能以这般方式触及每一个人。我们迷恋于它所激发的那股能量。”

All five boroughs, together with several areas of New Jersey and the Long Island suburbs, are laid out at street-level detail across more than three hundred large foam panels, joined to one another like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

全部五个行政区，连同新泽西州及长岛郊区的若干区域，皆以街道级别的精细程度铺陈于三百余块大型泡沫板之上，彼此衔接，宛若拼图。

The entire model measures fifty feet (fifteen metres) in length and nearly thirty feet (nine metres) in width, with each inch upon it corresponding to roughly one hundred and sixty feet (forty-nine metres) in reality.

整座模型长五十英尺（十五米），宽近三十英尺（九米），其上每一英寸约相当于实际的一百六十英尺（四十九米）。

The vast majority of these more than eight hundred thousand structures are fashioned from balsa wood, and their sheer typological diversity is nothing short of encyclopedic, encompassing everything from the soaring skyscrapers that tower over Manhattan to the unassuming single-family homes of Queens, and extending even to such landmarks as the Statue of Liberty, Yankee Stadium, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

这八十余万座建筑大多以轻木构筑，其类型之繁复，自曼哈顿巍峨耸立的摩天大楼，至皇后区质朴无华的独栋住宅，乃至自由女神像、洋基体育场与布鲁克林大桥诸般地标，可谓包罗万象，应有尽有。

McCann claims that the inspiration for this model can be traced back to a visit he made during his elementary school years to the Queens Museum, where he saw the "Panorama of the City of New York" — a celebrated scale model built for the 1964–1965 World's Fair, complete with an overhead helicopter-pod ride.

麦肯声称，这一模型的灵感可追溯至其小学时代一次造访皇后区博物馆、参观“纽约市全景模型”的经历——那是一座为1964至1965年世界博览会而建造的著名比例模型，并配备有头顶直升机式吊舱游览设施。

Yet it was not until more than four decades had elapsed that this Queens native truly set about putting the idea into practice—by which time McCann and his young family had only just relocated from Long Island to the Albany area of upstate New York.

然而，直至四十余载光阴逝去，这位皇后区土生土长的本地人才真正着手付诸实践——彼时，麦肯与其年幼的家人方才从长岛迁至纽约州北部的奥尔巴尼一带。

"I suppose that, deep down in my subconscious, I may have grown fond of New York," he said.

“我想，在潜意识深处，我或许是对纽约心生眷恋了，”他说道。

Using basic materials from hobby shops, McCann set to work on Rockefeller Center and its iconic main building, “30 Rock.”

麦肯凭借爱好商店中的基础材料，自洛克菲勒中心及其标志性的主楼“30 Rock”着手。

Setting out from this point, he devoted roughly a decade to gradually building up Midtown Manhattan; yet the Empire State Building, with its magnificent Art Deco spire, proved to be the most challenging element of all.

自此发轫，他历时约十载，逐步构筑起曼哈顿中城；而帝国大厦及其装饰艺术风格之华美尖顶，则被证实为其中最具挑战性的一环。

"I long to refine it to a state of consummate perfection," Mackay said.

“我渴望将其雕琢至尽善尽美之境，”麦肯说道。

"The world will surely gaze upon it in awe."

“世人必将凝眸注视。”

Macken possessed absolutely no background whatsoever in model-making, architecture, or design.

麦肯全然不具备模型制作、建筑或设计方面的任何背景。

He joked that his closest brush with any of it was building with Lego and Lincoln Logs as a child.

他戏谑道，自己与之最为相近的经历，莫过于孩提时代搭建乐高与林肯积木。

Yet as the build progressed, Macken grew ever swifter and ever more efficient.

然而，随着制作的不断深入，麦肯变得愈发迅捷、愈发高效。

"How I wish I had embarked on this twenty years ago, for I know full well how utterly absorbed I would have become in it," he remarked.

“我多么希望自己能在二十年前就着手此事，因为我深知自己会如此沉醉其中，”他说道。

"Nowadays, certain structures I can execute with my eyes closed, whereas when I was first starting out, I had to expend hours upon hours."

“如今，某些建筑于我而言已然闭目可成，而当初起步之际，我却不得不耗费数小时之久。”

McCann candidly admitted that he had poured nearly every spare moment of his time into this model.

麦肯坦言，他几近将所有闲暇时光悉数倾注于这个模型之上。

When the whole family decamped to the New Jersey shore at the height of summer, he would bring the building materials along with him; and in the intervals between driving his bus on weekends, he likewise never failed to set to work on the model.

盛夏时节阖家赴新泽西海岸度假之际，他会随身携带制作材料；而每逢周末驾驶巴士的间隙，他亦不忘着手制作模型。

"This is precisely the sort of thing I find utterly irresistible," he remarked.

“此乃那种令我欲罢不能之事，”他说道。

Mackenzie remarked that, as the model neared completion, it became all the more all-consuming.

麦肯表示，随着模型趋近竣工，它愈发令人全身心投入。

"Before going to bed, there are times when I am already utterly exhausted, yet I still end up squandering four hours there, slumped over the desk in a deep sleep," he said.

“就寝之前，我有时已然疲惫至极，却终究还是在那里耗上四个小时，伏在桌上沉沉睡去，”他说道。

"After that, it became somewhat serious.

“其后便有些严重了。

It was an obsession.

那是一种痴迷。

And it remains so to this day."

如今依然如此。”

This model is by no means an exact snapshot of the modern metropolis.

此模型并非现代大都市的精确快照。

In the miniature Queens, what McCann has recreated is the restaurant he cherished most in his childhood, rather than the modern high-rises that now stand on that site.

在微缩的皇后区中，麦肯所重现的，乃是自己童年最为钟爱的餐馆，而非如今矗立其址的现代高楼。

He has likewise retained the old Kosciuszko Bridge linking Brooklyn and Queens, even though it was demolished in 2017 and replaced by a new span.

他亦保留了连接布鲁克林与皇后区的旧科斯丘什科桥，尽管该桥已于2017年遭拆除，并为新桥所取代。

In Lower Manhattan, the Twin Towers of the former World Trade Center still stand within McCann's miniature Gotham, keeping silent vigil, even though One World Trade Center — erected after the terrorist attacks of 2001 — and other resplendent clusters of skyscrapers tower alongside them.

在曼哈顿下城，昔日世贸中心的双子塔仍旧矗立于麦肯的微型哥谭之中，默然守望，尽管其侧畔亦巍然耸立着2001年恐怖袭击之后兴建的世贸中心一号大楼及其他熠熠生辉的摩天楼群。

"I have preserved for myself many urban territories that are mine alone," McCann said.

“我为自己留存了诸多属于我个人的城市疆域，”麦肯说道。

"Purely for myself."

“纯粹为我自己。”

On a recent weekday morning, visitors streamed in an unbroken procession into the ground-floor exhibition hall.

在最近一个工作日的上午，参观者络绎不绝地步入一楼展厅。

They made their way to the edge of the raised platform, scanning for familiar landmarks or traces of bygone neighbourhoods.

他们行至高台边缘，寻觅着熟悉的地标或旧日街区的踪影。

A few availed themselves of the binoculars provided on site so as to obtain a clearer view, whereas the majority merely squinted and gestured toward the distance.

少数人取用现场备置的双筒望远镜，以求视野更为明晰；而大多数人则不过是眯缝着眼，向远处指点比划罢了。

Jonathan Skolnick stationed himself at the corner of the model nearest to Lower Manhattan, and from there embarked upon a tracing of his family's historical trajectory across the five boroughs, while his son Tosa listened with rapt attention.

乔纳森·斯科尔尼克伫立于模型中最毗邻曼哈顿下城的那一隅，就此展开对其家族在这五个行政区中历史脉络的追溯，而其子托沙则凝神聆听。

Jonathan proceeded to point out, one by one, the site of his father's first foothold in America—situated in Manhattan's Lower East Side, adjacent to the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge; the neighborhood in Queens where he himself was born; and the cemetery in which numerous family members lie buried.

乔纳森逐一指明了他父亲在美洲的首个落脚之处——坐落于曼哈顿下东城、毗邻威廉斯堡大桥桥脚；以及他本人降生于皇后区的那片街区；还有诸多家族成员长眠其间的墓园。

"I am attempting to accomplish this entirely by relying on memory," said the individual, who resides in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

“我正试图全然仰赖记忆来成就此事，”这位栖身于华盛顿特区都会区的人士说道。

"Not entirely accurate."

“并非全然准确无误。”

After toiling away in obscurity for a lifetime, McCann harbored the hope that, once the museum exhibition drew to a close on Columbus Day, some other venue might yet put the model on display.

在默默无闻地辛勤耕耘了一生之后，麦肯期望，当博物馆展览于哥伦布日落下帷幕时，能有别处展出这个模型。

At the same time, he eagerly anticipates the addition of more than fifty new buildings and the extension of the model's territory to New Jersey and Long Island.

与此同时，他翘首以盼再添五十余座新建筑，并将模型版图拓展至新泽西与长岛。

I would kindly urge you to head over to https://x.com/philmarcelo and give your attention to Philip Marcelo.

恳请移步 https://x.com/philmarcelo 予以关注菲利普·马塞洛

September 18th, 2026

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