Outside the Empire State Building: Payphone Gone

A couple of months ago I posted some pictures of Empire State Building payphones as seen in February, 2002. Those payphones are long gone. More recently I had a chance to re-visit the payphone outside the Empire State Building, at the northeast corner of 5th Avenue and 34th Street, seen here in a photo from October, 2006:

I had a chance to visit its absence, that is. Nothing is left of this centrally-located payphone save for some metal bolts and holes in the sidewalk and, when I was there, a strip of “CAUTION” tape:

Somewhere up there, somewhere in that mighty tower there must be a payphone at the Empire State Building. I know there used to be. I saw the Empire State Building Observation Deck payphones in July, 2002. But those payphones are gone.