16th and Market Streets: The ladder approach

At 16th and Market, Jim Nicholls had a catbird seat to watch the parade thanks to his own quick thinking.

“I came down and saw what it looked like,” said Nicholls, who works nearby at Elsevier, a medical publisher. “I went upstairs and got a ladder.”

As the parade made its way down Market, Nicholls, of Erial, N.J., stood on his orange ladder, hovering over the crowd with a clear view toward Market and happily snapping photos for anyone who handed him a camera.