Notes from the road: odd perspective effect

From the northernmost stretch of the New Jersey turnpike, along the Palisades you can get a pretty good view of the midtown Manhattan skyline. But midtown Manhattan has much lower elevation than that part of New Jersey. So you're looking out over places like Fairview, New Jersey, and then looming up behind them you see, like, the top third of the Empire State Building, just sticking up behind Fairview and emerging seemingly directly out of the horizon, completely out of all proportion. The overall effect makes the Empire State Building paradoxically look like it's closer than the buildings of Fairview (or wherever), even though it's obviously behind them, just because it's so much larger.