• AP Photo/Richard Drew
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    After hitting the midwest earlier in the week, a wave of polar air settled in over the Northeast, grinding trains to a halt, bursting pipes and bringing further misery to people still recovering from Superstorm Sandy. The sub-zero temperatures have caused a deep freeze, turning fountains, rivers and even buildings to ice.

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    Above, the frozen fountain in New York's Bryant Park, in mid-town Manhattan, is the center of attention as people photograph the ice that formed on the fountain Thursday.

  • AP Photo/Richard Drew
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    A woman pauses to take a photograph of the frozen fountain in New York's Bryant Park.

  • Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
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    Firefighters worked to extinguish a massive blaze at a vacant warehouse on Jan. 23 in Chicago. Temperatures in the single digits caused the water from fire houses to freeze, covering the building with a layer of ice.

  • Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
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    A truck and chemical drums are covered with ice as firefighters help to extinguish a massive blaze at a vacant warehouse on Wednesday in Chicago.

  • AP Photo/Mark Duncan
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    Ice covers the windward side of the Cleveland harbor lighthouse in Cleveland Thursday.

  • MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
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    A worker pushes a cart past an ice and snow covered waterfall outside of the National Museum of the American Indian on Jan. 24 in Washington, D.C.

  • AP Photo/Mel Evans
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    An Amtrak Acela passenger train crosses a bridge over the partially frozen Delaware River Thursday near Trenton, N.J.

  • AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty
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    Next: 25 Awe-Inspiring Photos from 2012

    Erin Leighton sips a coffee while seated next to a frost-covered window at a coffee shop in Portland, Maine.