Posts Tagged ‘Working Harbor Committee’
abetted by
Now there’s something you don’t see every day.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A recent Working Harbor Committee excursion to Gowanus Bay saw our vessel plying the Buttermilk Channel section of the East River, which is found between Red Hook and Governors Island. The legend about how this section of the river ended up being called Buttermilk Channel states that back in colonial times, it was so shallow at low tide that Red Hook farmers would herd cattle over to the island for safe keeping and free grazing. Dredging projects in the industrial era lowered the depth hereabouts, creating a shipping channel.
As our vessel moved along, a big orange boat called the Staten Island Ferry entered into Buttermilk, which is pretty unusual. Incidentally, despite its size, the Ferry is a boat. If it could launch a boat, it would be a ship, but since it can’t, it’s a boat. Life boats don’t count, I’m told.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was actually a dredging project that caused the anomaly. New York Harbor is an estuary situated between a giant conveyor belt for silt and soil called the Hudson River and the estuarial waters of Jamaica Bay and Long Island Sound. The back and forth tidal action of the East River, coupled with the titanic flow of the Hudson, causes the harbor floor to build up constantly and channel maintenance is an expensive but necessary activity ordained and financed by the ports people.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just as we were leaving Buttermilk Channel on our way to Erie Basin and Gowanus Bay, the NYPD Harbor Patrol came splashing by, offering themselves up with an iconic backdrop.
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hewing in
A few shots from the Great North River Tugboat Race, in today’s post
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When the wheel of the year rolls around to Labor Day weekend, a humble narrator always has plans.
The Great North River Tugboat Race, produced by the Working Harbor Committee, occurs on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. This year, 12 tugs raced from the boat basin at 79th street (well, Pier I, technically) to 42nd street right by the Intrepid. The winner, I believe, was the red McAllister tug pictured above.
Why not swing over to working harbor to check out the official results? My colleague John Skelson also has a whole series of shots of the race running there as well.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After the race, the tugs get into a “tug of war” competition. They go nose to nose and push each other around. This contest is about a lot more than just raw horsepower, it’s about the skill of the captains and how they handle their boats.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Far and away, my favorite part of the Great North River Tugboat Race is the line toss competition. During this part of the event, the tugs come in at speed towards a bollard on the pier, and deckhands throw the heavy rope at it in an attempt to “get it in one.”
There’s also a spinach eating competition, because as every sailor knows – you’re strong to the finach if you eats your spinach.
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Upcoming Tours –
September 20th, 2015
Glittering Realms Walking Tour
with Brooklyn Brainery, click here for details and tickets
twining tightly
Tugboats, tugboats, tugboats – in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A recent Working Harbor Committee excursion to Port Elizabeth Newark was particularly photogenic. We’ve entered into “that time of the year,” wherein the angle of the light emanating from the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself is propitious to photographic pursuit. From now until mid November, and again in the March to June period, the light is just right.
Pictured above are the Liberty Service and Marion Moran tugs at full steam on the Kill Van Kull.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Kirby Moran, which is a new boat for me, with the Bayonne Bridge as back drop, was observed over in Newark Bay.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
DonJon Towing’s Emily Ann was headed north in Newark Bay, with the titanic Global Marine Terminal behind her.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Not sure which tug this was, as I couldn’t spot a name or IMO number on her, but she was docked at Governor’s Island – on the south or Buttemilk Channel side, with some old French chick standing behind the barge she was tending.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Speaking of Buttermilk Channel, Mary H. was towing a fuel barge past Atlantic Basin when I spotted her. I know where Mary H. was likely headed for – East Williamsburg’s Metropolitan Avenue – and the Bayside fuel depot found 3.1 miles from the East River on the English Kills tributary of my beloved Newtown Creek.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
September 3rd, 2015
Newtown Creek Boat Tour
with Open House NY, click here for details and tickets.
decadent element
Bayonne Bridge progress, in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A recent Working Harbor Committee excursion, one of our education tours for kids (typically inner city teenagers who are introduced to the idea of a career on the water or at the ports by Martime professionals and Coast Guard Officers whom we bring onboard) headed out to Port Elizabeth Newark. These kids tours are what WHC is really about, and the public tours we do are actually fundraisers that support these other efforts.
Your humble narrator was onboard solely to photograph this time around, and I soon found myself focusing in on the Bayonne Bridge reconstruction project.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are three major bridge projects underway in NY Harbor at the moment – two are replacements (Kosciuszko Bridge at Newtown Creek, and Tappan Zee over the Hudson) and the third is a retrofit – Bayonne Bridge.
In the case of Othmar Amman’s masterful Bayonne Bridge, the roadway is being raised to allow a new class of cargo ship access to the Port Newark terminals and it’s the BB’s owner which is running the show – The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Bayonne Bridge spans the Kill Van Kull, connecting Staten Island’s North Shore to New Jersey. Just beyond it is the busiest cargo operation in the North Eastern United States. The continuing modernization of global container based shipping operations has created a sort of arms race to see how big a cargo ship can get (economy of scale) and the most recent iterations of these giants cannot cross under the roadway. In order to remain economically viable, the Port Authority has been forced to redesign the bridge so as to accommodate these larger vessels.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s all sorts of “big industry” involved in this sort of undertaking, and in the shot above and below, you will observe a “beam spreader.” It’s job is to hoist the sections of approach roadway into place and hold them steady while crews of workers secure them to both the pylons which will support them and to the previous sections already installed.
You can see the difference in altitude between the old and new roadway in the shot above, with the older approach visible to the right hand side of the shot, backed up by the Freedom Tower.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After decades of inertia, wherein the various governmental entities found here in the megalopolis barely had the funding to perform basic maintenance on the various bits of infrastructure which make it possible to move people and commerce around, it’s actually startling to see so much of it going on all at once.
There is no investment more prosaic to make than in infrastructure. Unfortunately, in the case of all three bridge projects mentioned, none of them have avoided the mistakes of the House of Moses and incorporated a light rail line or any sort of mass transit into their modernizations. We are reinforcing and advancing the age of the Automobile.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Still, as I’m sure the crew of the James E. Brown tugboat would say about the project – “I feel good.”
Sorry – could not resist the pun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Bayonne Bridge project is ongoing, and will continue to be documented at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
For more on the Bayonne Bridge project, direct from the “horse’s mouth” as it were – check out this page at the Port a Authority’s website.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
August 8th, 2015
13 Steps Around Dutch Kills – LIC Walking Tour
with Atlas Obscura, click here for details and tickets
fare together
As detailed in this recent post, my camera was destroyed in an accident.
For those of you who have offered donations to pay for its replacement, the “Donate” button below will take you to paypal. Any contributions to the camera fund will be greatly appreciated, and rewarded when money isn’t quite as tight as it is at the moment.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Thursday last, the new camera got its first real workout on the Working Harbor Committee trip to Port Elizabeth Newark. Despite being largely the same device as the shattered and well weathered one (the firmware is a bit different, however, offering a couple of bells and whistles which weren’t present on the original) one opted to work the scenery encountered with a certain ferocity.
The Kill Van Kull tidal strait leads to Port Elizabeth Newark, which is the principal cargo port for the North Eastern United States. This is pretty familiar turf for me, and when I got onboard the NY Waterways ferry which WHC had chartered, forefront in my mind was the desire to come back with something a bit visually different from what I normally do.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The weather was not conducive to the “lurid shimmering of pale light” thing which typifies most of the maritime shots I produce. It was dark, due to threatening storm clouds, and kind of misty. Luckily, it wasn’t a “precipitating mist” wherein the moisture suspended in the air congeals onto any available surface. Instead, this was a light eating atmosphere. As my long lost pal Bernie would have advised – “use it” – so I went for composition and shadows of oily density. That’s the Port Authority’s Bayonne Bridge from the Newark Bay side, by the way.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A trip down the Kill Van Kull is remarkable only when you don’t see tugboats at work. The busy waterway is a 24/7 conveyor belt of maritime industrial goodness, with titan cargo ships and other vessels plying its length. Pictured above is the DonJon Towing company’s Meghan Ann driving a barge of scrap metal towards the port facilities. I can only presume, based on experience, that the tug was coming from my beloved Newtown Creek.
Speaking of Newtown Creek, confirmation that I’ll be conducting a free boat tour on Saturday as part of the City of Water Day event conducted by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance arrived. Click the link below to get onboard.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
July 18th, 2015
Newtown Creek City of Water Day Boat Tour
with Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, click here for details and tickets.
July 26th, 2015
Modern Corridor – LIC, Queens Walking Tour
with Brooklyn Brainery, click here for details and tickets.
The Newtown Pentacle 