Archive for December 2009
Manhattan Bridge Centennial Parade 3
Manhattan Bridge Tracks – photo by Mitch Waxman
Under normal conditions, the time it would take to even steady and focus my trusty Canon G10 would have seen your humble narrator reduced to juices by Brooklyn bound traffic.
Directly after the Manhattan Bridge Centennial Parade, I had a good half hour or so to just wander around the roadway (in the company of city officials and with NYPD everywhere) and just take pictures, which was kind of surreal. In the age of the Terror Wars, whose only victor will be the side that scares the other more, such access is rare.
A similar experience was had at Queensboro Bridge, several months ago, and upon the many Working Harbor Committee voyages I attended over the summer and fall.
Brooklyn Bound Manhattan Bridge- photo by Mitch Waxman
A curious defect has emerged after a year of carrying my trusty Canon G10. The lens shutters seem to be less than a tenth of a millimeter too close to the lens, and over time, symmetrical scratches have scribed into the glass. You can see one of them catching the sun in the top of the shot above. These scratches are at the wide angle, and a tiny zoom-in eliminates their effect, but regardless- the thing goes back to Canon this week for repairs- hopefully on warranty. Despite this defect, this is one great camera, whose only real weakness is in low light. Recommended.
Empire State from Manhattan Bridge – photo by Mitch Waxman
Empty Manhattan Bridge roadway perspective, facing infinite Brooklyn – photo by Mitch Waxman
Manhattan Bridge cable perspective, facing infinite Brooklyn – photo by Mitch Waxman
Manhattan Bridge disturbing rust – photo by Mitch Waxman
Manhattan Bridge Centennial Parade Fireworks Show – photo by Mitch Waxman
Later that night, incontrovertibly next to the Williamsburg Bridge in a Lower East Side Manhattan Park, a scheduled fireworks show was performed to celebrate the Bridge Centennial. Additionally, musicians plied their arts as did political speakers.
Manhattan Bridge Centennial Parade Fireworks Show – photo by Mitch Waxman
I won’t bore you with a lot of fireworks, if you could use some shells bursting on high, click over to our flickr page and check them out.
and just as a note: this is Wright Brothers Day is the USA.
Manhattan Bridge Centennial Parade 2
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Both sides of the Manhattan Bridge Centennial parade joined at the Podium, politicians and dignitaries working the crowd. Taking my Parade marshall duties seriously, I threaded back and forth through the crowd reminding attendees to stay away from the edge of the bridge. I missed most of the ceremony.
at theboweryboys.blogspot.com, an immensely satisfying podcast is offered, and they’ve posted this photo of the Bridge under construction.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The United States Merchant Marine Corps Marching Band (and others) performed, and as the festivities began to congeal around the podium, I was free to take some photos again.
Although I stand by my creed, that DUMBO is the stupidest real estate term EVER, a pretty cool blog about the burgeoning south Brooklyn waterfront scene, called dumbonyc.com can be accessed by clicking here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in an earlier post, a large number of the attendants were Cantonese speakers, which presented a problem for Parade Marshalls. A chinese friend enlisted as a marshall pronounced “I’m from Singapore, we speak english there”. Luckily, an Irishman from San Francisco was available.
bryanjoiner.com muses on the psychological impact of the manhattan Bridge’s “color”- click here.
There’s something that’s never quite sat right with me about it, and I could never put my finger on it. It dwarfs the Brooklyn Bridge—its smaller, older brother—in stature, but that’s about all. The Brooklyn Bridge is a part of the American consciousness; the Manhattan Bridge just goes to Chinatown. There are no marriage proposals on the Manhattan Bridge, though I wouldn’t be surprised if divorces were finalized there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Progeny of the degenerate Californian “Bay area”, my pal Frandy speaks a surprising variety of languages, far more than the normal Art Director or Graphic Designer, and I was relieved when he volunteered to help out with the bridge effort. His Cantonese is limited, but contained the phrase “don’t get too close to the edge”.
As always, the “book” on the Manhattan Bridge was written long before Newtown Pentacle offered its first post– by the omnipresent forgotten-ny.com. Click here for Forgotten Tour 34.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the end of the Podium presentations and speech making, a NYFD Fireboat turned up, and began a display of Red, White, and Blue geysering on the East River.
That’s the Kevin C. Kane – FDNY Marine 6. Click Here to read about its role in fighting the fires at the World Trade Center at marinefirefighting.com
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The crew of the Kevin C. Kane rescued a jumper (from the Brooklyn Bridge) who SURVIVED the drop just a few months ago in Summer of 2009. brooklynheightsblog.com has the story- click here.
from limarc.org
Kevin C. Kane, N2MEI, was a New York City Firefighter, and a member of LI-MARC. Early on the morning of September 12, 1991, Kevin responded with Engine Com-pany 236 to a fire in at an abandoned apartment house in the East New York section ofBrooklyn. Despite the knowledge that there might not be enough hose to reach all parts ofthe house, Kevin and his fellow firefighters entered the building in search of victims.Shortly thereafter, a section of burning ceiling fell on Kevin. Despite the frantic efforts ofhis colleagues, they were not able to reach him. Eventually he managed to jump from a win-dow, into the bucket of a fire truck. Having been burned over most of his body, he died thenext day. In his honor, The NYFD named a fireboat The Kevin C. Kane, and created the Kevin C.Kane Medal for bravery.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Part 3 of the Parade is forthcoming, replete with some of the “artsy-fartsy” shots I was able to get on a traffic free Manhattan Bridge while the parade was clearing out and I was wearing an orange DOT vest.
More tomorrow…
and- just as a note- today is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.
Manhattan Bridge Centennial Parade 1
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, on October 4th, a parade and fireworks show was produced for the Manhattan Bridge Centennial by the NYC Bridge Centennial Commission.
Having been involved with the Queensboro Centennial at the start of the summer, when I was asked to help out, I jumped at the chance and suddenly- I was a parade marshall. Several of my friends were drafted into service as well, including the redoubtable Mike Olshan (who is the safety vested and distant photographer seen in the shots above and below).
from wikipedia
The Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River in New York City, connecting Lower Manhattan (at Canal Street) with Brooklyn (at Flatbush Avenue Extension) on Long Island. It was the last of the three suspension bridges built across the lower East River, following the Brooklyn and the Williamsburg bridges. The bridge was opened to traffic on December 31, 1909 and was designed and built by Polish bridge engineer Ralph Modjeski with the deflection cables designed by Leon Moisseiff, who later designed the infamous original Tacoma Narrows Bridge that opened and collapsed in 1940. It has four vehicle lanes on the upper level (split between two roadways). The lower level has three lanes, four subway tracks, a walkway and a bikeway. The upper level, originally used for streetcars, has two lanes in each direction, and the lower level is one-way and has three lanes in peak direction. It once carried New York State Route 27 and later was planned to carry Interstate 478. No tolls are charged for motor vehicles to use Manhattan Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A relict of the countercultural milieu of the 60’s and 70’s (as I am an atavist survival of the 70’s and 80’s), amongst other things, Coney Island Mike is the Newtown Pentacle’s go-to man on all things Red Hook and is associated with one of Forgotten-NY’s great finds- the Yellow Submarine at Coney Island Creek. This isn’t why I call him “Coney Island Mike”, the real reason lies in a filthy and obscene series of office jokes which are not worth repeating. A nocturne like myself, Mike was lured into the early morning sunlight by a promise of photographic access to a traffic free bridge before and upon completion of our function as Marshalls.
from nycroads.com
PLANNING “SUSPENSION BRIDGE NUMBER 3”: The Manhattan Bridge was first planned as a traditional wire-cable suspension bridge to be used exclusively by trains. In 1892, elevated railway magnate Frederick Uhlmann proposed this span just north of the present site of the Manhattan Bridge. The bridge was planned in conjunction with another one of his proposals, the Williamsburg Bridge. While Uhlmann’s railroad bridge was never constructed, the Williamsburg Bridge was approved in 1895 to handle mixed traffic.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Marshall duties are loosely defined as “keep people away from the edge of the bridge”, “keep the crowd moving on schedule”, and “if you have a problem, hand it over to NYPD”. This is the second time that I’ve witnessed how the City organizes this sort of event- the elaborate choreography of the DOT, NYPD’s matter of fact event scheduling, and the thousands of bureaucratic details which were handled by the Bridge Committee’s capable directors.
from nyc.gov
Daily, the bridge accommodates some 75,000 vehicles, 320,000 mass transit riders and 3000 pedestrians/bicyclists between Manhattan and Brooklyn. It supports seven lanes of vehicular traffic as well as four subway tracks upon which four transit train lines operate.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Parade is still an hour or so off, and everyone you see gathered in the shot above is either a Parade Marshall, NYPD, DOT, or one of the dignitaries marching in the Parade. Also, 2 “classic cars” were arranged to carry either Political Leaders or members of the podium presentations who were unable to walk the steep incline of the bridge due to age or infirmity.
from nymag.com
On July 23, a two-minute time-lapse video of the Manhattan Bridge, undulating under traffic, appeared on YouTube. It got 140,000 hits in the first week, and the media, always short on engineering majors, gave it lots of play. WPIX news aired a clip, and Morning Joe played it to uneasy oohs and aahs from its co-hosts. The website Gawker posted it under the headline “The Manhattan Bridge Is Falling Down” (later clarifying that it had been a joke). In fact, suspension bridges are supposed to move, in multiple dimensions. The century-old Manhattan Bridge is in the final stages of a rehab that began in 1982, when it was actually in danger of collapsing. It’ll bounce, without incident, for years to come.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The crowd began to thicken around Canal street at the corner of Bowery. Complicating the Marshall duties would be the large number of Senior Citizens from Chinatown, who- we were told- would speak absolutely no english at all. Nobody could tell me how to say “stay away from the edge of the bridge” in Cantonese. Concurrently, gathering steam on the Brooklyn side of the bridge, the other half of the parade was just beginning their journey, but our trip to the podium was shorter than theirs, so we left a bit later.
from gothamist.com
A helicopter and police boat rushed to the East River near the Main Street section of Brooklyn Bridge Park this afternoon, where a man miraculously survived after jumping from the Manhattan Bridge. A firefighter at the scene in DUMBO told us it was believed to be a suicide attempt, but it was unclear how the man had survived the fall into the icy waters and was still able to walk to a waiting ambulance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally happened. There’s my shadow, dead center, in the above shots. Photographic evidence that I exist, or at least that I’m really still alive and not just some disembodied “point of view” floating around New York. It’s an odd thing, I can take a photo of a totally reflective surface and not appear in the shot, but I don’t do it on purpose. In all of these shots I post, such shadows or reflections appear in maybe 5 shots, only once on purpose (I needed an “about the artist” shot for something, and shot my shadow draping over an LIC sewer).
from timeout.com
It has no song celebrating a groovy stroll across its length, nor has it inspired literary reflections (although it is a popular suicide spot in Steve Martin’s 1984 movie The Lonely Guy). The Manhattan Bridge may lack the lore of the Brooklyn and Queensboro, but viewed from a flattering angle, the sweeping steel suspension bridge is undeniably beautiful. The impressive stone archway on the Manhattan side, modeled on the 17th-century Porte St-Denis in Paris, was designed by New York Public Library architects Carrère and Hastings, while the Brooklyn approach once boasted allegorical statues representing the two boroughs designed by Lincoln Memorial sculptor Daniel Chester French (they now reside in the Brooklyn Museum).
(full disclosure- above shot was from a couple of days earlier) – photo by Mitch Waxman
The last paragraph actually sounds crazy to me, can’t imagine what speculations it unleashes in you- Lords and Ladies of Newtown. As I’ve mentioned in the past, your humble narrator is all ‘effed up, and the Manhattan Bridge has some actual personal history associated with it. I will admit that I was honored to be part of this event, and happy that I got to share it with several friends, old and new.
Then, the drums rolled…
from nycsubway.org
The Manhattan side of the subway tracks originally were connected as follows: The north side tracks to the BMT Broadway Subway at Canal Street; the south side tracks to the BMT Nassau Street subway north of Chambers Street. The south side tracks were used mostly during rush hour for services provided via the Nassau Street loop (which connected the BMT 4th Avenue and BMT Brighton Line to Manhattan via the Manhattan Bridge on the north end and the Montague Street tunnel on the south end). The configuration of the tracks at the Manhattan side was changed in 1967 as part of a large project known as the Chrystie Street connection. This project severed the connection to the under-used Nassau Street line on the south side. The south side tracks were then connected to the BMT Broadway Line, and the north side tracks connected via new construction to the IND 6th Avenue Line.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
And, this being my second Parade, I can be confident in saying- when the drums roll and the band (in this case the NY Chinese School Marching Band) marches, the Parade is begun.
More tomorrow…
and- just as a note- today is the anniversary of the Ratification of the United States Bill of Rights in 1791.
George Washington Bridge
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Way outside of the Newtown Pentacle, straddling the Hudson River, is found an artifice called the George Washington Bridge.
from wikipedia
Groundbreaking for the new bridge began in October 1927, a project of the Port of New York Authority. Its chief engineer was Othmar Ammann, with Cass Gilbert as architect. The bridge was dedicated on October 24, 1931, and opened to traffic the following day. Initially named the “Hudson River Bridge,” the bridge is named in honor of George Washington, the first President of the United States. The Bridge is near the sites of Fort Washington (on the New York side) and Fort Lee (in New Jersey), which were fortified positions used by General Washington and his American forces in his unsuccessful attempt to deter the British occupation of New York City in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War. Washington evacuated Manhattan by crossing between the two forts. In 1910 the Washington Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution erected a stone monument to the Battle of Fort Washington. The monument is located about 100 yards (91 m) northeast of the Little Red Lighthouse, up the hill towards the eastern bridge anchorage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Gleaming, the unclad steel of the GWB distinguishes it from the other bridges. A product of pure utility, its beauty is achieved in the simplicity of purpose.
from wikipedia
Othmar Ammann designed more than half of the eleven bridges that connect New York City to the rest of the United States. His talent and ingenuity helped him create the two longest suspension bridges of his time. Ammann was known for being able to create bridges that were light and inexpensive, yet they were still simple and beautiful. He was able to do this by using the deflection theory. He believed that the weight per foot of the span and the cables would provide enough stiffness so that the bridge would not need any stiffening trusses. This made him popular during the depression era when being able to reduce the cost was crucial.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These sort of geometries are organic to my eye, familiar shapes cast in the key of nature, despite being manmade. Imaginings of structures of this scope, however, represent an epoch of advanced mathematics and titan industry.
from wikipedia
Cass Gilbert was one of the first celebrity architects in America, designing skyscrapers in New York City and Cincinnati, campus buildings at Oberlin College and the University of Texas, state capitols in Minnesota and West Virginia, the support towers of the George Washington Bridge, various railroad stations (including the New Haven Union Station), and the United States Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.. His reputation declined among some professionals during the age of Modernism, but he was on the design committee that guided and eventually approved the modernist design of Manhattan’s groundbreaking Rockefeller Center: when considering Gilbert’s body of works as whole, it is more eclectic than many critics admit. In particular, his Union Station in New Haven lacks the embellishments common of the Beaux-Arts period, and contains the simple lines common in Modernism.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Note: A little commented pedestrian walkway exists on the southern side of the bridge, which is largely populated by aggressive and speeding bicycle riders shouting “out of my way”. Encounters with this crowd and phenomenon here- and on the bridges which cross that emerald ribbon of concealment called the Newtown Creek- forces me to ask- Hey, since bicycles are now considered vehicles with their own lane and all, couldn’t the Cops start requiring registration, license plates, operators licenses, INSURANCE from bikers? City and State could probably extort a whole lot of “not taxes” and “revenue enhancements” from this source.
Militant Bikers… who ride bicycles… bicycles… have demanded and received fair treatment and roadway rights as legitimate vehicles- time for the responsibility. The sign says PEDESTRIAN.
I’m walking here.
from wikipedia
The George Washington Bridge is popular among sightseers and commuters traveling by foot, bicycle, or roller skates. The South sidewalk (accessible by a long, steep ramp on the Manhattan side of the bridge) is shared by cyclists and pedestrians, with a level surface from end to end. The entrance in Manhattan is at 178th Street, just west of Cabrini Boulevard which also has access to the Hudson River Greenway north of the bridge. The sidewalk is accessible on the New Jersey side from Hudson Terrace, where a gate open in daytime and evening allows pedestrians and bikes to pass. Also on Hudson Terrace, less than one hundred yards north of the bike/ped entrance, walkers will find the start of the Long Path hiking trail, which leads after a short walk to some spectacular views of the bridge, and continues north towards Albany, New York.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From the walkway, looking south, late summer weekend traffic on the Hudson River. Below is a preview of one of my “stitched panoramas”, whose clicking will lead you to its Flickr page which, in turn, leads to larger incarnations of this ENORMOUS multi image shot showing the West Side of Manhattan and the Eastern Shore of New Jersey from up high.
from nydailynews.com
More than one in 10 people who kill themselves in Manhattan are “suicide tourists” – out-of-towners who choose New York City landmarks to take their lives.
Their deaths cluster around some of the most famous, scenic spots in the city: the Empire State Building, Times Square and the George Washington Bridge, a new study shows.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
from nycroads.com
The “Hudson River Bridge,” as the George Washington Bridge was called in the early days, was twice the length of any existing span, and it required an intricate system of access roads to handle large volumes of traffic.
The bridge’s two steel towers, embedded deep in rock and concrete, soar 604 feet into the sky, each as tall as some of Manhattan’s great skyscrapers. They contain more than 43,000 tons of steel. Rope cables were strung from anchorages on each shore and draped in an arc between towers, like a giant silver braid. When 36 of them had been placed, catwalks were erected to provide walking platforms.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Until just yesterday, since 911, it would not have been possible to obtain these shots due to security restrictions. I would suspect that a higher level of security is in place now than formerly, and that mere photography of public areas no longer poses the threat it once did. Back in 2001, NYPD didn’t have a single attack helicopter or unmanned aerial drone, after all.
The big question about 911 is not “was it a conspiracy”, its why the de facto Capital City of the United States had no air defense. The fence was left open.
from myfoxny.com
- In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Port Authority restricted photography on the bridge for security reasons (the rules have since been relaxed).
- In 2005 and 2006, the agency installed cylindrical bomb shields on the lower the section of the bridge’s suspension cables.
- More than 105 million vehicles crossed the George Washington Bridge in 2008, according to the Port Authority, making it one of the busiest spans in the world.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The old city was wide open, and criminally so. You can still just walk on in to too many places, crawl through too many fences. I personally observed construction gates at the Sunnyside yards left absent mindedly open over Thanksgiving weekend in 2009.
from nycroads.com
In 1955, after nearly a decade of explosive traffic growth, Robert Moses chaired the Joint Study of Arterial Facilities between the Port Authority and the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. The Joint Study was developed to spearhead construction of new bridges and expressways, including an unbuilt Hudson River Bridge between 125th Street in Manhattan and Edgewater, New Jersey. One of the proposals called for the addition of a six-lane lower level to the George Washington Bridge.
Construction of the $20 million lower deck began in 1959. The construction of the lower deck followed Ammann’s original design. Without interruption to the eight traffic lanes above, 76 structural steel sections were hoisted onto the bridge from below. The lower deck was designed with a minimum clearance of 15 feet between the upper and lower deck roadways. Even with the addition of the lower deck, the bridge had a clearance of 213 feet over the Hudson River. Stiffening trusses were incorporated into the design of the lower deck to provide additional stability against torsion. The additional weight required a slight adjustment on the rollers atop the towers.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As longtime readers of this Newtown Pentacle may have guessed by now, I’m into infrastructure. Big stuff, meta stuff, supranormal. My senses reel at scale and scope, which is how I quantize and manage reality. Parts, which fit together, forming dynamic systems and “chain of falling dominos” networked causalities.
On the aforementioned Sept. 11, one of the things that kept going through my head were numbers. How many desks, houseplants, mops, toilet fixtures, light bulbs, shoes?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just then, the leader of this municipal adventure over the GWB gestured toward the river, and at an approaching ship.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The John J. Harvey Fireboat was returning from Poughkeepsie and its Fourth of July duties. The Harvey, of course, was one of the ships that fought those fires.
At the Cunard Pier, Red Hook
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the K-Sea Taurus and its barge, fueling up the Queen Mary 2 in Red Hook at Pier 17 (the Cunard Pier) at the Brooklyn Passenger Ship terminal. Taurus is a familiar sight in NY waters.
from wikipedia
Queen Mary 2 is the current flagship of the Cunard Line. The ship was constructed to complement RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, the Cunard flagship from 1969 to 2004 and the last major ocean liner built before the construction of Queen Mary 2. Queen Mary 2 had the Royal Mail Ship (RMS) title conferred on her, as a gesture to Cunard’s history, by Royal Mail when she entered service in 2004 on the Southampton to New York route.
Queen Mary 2 is not a steamship like many of her predecessors, but is powered primarily by four diesel engines with two additional gas turbines which are used when extra power is required; this CODAG configuration is used to produce the power to drive her four electric propulsion pods as well as powering the ship’s hotel services. Like her predecessor Queen Elizabeth 2 she is built for crossing the Atlantic Ocean, though she is regularly used for cruising purposes; in the winter season she cruises from New York to the Caribbean on 10 or 13 day tours. Queen Mary 2’s 30-knot (56 km/h; 35 mph) open ocean speed sets the ship apart from cruise ships, such as Oasis of the Seas, which has an average speed of 22.6 knots (41.9 km/h; 26.0 mph); QM2’s normal service speed is 26-knot (48 km/h; 30 mph).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Slightly less familiar, but a regular visitor, is the gargantuan Queen Mary 2, which docks in Red Hook when visiting Metropolis… uhhh… sorry- New York. The engineering of something which is essentially a floating Empire State building always astonishes me. There’s a great documentary out there, on one of the discovery channels or history channels (on one of the mil-industrial complex’s media arms, at least), which details the building of this ship.
Fascinating, as Spock would say.
from cunard.com
Majesty, redefined.
Queen Mary 2 is the most magnificent ocean liner ever built. Her every detail harkens to the Golden Age of Ocean Travel, while providing one of the most modern travel experiences on earth. From bow to stern, discover 13 spacious decks on which to relax and unwind; to indulge in pleasures and pursuits you never normally have time for. Opulent public areas, extravagant dining rooms, ballrooms, theatres, lounges…even the only Planetarium at sea.
It is only in a world like this that modern fairy tales at sea are possible – where ordinary travellers can feel like royalty for a week or two. But words can only do such a lady so much justice, for to truly revel in the grandeur that is Queen Mary 2, you must sail with her.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Surely, the sort of thinking which is applied to the production of such floating resorts with their independent desalination plants and climate controlled environments are the precursors of some future endeavor in space. Perhaps lessons for the future of lunar living or the century distant reality of martian colonization are being fleshed out in vessels like these.
Mankind has won some mastery over the alien environment of the seas only in the last 50 years, after all. The whole notion of predictable oceanic crossings, on a precisely defined and clockwork schedule, is one of the modern world’s great and historical achievements. Don’t get me started on containerization, which is the best thing that’s happened to civilization since the Arabs invented numbers and the Turks popularized coffee drinking.
The 350 sections of the Statue of Liberty in their 241 crates, after all, were almost lost to a storm at sea when it was being transported from France onboard the French Frigate Isere in 1885.
from nytimes.com
At slack tide off Red Hook, Brooklyn, there are usually lots of things floating in the water, most of which you would not want to touch without the help of a good hazmat suit. But just after sunrise yesterday, something truly strange was bobbing there in the shallows near Pier 41: a submarine fashioned almost completely from wood, and inside it a man with an obsession…
The Newtown Pentacle 