Archive for the ‘Midtown’ Category
darkly hidden
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described in the recent posting “Obscure World“, the location of Conrad Wissel’s notorious “Dead Animal and Night Soil Wharf” has been finally nailed down and confirmed by contmeporaneous maps and photographs. A lot of people ask me where I find my information about the oft occluded history of the Newtown Creek, and are surprised when informed about my methodology.
Basically, it all boils down to this- I’ll notice something hidden in plain sight while wandering around, take photos of it, and start researching when back at HQ. There’s a whole list of mysteries in my “to do” pile, and often the answer to what they were is presented while searching for something else entirely. It’s how the whole “missing Lamp Post of the Queensboro bridge thing” got started. Accordingly, whenever accusations of pursuing some political agenda are leveled at this- your Newtown Pentacle- great amusement ensues.
The utterly forgotten headquarters of the General Electric Vehicle Company of Long Island City, which had been staring me in the face for years, revealed itself in this manner. Easy to miss the third largest factory building in Queens, I guess, even if its painted with bright yellow and green stripes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As detailed in the posting “uncommented masonry“, one was merely poking around for some information about the “Blissville Banshee“.
A supernatural phenomena, the Banshee was reported on in 1884 by the NY Times (she was described as red haired, blue eyed, and screaming “Oh Ho” like … well… a banshee), and was an obvious jab at the largely Irish and Catholic population of Blissville by Manhattan’s patrician “Nativists”. Racial or ethnic prejudice is commonly encountered in journalism of that era, and quite unsurprising to those familiar with reportage of the period. In the 1880’s, “politically correct” meant not shooting someone on sight.
What emerged about the structure above, however, was that in 1915- a quarter of the 40,000 or so trucks then plying the streets of New York City were electric (and participated in a rail based battery exchange program). Most of them were manufactured in Long Island City within the building pictured above, by the General Electric Vehicle Company.
This is my favorite sort of posting, a product of serendipity and pure discovery.
Which brings me to the Tammany men, and why there very well might be a horse buried in Calvary Cemetery.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
“The Abbot” from January of 2010, described a chance sighting of a curious obelisk in Queens’s Calvary Cemetery.
By the time that I was done with this post, I had found the young J.J. Scannell and Richard Croker sitting out a sentence in Manhattan’s “Tombs”. Quite a propitious meeting- in retrospect, one with far reaching consequence.
These two men would rise to the top of Tammany Hall one day, preside over the consolidation of the City of Greater New York from the shadowed world of the “smoke filled room”, and grow filthy rich on a buttery diet of political corruption.
Think Boss Tweed was something? In that case, you’ve never heard of Scannell and Croker.
All this because I enjoy strolling through Calvary in the afternoon while the Dropkick Murphys are playing on my headphones.
incidentally, something recently discovered (see how it works?) were these portraits of Mr.’s Scannell and Croker- found in Moses King’s “Notable New Yorkers of 1896-1899, courtesy google books
– photo by Mitch Waxman
“from some point in space“, another 2010 posting, showcases a shot of Dutch Kills acquired before a press conference which highly placed members of the Newtown Creek Alliance had asked me to represent them at (literally no one else from Queens was available).
My statement was prepared, thankfully, as I was standing next to and was introduced by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. Stage fright and hallucination inducing nervousness ruled my mood during the lead up.
To alleviate the anxiety while waiting for the event to begin… and as I happened to be standing in a south facing room within the Degnon Terminal’s former Loose Wiles building… which overlooks the waters of the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek- a window was soon roughly thrown open and I shot the image above.
As it happens, while attempting to research a group of heretical Quakers operating in the area just before the Revolutionary War, I came across the following image in another one of those “old and out of copyright” municipal journals which have found their way onto the web.
– Photo from 1921’s ”The Newtown Creek industrial district of New York City By Merchants’ Association of New York. Industrial Bureau”, courtesy google books
Cool, huh?
An August 2011 post, called the “the dark moor“, reversed the point of view and showed the view from infinite Brooklyn into Queens from atop the digester eggs of the Newtown Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant.
Click for details on Mitch Waxman’s
Upcoming walking and boat tours of Newtown Creek, and Staten Island’s Kill Van Kull
June 23rd, 2012- Atlas Obscura Thirteen Steps around Dutch Kills walk (this Saturday)
for June 23rd tickets, click here for the Atlas Obscura ticketing page
June 30th, 2012- Working Harbor Committee Kill Van Kull walk
for June 30th tickets, click here for the Working Harbor Committee ticketing page
July 8th, 2012- Atlas Obscura Walking Tour- The Insalubrious Valley
for July 8th tickets, click here for the Atlas Obscura ticketing page
July 22nd, 2012- Working Harbor Committee Newtown Creek Boat Tour
chill currents
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Gaze in terror at the ice breaking tug Morro Bay, stalwart arm of the United States Coast Guard, as it maneuvers about the Hudson River. In terror that is, if you mean harm to the mariners or coastlines of the United States. It is maritime Sunday at the Newtown Pentacle once more, and this time around it’s a Coast Guard vessel in the spotlight.
from uscg.mil
USCGC MORRO BAY (WTGB-106)
Abstract
The USCGC MORRO BAY was commissioned 28 March 1981 at the Reserve Training Center in Yorktown, VA and served here until 1998. The MORRO BAY was the sixth of her kind in the Coast Guard. While stationed at Training Center, the MORRO BAY was involved in training and operations on the Chesapeake Bay. The MORRO BAY is currently home ported in New London, CT.
Ship’s History
The 140-foot Bay-class Cutters are state of the art icebreakers used primarily for domestic ice breaking duties. They are named after American Bays and are stationed mainly in Northeast U.S. and Great Lakes. Although specifically desinged for ice breaking duties, they also perform law enforcement, environmental protection, search & rescue operations and support for aids to navigation activities.
WTGBs use a low-pressure-air hull lubrication or bubbler system that forces air and water between the hull and ice. This system improves icebreaking capabilities by reducing resistance against the hull, reducing horsepower requirements.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While researching this post, an interesting factoid about the Coast Guard emerged: the hull colors of Coast Guard vessels indicate their missions. Black hull- aids to navigation, White hull- maritime law enforcement and other safety-at-sea missions, Red hull- icebreaking.
Who knew?
Of course, the “Response Boat Medium” and “Response Boat Small”– both “SafeBoats“- are orange hulled, but the color scheme indications I found at the Coast Guard website do not discuss this hue.
from uscg.mil
The 140-foot Bay-class Cutters are state of the art icebreakers used primarily for domestic ice breaking duties. They are named after American Bays and are stationed mainly in Northeast U.S. and Great Lakes.
140-foot WTGBs in Service:
- BISCAYNE BAY (WTGB 104) St. Ignace, MI
- BRISTOL BAY* (WTGB 102) Detroit, MI
- KATMAI BAY (WTGB 101) Sault Ste. Marie, MI
- MOBILE BAY* (WTGB 103) Sturgeon Bay, WI
- NEAH BAY (WTGB 105) Cleveland, OH
- MORRO BAY (WTGB 106) New London, CT
- PENOBSCOT BAY (WTGB 107) Bayonne, NJ
- STURGEON BAY (WTGB 109) Bayonne, NJ
- THUNDER BAY (WTGB 108) Rockland, ME
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Morro Bay, like all members of its class, looks smart and sound. An attractive boat, it nevertheless looks pretty fast and capable. These shots were taken at the Metropolitan Water Alliance’s “Heroes of the Harbor” gala last fall, where Morro Bay was performing the sort of political or parade duty which occupies its time during warm weather. During the cold months, it’s tasked with weightier matters, as a front line warrior battling the winter, and as a life line for stranded mariners.
Greetings to the crew, a hearty thanks is offered for their service, sacrifice, and skill. Stay safe, and hopefully we’ll see you in the City again when it warms up.
from wikipedia
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the US military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission (with jurisdiction in both domestic and international waters) and a federal regulatory agency mission as part of its mission set. It operates under the Department of Homeland Security during peacetime, and can be transferred to the Department of the Navy by the President at any time, or by Congress during time of war.
Founded by Alexander Hamilton as the Revenue Cutter Service on 4 August 1790, it is the United States’ oldest continuous seagoing service. As of August 2009 the Coast Guard had approximately 42,000 men and women on active duty, 7,500 reservists, 30,000 auxiliarists, and 7,700 full-time civilian employees.
thickening twilight
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sickened by weariness and a youth misspent, your humble narrator nevertheless has been tormenting himself lately with regret and guilty nonsense. “Not working hard enough” is omnipresent in my mind these days, and accordingly, the length and depth of my wanderings through the Creeklands have expanded. A lack of physical exercise is deadly to a poor specimen like myself, something which is difficult during the winter months due to that certain allergy to cold which has manifested – and which has become amplified- in recent years.
It’s amazing the ways that your body changes as you grow older, sometimes it seems as if there’s some feeble alien creature within that is pushing and tearing a path to the outside world through your very flesh.
from hplovecraft.com
Y’ha-nthlei was not destroyed when the upper-earth men shot death into the sea. It was hurt, but not destroyed. The Deep Ones could never be destroyed, even though the palaeogean magic of the forgotten Old Ones might sometimes check them. For the present they would rest; but some day, if they remembered, they would rise again for the tribute Great Cthulhu craved. It would be a city greater than Innsmouth next time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Carrying forth, however, is something compelled rather than desired. My team of doctors has advised me of decaying homeostasis, entropic processes, and general decline. Their suggestions are to step up, exert more effort, and seek even greater frequency for these long walks while avoiding the pleasures and poisons of the west. Luckily, the ancient pathways and avenues which surround and inform that nearby slick of languid infamy known as the Newtown Creek supply ample locations to inspect, never failing to intimate some hidden meaning or vaguely shadowed terror.
Who can guess, all there is, that might be buried down there?
from hplovecraft.com
“The nethermost caverns,” wrote the mad Arab, “are not for the fathoming of eyes that see; for their marvels are strange and terrific. Cursed the ground where dead thoughts live new and oddly bodied, and evil the mind that is held by no head. Wisely did Ibn Schacabao say, that happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes. For it is of old rumour that the soul of the devil-bought hastes not from his charnel clay, but fats and instructs the very worm that gnaws; till out of corruption horrid life springs, and the dull scavengers of earth wax crafty to vex it and swell monstrous to plague it. Great holes secretly are digged where earth’s pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Paranoid wonderings, lunatic ideations, unnameable desires- all haunt me during the seemingly aimless steps. Delusions of self importance, hubris, and vast ennui are my only companions on these often cobbled streets. A discarded landscape with a lost history, this is a place given to the dead, the diseased, the barren… a perfect home for one such as myself. There seems to be a current in the air, a taste of anxiety on the tip of my tongue which is all pervasive, and it feels as if something is about to happen.
Ahh… I’m all effed up.
from hplovecraft.com
I do not recall distinctly when it began, but it was months ago. The general tension was horrible. To a season of political and social upheaval was added a strange and brooding apprehension of hideous physical danger; a danger widespread and all-embracing, such a danger as may be imagined only in the most terrible phantasms of the night. I recall that the people went about with pale and worried faces, and whispered warnings and prophecies which no one dared consciously repeat or acknowledge to himself that he had heard. A sense of monstrous guilt was upon the land, and out of the abysses between the stars swept chill currents that made men shiver in dark and lonely places. There was a daemoniac alteration in the sequence of the seasons—the autumn heat lingered fearsomely, and everyone felt that the world and perhaps the universe had passed from the control of known gods or forces to that of gods or forces which were unknown.
Hermes Trismegistus
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Jules-Felix Coutan designed “Glory of Commerce” for Grand Central Terminal in 1911. A neat contemporaneous account of the construction of this statuary, which was carved in Long Island City I would add (by the firm of William Bradley & Son, 547 Vernon Avenue, which I suspect to have been located somewhere around Queensbridge Park), and can be accessed at nytimes.com.
from wikipedia
The Hermetic literature added to the Egyptian concerns with conjuring spirits and animating statues that inform the oldest texts, Hellenistic writings of Greco-Babylonian astrology and the newly developed practice of alchemy (Fowden 1993: pp65–68). In a parallel tradition, Hermetic philosophy rationalized and systematized religious cult practices and offered the adept a method of personal ascension from the constraints of physical being, which has led to confusion of Hermeticism with Gnosticism, which was developing contemporaneously.
As a divine source of wisdom, Hermes Trismegistus was credited with tens of thousands of writings of high standing, reputed to be of immense antiquity. Plato’s Timaeus and Critias state that in the temple of Neith at Sais, there were secret halls containing historical records which had been kept for 9,000 years. Clement of Alexandria was under the impression that the Egyptians had forty-two sacred writings by Hermes, encapsulating all the training of Egyptian priests. Siegfried Morenz has suggested (Egyptian Religion) “The reference to Thoth’s authorship…is based on ancient tradition; the figure forty-two probably stems from the number of Egyptian nomes, and thus conveys the notion of completeness.” The Neo-Platonic writers took up Clement’s “forty-two essential texts”.
The Hermetica, is a category of papyri containing spells and initiatory induction procedures. In the dialogue called the Asclepius (after the Greek god of healing) the art of imprisoning the souls of demons or of angels in statues with the help of herbs, gems and odors, is described, such that the statue could speak and engage in prophecy. In other papyri, there are recipes for constructing such images and animating them, such as when images are to be fashioned hollow so as to enclose a magic name inscribed on gold leaf.
dense curtain
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 1.3 billion gallon a day flow of New York City’s sewage really should be defined as a third major river.
That’s 1,300,000,000 gallons a day or 474,500,000,000 gallons of night soil a year.
1.3 billion is approximately the population of China.
Pictured above is the DEP Sludge Vessel M/V Newtown Creek. A veteran, she was was laid down by the Wiley Manufacturing Co. in 1967. Just under 324 foot long, M/V Newtown Creek can carry 102,000 cubic feet of cargo and weighs in at 2,557 gross tons.
from nywea.org
The largest vessels, M/V Newtown Creek and M/V North River, are semiautomated motor vessels with more than twice the capacity of the original sludge vessels. The crew size was reduced to eight in 1980 and reduced again in 1987 to the current size of six. In 1987, MPRSA was amended, and ocean dumping was moved from the 12-mi site to a 106-mi site. As a result, the operation of the M/V was changed to in-harbor work transporting sludge to four newly constructed New York City ocean-going barges for disposal to the 106-mi site.
In 1991, to comply with the Ocean Dumping Ban Act (ODBA), the M/V Newtown Creek, North River and Owls Head began transporting sludge from plants without dewatering facilities or other means of conveyance to plants with dewatering facilities for processing. Since barges were no longer needed, three were retired, and one, the Udalls Cove, was kept as part of the fleet for emergencies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Forty-four and change years is a long time to be working any job, especially one with the city.
M/V Newtown Creek was cruising along the East River one winter’s afternoon, just before sunset, and your humble narrator was similarly crossing the water- only I was upon the Queensboro Bridge’s pedestrian walkway, en route to the Shining City.
from nyc.gov
Presently, NYC-DEP Marine Section uses these three sludge vessels for the transportation of liquid sludge from wastewater treatment plants without dewatering capabilities.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The DEP people actually refer to these ships as “Honey Boats”, by the way, or at least some of the ones that I’ve interacted with have.
It’s gallows humor, the refined and thickened sludge that these vessels carry does not have the appearance and seeming viscosity of honey, rather it is said to be darkly colored and resemble pea soup.
from wikipedia
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) manages the city’s water supply, providing more than 1.1 billion US gallons (4,200,000 m3) of water each day to more than 9 million residents throughout New York State through a complex network of nineteen reservoirs, three controlled lakes and 6,200 miles (10,000 km) of water pipes, tunnels and aqueducts. The DEP is also responsible for managing the city’s combined sewer system, which carries both storm water runoff and sanitary waste, and fourteen wastewater treatment plants located throughout the city. The DEP carries out federal Clean Water Act rules and regulations, handles hazardous materials emergencies and toxic site remediation, oversees asbestos monitoring and removal, enforces the city’s air and noise codes, bills and collects on city water and sewer accounts, and manages citywide water conservation programs.
Emily Lloyd was the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection until resigning in 2008. On November 30, 2009, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed Caswell F. Holloway to be the new commissioner of NYCDEP. Following Holloway’s appointment as the new NYC Deputy Mayor for Operations, Mayor Bloomberg appointed Carter H. Strickland, Jr. to be the new commissioner of NYCDEP on August 17, 2011.
The Newtown Pentacle 