Archive for the ‘New York Harbor’ Category
hath looked
The Tug Sea Lion, at Newtown Creek, in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When one was onboard that Anchor QEA excursion mentioned last week (the post with the shot of those cool storm clouds blowing in), the Sea Lion tug appeared. She was towing an empty garbage barge, and navigating down the East River. Whenever one of these towing vessels nears my vantage in this part of the harbor, even one as loathsome as myself can grow excited.
The backgrounds which they move against are… iconic… to say the least.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Freedom Tower, or One World Trade if you must, has assumed this sort of iconic “gravitas” despite its relatively short period of tenancy in the skyline of the Shining City. Thing is, if you are after instant recognition, nothing beats either the Empire State or Chrysler buildings for saying “New York City.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sea Lion entered Reach A of the Newtown Creek, heading eastwards. I’ve asked around a bit about the whole “Marion or Reach A,” “Reach B,” thing, btw. My maritime chums, and in this case an actual Ships Captain, have all related that the “reach” thing is how far you can navigate based on a single compass heading.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sea Lion was witnessed delivering it’s empty barge to SimsMetal, and exchanging the thing for a filled up one. The cargo onboard the barge is full of recyclable materials which the company will process at one of its other facilities.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
July 12th, 2015
Glittering Realms – Greenpoint, Brooklyn Walking Tour
with Newtown Creek 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.
mystery attacks
Just a short one today.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recently, an excursion upon the fabled Newtwon Creek with the Anchor QEA folks (they’re the scientists studying the Creek for the Superfund process) and the Newtown Creek CAG Steering Committee (which I’m a member of) was cut short by threatening weather. Anchor has all sorts of frammistats onboard which warn them of the approach of lightning, and all the gizmos began to go off as a powerful thunderstorm was approaching. The shot above is from roughly 2.5 miles back from the East River, and depicts the DUGABO side of Brooklyn as the storm blew in. We made it back to dock, but not before the first curtain of rain and hail began to pummel the Creek.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
July 12th, 2015
Glittering Realms Walking Tour
with Newtown Creek Alliance, click here for details and tickets.
quaint fusion
Shots from a recent boat trip to the Gowanus.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few weeks back, I conducted the Working Harbor Committee Newtown Creek boat tour, which was followed by an excursion to the Gowanus Canal. Both boats were solidly packed with harbor enthusiasts, curious explorers who welcomed the opportunity to visit some of NY Harbor’s less well known spots. Obviously, I didn’t get any shots on the Newtown Creek tour (my curse) but since my pals Joseph Alexiou and Eymund Diegel were handling the narration on the Gowanus trip, I was able to have some #superfun for once.
Pictured above, the push boat Emerald Coast in Gowanus Bay.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
John Quadrozzi Jr. was also onboard, and he jumped onto the microphone once or twice during the voyage. Seeing as how JQJr. actually owns big giant chunks of Gowanus Bay, he had a few things to say about this and that – offering the Working Harbor audience insider insights from his unique point of view.
One of the “this’s” Mr. Quadrozzi discussed was his Grain Terminal building, and one of the “that’s” was the ship Loujaine – both pictured above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I do like the point of view one is offered by the entrance to the Gowanus Canal, don’t forget that Gowanus Bay is kind of a separate banana from the Gowanus Canal, whose navigable entry point is found at the Hamilton Avenue Bridge.
That hulking monstrosity you’ll notice lurking above the bridge, in all its neighborhood blighting glory, is the Gowanus Expressway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our vessel’s passage required the Hamilton Avenue Bridge to open, and while we waited for the redoubtable employees of the NYC DOT to actuate its mechanisms, I noticed this bit of former maritime industrial glory sitting on the poison shoreline. First thought that entered my head when I saw it was “this is the dreidel of the gods.” For those of you reading this who are “goyem,” a dreidel is that little Jewish spinning top thing with the Hebrew lettering on it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The HMS Liberty, observed as it passes by the SimsMetal facility and a windmill on the southern shore of Gowanus Bay. Liberty is a tugboat, as opposed to the Emerald Coast found in the first shot of today’s post – which is a push boat. Both are towing vessels, of course, and tug versus push is pretty descriptive of the different approaches to the mission which they’re engineered for.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
June 20th, 2015
Kill Van Kull Walking Tour
with Brooklyn Brainery, click here for details and tickets.
green banks
Checking on the scene in DUKBO, in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recently, one attended an excursion with the NYC DEP, the EPA CSTAG committee, and whole lot of other alphabetical agency types. This was a part of the Superfund process, and I was along in my capacity with Newtown Creek Alliance and the Newtown Creek Community Advisory Group. This post won’t discuss the various bits of pedantry and maneuvering between the various entities onboard, and is instead a progress report centered the Kosciuszko Bridge construction and replacement project underway at my beloved Newtown Creek.
From the landward side, it’s difficult to see what progress has been made here, but as with all points of view around the Newtown Creek – all is revealed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Skanska is the principal on the project, and they are drumming right along.
As you can see, on “used to be Cherry Street” over in Greenpoint, steel frames for the concrete legs of the new bridge have risen. My understanding is that the foundations for the bridge footings were laid back during the winter, and that despite the freezing conditions, work was well underway by the time things began to warm up in April.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The new Kosciuszko Bridge is going to be significantly lower in height than the current span, but will incorporate several design features to alleviate the congestion which has been found at the intersection of Long Island Expressway and Brooklyn Queens Expressway for generations. The project is playing out in several phases, with the first one being the construction of the new bridge and rerouting of its 2.1 miles of approach roads and the demolition of the 1939 era bridge.
When all that’s done, they start on the easterly half of the new Kosciuszko Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The new Kosciuszko Bridge is going to be of the “cable stay” type, which will make it a novelty in NYC. Most exciting for me is the promise of a pedestrian walkway on the western side of the span, which should make for some interesting visuals – “I should only live so long enough to see it finished” is what my Gradmother would have said.
Personally, I’m going to refer to it as “climbing K2.”
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
June 7th, 2015
13 Steps Around Dutch Kills Walking Tour
with Newtown Creek Alliance, click here for details and tickets.
June 11th, 2015
MADE IN BROOKLYN Hidden Harbor Boat Tour
with Working Harbor Committee, click here for details and tickets.
June 13th, 2015
The Insalubrious Valley of the Newtown Creek Walking Tour
with Atlas Obscura, click here for details and tickets.
June 20th, 2015
Kill Van Kull Walking Tour
with Brooklyn Brainery, click here for details and tickets.
powdered exquisites
The state of the Newtown Pentacle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whenever I’m not pouring coffee or whiskey down my throat hole, I seem to be fretting. I’m not playing guitar (fret… get it? Ha!), instead one is usually sweating what the next post is going to be either here at Newtown Pentacle or for Brownstoner. There’s also freelance projects – I’m still sort of engaged with the Red Hook people, for instance, and there’s the whole NY Harbor thing as well.
2014 wasn’t exactly a banner year, financially speaking, but I’ve been keeping pretty busy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A bunch of cool posts have been produced over the last year for the O’Connell Organization’s Red Hook Waterfront site which I’d encourage you to check out. I’m the photographer for nearly everything at that website, and act as primary writer on most of the posts, although they are often heavily edited (which is a part of the process on freelance jobs).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Over at Brownstoner Queens, I’ve got two posts a week to fill. Of particular note in the last quarter of 2014 was when I scooped the NY Times and every news source in the City, this post about getting high in LIC, this one about finding where you used to be able to find a pint of Guinness, Halloween in Astoria, and my reactions to the latest attempts at decking over the Sunnyside Yards. More recently, a walk led by Queens Borough Historian Dr. Jack Eichenbaum was attended out in Willets Point.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I tweet the Brownstoner and Red Hook postings out whenever they appear, so if you use Twitter and care about staying in touch with my various offerings, click through to the link below and subscribe to my feed. You can also follow Newtown Pentacle in a reader like Feedly or whatever via the handy RSS Feed link at top right of this page. Additionally, there’s an email signup box at top right which will deliver these posts to you whenever one is published. An appeal is offered to you to please share these posts of mine, if at all possible, on your Facebook wall or on twitter.
There’s a bunch of buttons at the bottom of every post which makes it easy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few people have asked me when the Newtown Creek tours will start up again, and my answer is purposely vague. It’s likely that we’ll get going again in April or thereabouts, but right now… brrr. The weather is too unpredictable and the possibility of ice and snow causing slip hazards along the way is too great. There’s a couple of interesting things cooking, but nothing definite enough to mention yet.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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