Archive for the ‘New York Harbor’ Category
lasting merely
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The other day, while onboard the Working Harbor Committee’s inaugural “Beyond Sandy” cruise, I spotted this fishing boat. Seawolf was not a small boat, and was crossing beneath the Verrazzano Bridge on its way back from some unknown place. It is mentioned, if only to provide one with a sense of scale.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In the distance, a car carrier called Eminent Ace had just begun a journey of its own. A “Ro-Ro,” car carriers like this allow a fleet of newly manufactured vehicles to be driven on and off the ship and unloaded without the usage of Gantry Cranes, hence “Roll on, Roll off” or “Ro-Ro.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Sea Wolf in the lower right hand corner of the shot above, which provides, as mentioned- a sense of scale. It’s often hard to calculate or understand the size of maritime structures like Eminent Ace without some sort of rubric against which to measure them. Luckily, this maritime Sunday, such a visual cue was available.
The Poison Cauldron- Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
Kill Van Kull- Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
untold number
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The site walk through which Sims Metal Management offered me was just coming to an end when the car carrier, pictured above, arrived. My tenders offered that we should move to a safe distance and accordingly we circled around to an opportune spot with efficacious lighting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These cars were compacted and processed by a separate company, and Sims purchases them. Gas tanks and volatile fluids have been removed, as well as other proscribed components. Sims will be sending this off to another one of their facilities to be shredded, which I suspect will located in New Jersey.
If so, this report from videos.nj.com describes the incredible shredding machine which will make short work of these autos, literally reducing them to pellet sized grains of metal in seconds, which is called the Mega Shredder.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Last week, the posting “seething column” offered animated gifs of the action depicted in today’s post. It is hard to describe the sensation of seeing recognizable objects of calculable weight and substance being handled and swung about by the Materials Handler with such seeming ease.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One after another, the autos came off the carrier and were subjected to a little extra dose of compacting. The Materials Handler would rear up and then smash its current charge on to the pile. It was all very exciting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The device itself utilized the installed claw tool to grasp and tear and crush. It’s a Sennebogen, manufactured by a German corporation which is operated by a single family and was founded by an enigmatic sire, not unlike the fabled deutschland clan called Steinway who left such an indelible stamp on the surrounding communities.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Soon, the truck was emptied and the autos deigned for shredding piled neatly on the dock.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One by one, they were all loaded on to a waiting barge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My visit came to an end soon after, and we headed back toward the front gate. On the way, the damage inflicted by Hurricane Sandy upon the terminal was described as we toured the generator room and some of the other interior spaces at the facility.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Special thanks are offered for allowing one such as myself, and by extension- all of you Lords and Ladies of the Newtown Pentacle- into the Sims Metal Management Queens terminal for a day. Special thanks to Daniel Strechay, Dave, Paul Lawrence, and especially Tom Outerbridge for inviting us in for a visit.
Upcoming tours:
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, May 25, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
The Poison Cauldron- Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
Kill Van Kull- Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
golden nebulae
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One such as myself is drawn to certain locales normally shunned by the teeming masses of the vast human hive. Obsessive, my long standing fascination with the processes and mores of the waste disposal and handling industries have led me to waste transfer stations, sewer plants, even cemeteries. Luckily, my beloved Newtown Creek offers exemplars of each, but there has always been a certain spot which has caught my fancy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Located at the junction of Newtown Creek with its tributary, Dutch Kills, a particular industrial site has long tantalized. Several years of stalking the place have provided for a extraordinary images, and whether onboard a vessel or on foot, visitors to the watershed are seldom disappointed by this singular location with its frenetic activity, maritime splendor, and constantly moving heavy equipment.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It isn’t a terribly large facility, by Newtown Creek standards, which hosts massive properties like the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment plant, the former Standard Oil properties along Kingsland and Norman, Calvary Cemetery, the former Phelps Dodge location, or the enormous National Grid parcel. It is fortuitously located, with maritime bulkheads and along a rail line.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The sites history is storied, for this was once the home of the LIRR Manure dock, wherein the rail company’s freight operations collected that which the age of horse and carriage produced. Infamous in the historical record- this dock exhibited, in the open air, a 30 foot high and three football field long mound of human and animal manure.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The material was largely destined for use as fertilizer on the catholic estates in Jamaica, Queens, and some was shipped to points further east where it was sold as a commodity to Long Island farmers. There was also a market for the stuff, along the creek, as a raw material in the acid and fertilizer factories which lined the Queens or northern bank during the late 1800’s.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Often remarked upon by those of us who puzzle over the Newtown Creek’s unique history- during the hypercapitalist 19th century era, recycling and repurposing waste materials was referred to with the aphorism “waste not, want not” and great profits could be realized by “using every part of the pig but the squeal” as Chicago’s Philip Armour once said.
Modernity strives to achieve such profitable utility in the handling and “recycling” of our waste materials, something that seemed to have been forgotten during the decades of excess following the Second World War and which is painfully and expensively being reimagined by engineers today.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Long have my eyes desired to look upon this place directly, and not dependent on the focal and resolution of long lenses. Recent happenstance, running into an acquaintance who could arrange a site visit at a waterfront conference, finally allowed your humble narrator to approach and inspect this object of my affections.
This week we will be exploring the Queens Terminal of Sims Metal Management, found in Blissville, along the lugubrious Newtown Creek.
Upcoming tours:
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, May 25, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
The Poison Cauldron- Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
Kill Van Kull- Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
deeds and aspect
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photos by Mitch Waxman
For this Maritime Sunday, check out the show (visible from the infinities of Brooklyn) which was playing out on the East River last Friday.
What you’re seeing are two Moran Tugs- The Doris Moran and the James Turecamo- towing a floating dry dock past midtown. The Caddell company’s gargantuan… dare I say cyclopean… equipment is an amazing maritime structure. A floating dry dock will submerge itself, whereupon a boat will be floated into position over it, and the structure will rise up and capture the vessel. The dry dock will fully resurface and lift the ship into the air, allowing repairs and maintenance to be performed.
– photos by Mitch Waxman
Here’s a shot of a tug undergoing repair on another one of Cadell’s drydocks at the Kill Van Kull.
Upcoming tours:
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, May 25, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
The Poison Cauldron- Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
Kill Van Kull- Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
sacred grove
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Maspeth Creek, at low tide, does not smell like lilacs. A lot of that is due to the natural actions and out gassing of exposed mud flats, but the miasma which plagues the area around it is due to the combined sewer outfall (CSO NC-077, which discharges better than 288 million gallons a year of untreated sewerage into the water). The waterway, severely truncated and canalized, was locked into its current shape and size back in 1914 by the Army Corps of Engineers at the behest of the United States War Department. Nearby was the LIRR Haberman siding, and this was a strategic locale during the early 20th century full of chemical plants and manufacturing companies.
Once, Maspeth Creek ran nearly all the way to Elmhurst, rather than ending in an open sewer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Descriptions of this area, in particular, tickle the fancy of those who come to Newtown Creek with preconceived notions about the place. Here they find stink and sediment mounds, and witness abandoned cars dissolving slowly into its waters. As early as 1908, reports of the area describe it as a “dismal swamp, distributing evil smells and ugly to the last degree.” Witnesses in the early 20th century detailed the presence of railroad yards, factories, acid running from open pipes into the water, fat boiling in open vessels, oil works and chemical yards.
Nearby were the bone blackers, fat renderers, and every sort of malodorous occupation imaginable.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is mysterious, to me, that I have been unable to find mention of the place in literature from the so called “muck raker” era whose setting involves this area- the closest you get is in “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” Accounts of Packing Town in Chicago abound, notably in Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle.” Nellie Bly drew a cogent picture of being institutionalized on Blackwells Island in “10 days in a madhouse” and everyone from Walt Whitman to Horace Greely have left behind accounts of the miseries of Manhattan’s working class communities and the horrible conditions encountered around the factories which lined its riverfront shorelines.
How odd it is that this spot, so close to the geographic center of New York City and with a rich colonial era history, has escaped comment by any other than just a few long dead journalists and a half dead yet humble narrator.
Upcoming tours:
Parks and Petroleum- Sunday, May 12, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, May 25, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
The Newtown Pentacle 