Archive for the ‘newtown creek’ Category
MV Red Hook at Brooklyn Bridge
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle suffers much for my obsessions with the municipal sewage infrastructure of the City of Greater New York. Endless hours of monotone exposition greets her whenever a significant appliance or facility is encountered, and today you- lords and ladies- will share her pain. That’s the M/V Red Hook sludge boat soldiering down the East River, and passing beneath the Brooklyn Bridge.
from wikipedia
Contemporaries marveled at what technology was capable of and the bridge became a symbol of the optimism of the time. John Perry Barlow wrote in the late 20th century of the “literal and genuinely religious leap of faith” embodied in the Brooklyn Bridge … “the Brooklyn Bridge required of its builders faith in their ability to control technology.”
References to “selling the Brooklyn Bridge” abound in American culture, sometimes as examples of rural gullibility but more often in connection with an idea that strains credulity. For example, “If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.” References are often nowadays more oblique, such as “I could sell you some lovely riverside property in Brooklyn …”. George C. Parker and William McCloundy are two early 20th-century con-men who had (allegedly) successfully perpetrated this scam on unwitting tourists. The 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon Bowery Bugs is a joking reference to Bugs “selling” a story of the Brooklyn Bridge to a naive tourist.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Speculative destinations for the Red Hook could include storied Greenpoint, where the product of the Temple of Cloacina might require transport, or the Wards Island facility where the syrupy product of New York’s human infestation will be dewatered and processed into cakes of concentrated nightsoil.
Sludge treatment
The following are typical stages of the sludge treatment process.
Thickening
The sludge produced by primary and secondary treatment is approximately 99% water and must be concentrated to enable its further processing. Thickening tanks allow the sludge to collect, settle and separate from the water for up to 24 hours. The water is then sent back to the head of the plant or to the aeration tanks for additional treatment.
Digestion
After thickening, the sludge is further treated to make it safer for the environment. The sludge is placed in oxygenfree tanks, called digesters, and heated to at least 95 degrees Fahrenheit for between 15 to 20 days. This stimulates the growth of anaerobic bacteria, which consume organic material in the sludge. Unlike the bacteria in the aeration tanks, these bacteria thrive in an oxygen-free or “anaerobic” environment. The digestion process stabilizes the thickened sludge by converting much of the material into water, carbon dioxide and methane gas. The black sludge that remains after digestion has the consistency of pea soup and has little odor. This is called digested sludge.
Methane gas is often used as an energy source at the City’s wastewater treatment plants. The gas may be used in engines to produce electricity or directly drive plant equipment. Gas is also used in boilers to provide heat for digestion and plant-wide buildings. Currently, DEP and the New York Power Authority (NYPA) have jointly installed fuel cells at four of the City’s water pollution control plants; 26th Ward, Red Hook, Oakwood Beach and Hunts Point. Fuel cells convert the methane gas and carbon dioxide into heat and electricity that is then used to operate the plants. This technology contributes to New York City’s efforts to enhance clean air operations at its facilities. There is a significant reduction in air emissions as a result of using fuel cells.
Digester sludge is pumped from sludge storage tanks to a dewatering facility. At some treatment plants, where there are no dewatering facilities on site, the sludge is transported for processing through a pipeline or by a sludge boat to a plant that has a dewatering facility.
opiate peace
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is not a dead place, this Creek which forms the currently undefended border between much of Brooklyn and Queens, despite wholly inaccurate statements to the contrary recently presented by major publications. To begin with, there is the teeming human infestation, whose population is in the millions. Additionally- migratory birds, invertebrate and vertebrate water fauna, and an enormous hidden population of higher mammals lurk amongst the canalized shorelines of the Newtown Creek.
from the nytimes.com– an article that gets a lot of things completely wrong, which is surprising for the times, and seems to be shilling against “Big Oil”
People don’t often think of urban creeks as biodiverse waterways, but Newtown Creek was once a rich tidal estuary popular among hunters and fishermen. Starting in the 1870s, however, Standard Oil and other refineries began spilling or dumping excess fuels and toxic chemicals into the water or onto the soil, slowly poisoning the ecosystem.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Famously and recently, a Dolphin’s appearance near the Pulaski Bridge excited the neighboring communities, but such extravagances of nature would have a difficult time at Newtown Creek. There are ocean going and brackish water fish that get swept into the Creek by the East River’s irresistible tidal cycles, which actually drown in the oxygen poor water, but I’ve observed other things swimming in its shallow depths. Weird squamous things that defy description, burrowers and soft bodied tunnelers which thrive in the putrid muds that line its soft bottom. Perhaps, when the federal EPA superfund work begins, studies of these uncommented organisms will commence.
Hey, not everything that lives is beautiful, but against all the odds- life is tenacious and nature will find a way to get by.
from epa.gov
Newtown Creek is a part of the New York – New Jersey Harbor Estuary that forms the northernmost border between the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. In the mid 1800s, the area adjacent to the 3.8 mile Newtown Creek was one of the busiest hubs of industrial activity in New York City. More than 50 refineries were located along its banks, including oil refineries, petrochemical plants, fertilizer and glue factories, sawmills, and lumber and coal yards. The creek was crowded with commercial vessels, including large boats bringing in raw materials and fuel and taking out oil, chemicals and metals. In addition to the industrial pollution that resulted from all of this activity, the city began dumping raw sewage directly into the water in 1856. During World War II, the creek was one of the busiest ports in the nation. Currently, factories and facilities still operate along the creek. Various contaminated sites along the creek have contributed to the contamination at Newtown Creek. Today, as a result of its industrial history, including countless spills, Newtown Creek is one of the nation’s most polluted waterways.
Various sediment and surface water samples have been taken along the creek. Pesticides, metals, PCBs, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are potentially harmful contaminants that can easily evaporate into the air, have been detected at the creek.
In the early 1990s, New York State declared that Newtown Creek was not meeting water quality standards under the Clean Water Act. Since then, a number of government sponsored cleanups of the creek have taken place. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has sampled sediment and surface water at a number of locations along the creek since 1980. In 2009, EPA will further sample the sediment throughout the length of Newtown Creek and its tributaries. The samples will be analyzed for a wide range of industrial contaminants. EPA will use the data collected to define the nature of the environmental problems associated with Newtown Creek as a whole.
after cycles incalculable
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Romans had one of their very practical holidays scheduled for this week of the year, a mostly forgotten rite called the Lemuralia.
from wikipedia
In Roman religion, the Lemuralia or Lemuria was a feast during which the ancient Romans performed rites to exorcise the malevolent and fearful ghosts of the dead from their homes. The unwholesome spectres of the restless dead, the lemures or larvae were propitiated with offerings of beans. On those days, the Vestals would prepare sacred mola salsa, a salted flour cake, from the first ears of wheat of the season.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The notion of vengeful ghosts, whom the Romans would call- in hushed whispers- the Larvae is ancient and seems to be bred into the human specie.
Those who celebrated the Lemuralia, walked barefooted, washed their hands three times, and threw nine times black beans behind their backs, believing by this ceremony to secure themselves against the Lemures (Varro, Vita pop. Rom. Fragm. p241, ed. Bipont.; Servius, ad Aen. I.276).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Egyptians had their Khu, and China has the Hungry Ghosts, even the Inuit tradition carries a haunting cadre of supernormal entities.
from wikipedia
In Roman mythology, lemures (singular lemur) were shades or spirits of the restless or malignant dead, and are probably cognate with an extended sense of larvae (sing. larva = mask) as disturbing or frightening. Lemures is the more common literary term but even this is rare: it is used by Horace, and by Ovid in his Fasti. Lemures may represent the wandering and vengeful spirits of those not afforded proper burial, funeral rites or affectionate cult by the living: they are not attested by tomb or votive inscriptions. Ovid interprets them as vagrant, unsatiated and potentially vengeful di manes or di parentes (ancestral gods of the underworld). To him, the rites of their cult suggest an incomprehensibly archaic, quasi-magical and probably very ancient rural tradition. Much later, St. Augustine describes both the lemures and the larvae as evil and restless manes that torment and terrify the living: lares, on the other hand, are good manes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Of course, our life here in the Newtown Pentacle is defined by more mundane concepts and material realizations. The Larvae we experience in early May, like these enigmatic critters found near the Hunters Point Ave. Station on Skillman Avenue, are decidedly “normal” and also happen to be native New Yorkers.
Your humble narrator has stumbled before, but with extensive comparison to extant critter speciation via the google… I’m going to go out on a limb here and proclaim these squirming masses of endless hunger Malacosoma Americanum!!! That’s the Eastern Tent Caterpillar to you, Lords and Ladies!!!
and apologies for the “out on a limb” pun- couldn’t resist…
(and also, I could be totally wrong- but these guys look like Malacosoma Americanum to me- if you can confirm or deny, please leave a comment)
from wikipedia
The newly hatched caterpillars initiate the construction of a silk tent soon after emerging. They typically aggregate at the tent site for the whole of their larval life, expanding the tent each day to accommodate their increasing size. Under field conditions, the caterpillars feed three times each day, just before dawn, at mid-afternoon, and in the evening after sunset. During each bout of feeding the caterpillars emerge from the tent, add silk to the structure, move to distant feeding sites en masse, feed, then return immediately to the tent where they rest until the next activity period. The exception to this pattern occurs in the last instar when the caterpillars feed only at night. The caterpillars lay down pheromone trails to guide their movements between the tent and feeding sites. The insect has six larval instars. When fully grown, the caterpillars disperse and construct cocoons in protected places. The adult moths (imago) emerge about two weeks later. They are rather strictly nocturnal and start flying after nightfall, then possibly stop some hours before dawn. Mating and oviposition typically occur on the same day as the moths emerge from their cocoons; the females die soon thereafter.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Positively raining down from the trees, vast chaotics of these crawlers were observed the other day trying to cross Skillman Avenue, heading eastward.
The Eastern Tent Caterpillar, Malacosoma americanum (Fabricius) is reported to have been present in the United States since the 1600’s, and is responsible for forming unsightly silk-webbed nests at branch forks. Their population peaks every 8 to 10 years, when large infestations can completely defoliate trees in late spring/early summer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Virtually impossible to find footing which did not render a horrible and crushing extermination, I nevertheless scuttled forth and picked my way amongst them. In the back of my mind, I wondered what evolutionary adaptations they might have developed to accommodate the environmental hostility of this section of Long Island City. There is a High School across the street, of course- surrounded by the tunnels, trains, highways, bridges, and the cemented reality of an area defined by the junction of the main waterway of the Newtown Creek with its bubbly tributary- the canalized Dutch Kills. Just a block away is the Empty Corridor.
from esf.edu
These caterpillars produce the conspicuous silken tents commonly seen in the spring on branches of favored host trees. The tents consist of numerous layers of dense silk webbing which contain much excrement and numerous molted skins.
The female moths are dull reddish-brown with a wing expanse of 1 1/2 to 2 inches. Males are smaller. The front wings of each are crossed by two whitish, oblique, parallel lines.
Mature larvae, or caterpillars, are 2 to 2 1/2 inches long. The head and body are generally deep black. There is a white stripe along the back of the body and a row of oval, pale blue spots on each side. There are many short, irregular brownish markings on the side of each body segment. Long, fine, brown hairs sparsely clothe the body.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These wriggling americans were pursuing some unknown goal in the direction of that High School, and the actions of automotive traffic along Skillman Avenue upon their migration is a detail best left unheralded. Vast hatcheries of avian predators swirled above.
from nysipm.cornell.edu
Manual destruction of egg masses and tents is an excellent way to control populations. Be advised that the hairs on caterpillars may be irritating to skin.
Twigs encased by egg masses should be pruned out. Tents can also be pruned out or be destroyed by winding around a stick or with a strong jet of water (the best time to destroy tents is before caterpillars leave to feed). Do not attempt to burn tents as this can cause more harm than good.
Tent destruction has another benefit in that it exposes caterpillars to birds and other natural enemies which can help keep populations in check. Eastern tent caterpillars are parasitized by braconid, ichneumonid, and chalcid wasps.
Other control options are available: Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki is useful in the early spring when applied to young larvae, as is insecticidal soap which should be used when caterpillars are out of tents and feeding on leaves. Take care to avoid applying soaps in unsuitable weather conditions (like hot temperatures) as this can lead to phytotoxicity and leaf damage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The univoltine holocaust playing out all around me forced me to rumination, a meditative practice whose purpose is to ward off the periodic moments of panic and fainting which have so afflicted me in the past. Feckless quisling and physical coward both, your humble narrator revels in heroic tales of the past, for the future is a paralysis of logical progressions and dire portent.
from wikipedia
The origin of the festival of All Saints celebrated in the West dates to May 13, 609 or 610, when Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon at Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs; the feast of the dedicatio Sanctae Mariae ad Martyres has been celebrated at Rome ever since. The chosen day, May 13, was a pagan observation of great antiquity, the culmination of three days of the Feast of the Lemures, in which the malevolent and restless spirits of the dead were propitiated. Liturgiologists of the Middle Ages based the idea that this Lemuria festival was the origin of that of All Saints on their identical dates and on the similar theme of “all the dead”.
The feast of All Saints, on its current date, is traced to the foundation by Pope Gregory III (731–741) of an oratory in St. Peter’s for the relics “of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors, of all the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world”, with the day moved to November 1.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Negative thoughts, though, on a sunny warm day in the City of Greater New York will only attract attention to you. Best to throw open the psychic windows and air the mental house out, clean up and organize for the coming summer. Perhaps the Romans had something after all, the Lemuralia was always accompanied by a general cleaning of the home, a spring cleaning.
from wikipedia
On Sunday, 13 May 1917, ten year old Lúcia Santos and her younger cousins, siblings Jacinta and Francisco Marto, were tending sheep at a location known as the Cova da Iria near their home village of Fátima in Portugal. Lúcia described seeing a woman “brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal ball filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun.” Further appearances are reported to have taken place on the thirteenth day of the month in June and July. In these, the woman exhorted the children to do penance and to make sacrifices to save sinners. The children subsequently wore tight cords around their waists to cause pain, abstained from drinking water on hot days, and performed other works of penance. Most importantly, Lúcia said that the lady had asked them to pray the rosary every day, repeating many times that the rosary was the key to personal and world peace. This had particular resonance since many Portuguese men, including relatives of the visionaries, were then fighting in World War I.
According to Lúcia’s account, in the course of her appearances, the woman confided to the children three secrets, now known as the Three Secrets of Fátima.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Lemures are always with us, after all, and they’ll always be back.
Have a good day on the 13th of May, eat something bad for you with someone you love- and fellows- wash your hands and throw some black beans around the neighborhood later. You never know.
I really have to recommend against walking bare footed, however.
Circumnavigation 4
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After sliding past the Williamsburg Bridge, the Circle Line narrator began to talk about Queensboro (he called it 59th street bridge- grrrr) and didn’t mention the Newtown Creek. Tourists wouldn’t want to hear about that story, I guess. One thing that really annoyed your humble narrator were the constant references to pop culture icons like the Seinfeld sitcom and the Spiderman movies. Realization that that’s what tourists have as touchstones for NYC is obviated, but still… blurring the line between fantasy and reality is a real issue in the modern world.
from wikipedia
George Louis Costanza is a fictional character in the American television sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998), played by Jason Alexander. He has variously been described as a “short, stocky, slow-witted, bald man” (by Elaine Benes and Costanza himself), “Lord of the Idiots” (by Costanza himself), and as “the greatest sitcom character of all time”. He is friends with Jerry Seinfeld, Cosmo Kramer, and Elaine Benes. George appears in every episode except for “The Pen” (third season). The character was originally loosely based on Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, but surnamed after Jerry Seinfeld’s real-life New York friend, Mike Costanza.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The power of cinema and television to present a cogent and absorbing telling of historical events is actually a dangerous thing. Again, I realize that the tourists aboard the Circle Line aren’t looking for hardcore history, but there’s a lot to say about the Queensboro bridge that doesn’t involve the Green Goblin or George Costanza. History is made not by accurate or cogent catalogs of events, but by distribution. The reason we know about Aristotle or Voltaire is that MANY copies of their work were made, distributed across a wide area, and were quoted by others. This means that distaff copies of their work survived the fires and floods. This means that to future eyes, the surviving copies of Spiderman and Goodfellas might be all they have.
Which makes me wonder if Pliny the Younger might have been the Dean Koontz of his time.
from wikipedia
As they watch over May in the hospital, Mary Jane tells Peter she has a crush on Spider-Man, and Peter expresses his own feelings for her. Harry catches them holding hands and tells his father about their love for each other. Now knowing that Spider-Man has feelings for Mary Jane, the Goblin lures him to the top of the Queensboro Bridge by taking Mary Jane and a Roosevelt Island Tramway car full of children hostage, then drops both at the same time. Spider-Man saves them all, but the Goblin takes him to an abandoned building for a fight. Spider-man eventually defeats and unmasks the Goblin, and Norman dies after asking Peter not to tell Harry that he (Norman) was the Goblin.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As the boat passed Roosevelt Island, the looming hotel construction sites of Queens Plaza rise behind it. Within a few years, tens of thousands of Queens Plaza and Dutch Kills hotel rooms will be serving the self same tourist trade which is satisfied by attractions like these Circle Line cruises. Perhaps this is what we New Yorkers are destined to become, apes in a steel and glass cage put on display for foreigners as we live out our funny lives. Just like on Seinfeld.
from wikipedia
Tourism in New York City includes nearly 47 million foreign and American tourists each year. Major destinations include the Empire State Building, Ellis Island, Broadway theatre productions, museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other tourist attractions including Central Park, Washington Square Park, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the Bronx Zoo, South Street Seaport, New York Botanical Garden, luxury shopping along Fifth and Madison Avenues, and events such as the Tribeca Film Festival, and free performances in Central Park at Summerstage and Delacorte Theater. The Statue of Liberty is a major tourist attraction and one of the most recognizable icons of the United States. Many New York City ethnic enclaves, such as Jackson Heights, Flushing, and Brighton Beach are major shopping destinations for first and second generation Americans up and down the East Coast.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Of course, the folks whose lives are a little too funny can be found on Ward’s Island at the psychiatric hospitals that serve the City of Greater New York. I’m never quite sure which building is which in this complex, as your humble narrator is convinced that getting too close to a madhouse would be injurious to his freedoms, but this is either the 509 bed Manhattan Psychiatric Center (I lean toward this) or the maximum security Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center. The Circle Line narration didn’t mention either.
from soundportraits.org
There seem to be two constants to life on Ward 2-West. One of these is violence. The state considers the staffers who work on the ward to hold the single most dangerous job in New York, with the highest injury rate of any profession. The other constant on the ward is noise. There is nowhere to escape it, although there is one patient who seems to have adapted to it quite well. His name is Peter, and you can always find him at the front of the dayroom, hunched over a table peacefully drawing with yellow plugs stuffed deep into his ears. He is about 50 years old, has curly brown hair and a graying beard, gentle eyes behind thick glasses. Before committing his crime, Peter was a successful commercial artist. Today he’s working on a still life with pastels.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Amongst the more pleasant realities of the trip was this view of the Hell’s Gate with its two spans- the Triborough Bridge(s) and the Hellgate railroad Bridge. The plane taking off from nearby LaGuardia airport was pure serendipity.
from wikipedia
Hell Gate is a narrow tidal strait in the East River in New York City in the United States. It separates Astoria, Queens from Randall’s Island/Ward’s Island (formerly two separate islands that are now joined by landfill).
It was spanned in 1917 by the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge (now called the Hell Gate Bridge), which connects the Ward’s Island and Queens. The bridge provides a direct rail link between New England and New York City. In 1936 it was spanned by the Triborough Bridge (now called the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge), allowing vehicular traffic to pass between Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Hellgate Bridge has long graded approaches which sprawl out all the way to the Sunnyside Yards on one side and continental North America on the other, providing a freight and rail link between the archipelago of islands which form this City-State of ours. Triborough’s approaches and ramps are almost too numerous for me to count.
from wikipedia
The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, better known as the Triborough or Triboro Bridge, is a complex of three separate bridges in New York City, United States. Spanning the Harlem River, the Bronx Kill, and the Hell Gate (part of the East River), the bridges connect the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, and The Bronx via Randall’s Island and Ward’s Island, which are joined by landfill.
Often historically referred to as simply the Triboro, the spans were officially named after Robert F. Kennedy in 2008.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As the boat motored past Ward’s Island, where the Canadian theatrical provocateur’s called Cirque du Soleil had set up a circus tent, the Amtrak Acela rumbled over the Hellgate tracks. The last part of this trip that I can claim intimacy with until we returned to the Hudson, the Circle Line continued Northward.
Venturing into the “not part of my beat” areas of the City of Greater New York which your humble narrator is least familiar with- specifically the northeast sections of Manhattan and La Bronx, I actually got see a few things I didn’t even suspect…
from wikipedia
Acela Express (often simply Acela) is Amtrak’s high-speed rail service along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) in the Northeast United States between Washington, D.C., and Boston via Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. It uses tilting technology which allows the train to travel at higher speeds on the sharply curved NEC without disturbing passengers, by lowering lateral centrifugal forces, based on the concept of banked turns.
Acela Express trains are the only true high-speed trainsets in the United States; the highest speed they attain is 150 mph (240 km/h), though they average less than half of that. Acela has become popular with business travelers and by some reckoning has captured over half of the market share of air or train travelers between Washington and New York. Between New York and Boston the Acela Express has up to a 37% share of the train and air market.
Circumnavigation 2
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Onboard the Circle Line, as it passed the Lower Manhattan Financial District, I spotted a couple of interesting things. The Meagan Ann tugboat was pulling a barge of shredded autos, which were reduced to their basic components at an industrial location found along that canalized exemplar of municipal neglect called the Newtown Creek, just up the river.
Here’s a shot of that Newtown Creek auto shredding operation which I took last year:
– photo by Mitch Waxman
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Meagan Ann is a twin-engine, 2,250 HP coastal towing tug, built in 1975 and rebuilt in 1988, approximately 81 feet long and formerly known as the Scorpius. It is owned and operated by Donjon Marine towing, Inc.
from donjon.com
Since its incorporation in 1966, Donjon Marine has established and continues to seek long-term client relationships in a world where limited business resources demand a constant balancing of expenditures. Beginning with its foundation in the New York area as a pioneer in marine salvages services, Donjon has grown to become a leader in both conventional and environmental dredging. Our areas of expertise also include recycling, land and marine demolition, pollution control and remediation, heavy lift transport, marine transportation and landfill remediation/site management. Donjon and its affiliates maintain offices, assets and personnel throughout the Northeast, with operations spanning the globe.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Also witnessed by your humble narrator were regular comings and goings of Helicopter flights from the East River Piers found alongside the Financial District. It’s a Eurocopter AS-350B-2 Ecureuil, based at the West 30th street Heliport and operated by Liberty Helicoptors.
The largest helicopter sightseeing and charter service in the Northeast. Liberty Helicopters is currently the only authorized helicopter sightseeing company in New York City. We began in the charter business on April 22, 1986 and added sightseeing tours of New York City originating from the VIP heliport on September 6th, 1990. At that time, Liberty had begun an aggressive plan selling in both the domestic and international markets. Using our strong customer base afforded us the opportunity to open a second location at the downtown Manhattan heliport in 1995. Liberty Helicopters was not only the first company to operate sightseeing tours from this multi-million dollar facility, but also the first to offer our customers the convenience of two Manhattan locations. On May 1, 2004, we opened a third heliport at the Paulus Hook Pier located in the newly developed area of the Colgate section of Jersey City, N.J. In addition to our “once in a lifetime” helicopter tours, this facility operates both commuter and sightseeing ferry services, making it a very accessible facility to Manhattan.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Of course, once we reached the grandest structure in the entire megalopolis (if you consider New York City to be composed of individual parts as opposed to being one gigantic system of transit, power, and satellite cities that stretches for hundreds of miles in every direction) your humble narrator forgot all about Sludge boats, Tugs, and aircraft. I’m always amazed at the scale and classical proportions of the Brooklyn Bridge.
from wikipedia
The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. At 5,989 feet (1825 m), it was the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge.
Originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, it was dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge in an 1867 letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and formally so named by the city government in 1915. Since its opening, it has become an iconic part of the New York skyline. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
If it hasn’t been recommended to you yet, by me or others, I have to sing the praises of “The Great Bridge by David McCullough” which details the design and construction of the Brooklyn Bridge as well as providing a real “slice of life” about 19th century New York City. My preference for audiobooks is satisfied by the version available at apple’s iTunes store, and you could do worse things with your hard earned money than pick up the print edition at amazon.
from wikipedia
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, McCullough attended Yale University, earning a degree in English literature. His first book, The Johnstown Flood, was published in 1968; he has since written seven more on topics such as Harry S. Truman, John Adams, and the Brooklyn Bridge. McCullough has also narrated multiple documentaries, as well as the 2003 film Seabiscuit; he also hosted American Experience for twelve years. Two of McCullough’s books, Truman and John Adams, have been adapted into a TV film and mini-series, respectively, by HBO. McCullough’s next work, about Americans in Paris between the 1830s to the 1930s, is due out in 2010.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I don’t remember who the quote is attributed to, but the Ken Burns PBS documentary “Brooklyn Bridge” embedded a notion into me a while back that “all of modern heroic New York began with the building of the Brooklyn Bridge”. I tend to agree with this maxim.
from endex.com
After sixty years of political, financial and technical discussions (including a 6 lane tunnel proposal in the 1830’s), John Roebling’s plan was approved, the New York Bridge Company was formed and, in 1869, construction of the bridge finally began.
The bridge was built over 14 years in the face of enormous difficulties. Roebling died as a result of an accident at the outset; a fire in the Brooklyn Caisson smoldered for weeks; Roebling’s son, Washington, who took over as chief engineer, suffered a crippling attack of the bends during the construction of the Manhattan Caisson, and continued to direct operations, sending messages to the site by his wife, Emily. After the towers were built, a cable parted from its anchorage killing two people; there was fraud perpetrated by the cable contractor.
In the end, John Roebling’s prediction that the promenade above the deck will be “of incalculable value in a crowded commercial city” was justified, together with his perhaps most noted statement, claiming that “the great towers…will be ranked as national monuments. …As a work of art, and a successful specimen of advanced bridge engineering, this structure will forever testify to the energy, enterprise, and wealth of that community which shall secure its erection.”
On May 24, 1883, with schools and businesses closed, the Brooklyn Bridge, also referred to as the “Great East River Bridge”, was opened. Scores of people attended this spectacular ribbon cutting event. Over 100 years later, its renowned beauty & stature is still admired by many New Yorkers & tourists alike.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above is actually from last year (2009), but gives a good sense of the intricate series of roads and onramps that allow Manhattan traffic egress to the bridge.
from pbs.org
- Although he was physically able to leave his apartment, Washington Roebling refused to attend the opening celebration honoring his remarkable achievement.
- The bridge opened to the public on May 24, 1883, at 2:00 p.m. A total of 150,300 people crossed the bridge on opening day. Each person was charged one cent to cross.
- The bridge opened to vehicles on May 24, 1883, at 5:00 p.m. A total of 1,800 vehicles crossed on the first day. Vehicles were charged five cents to cross.
- Today, the Brooklyn Bridge is the second busiest bridge in New York City. One hundred forty-four thousand vehicles cross the bridge every day.
