Archive for the ‘Staten Island’ Category
evil vines
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The good news is that the whole Internet access thing seems to be solved for now, and your humble narrator is once more reliably online. The bad news is that I’m off to Staten Island to conduct a walking tour of the Kill Van Kull instead of doubling down and making up for lost time. Not really bad news of course, as I love doing the whole “reveal thing”, but I am really, really behind on my schedule. If you care to come along, we will be meeting up on the Staten Island side at 11, nearby the northern exit from the St. George ferry terminal, tickets are $20 per head.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Afterwards, I shall race home, or at least move as quickly as New York will allow me to. My plan is to get back to work immediately upon entering HQ. One grows tired and irritable due to this constant state of worry and despair, and looks forward to once again returning to the pure joy of researching, writing about, and photographing the myriad adventures offered within the Newtown Pentacle.
Things to do!
July 28th, 2012- Working Harbor Committee Kill Van Kull walk- This Saturday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Kill Van Kull, or tugboat alley as its known to we harbor rats, is a tidal strait that defines the border of Staten Island and New Jersey. A busy and highly industrialized waterfront, Working Harbor’s popular “Hidden Harbor – Newark Bay” boat tours provide water access to the Kill, but what is it like on the landward side?
Starting at the St. George Staten Island Ferry terminal, join WHC Steering Committee member Mitch Waxman for a walk up the Kill Van Kull via Staten Islands Richmond Terrace. You’ll encounter unrivaled views of the maritime traffic on the Kill itself, as well as the hidden past of the maritime communities which line it’s shores. Surprising and historic neighborhoods, an abandoned railway, and tales of prohibition era bootleggers await.
The tour will start at 11, sharp, and you must be on (at least) the 10:30 AM Staten Island Ferry to meet the group at St. George. Again, plan for transportation changes and unexpected weirdness to be revealed to you at MTA.info.
for July 28th tickets, click here for the Working Harbor Committee ticketing page
August 5th, 2012- Newtown Creek Alliance Walking Tour- The Insalubrious Valley
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Newtown Creek Alliance historian Mitch Waxman will be leading a walk through the industrial heartlands of New York City, exploring the insalubrious valley of the Newtown Creek.
The currently undefended border of Brooklyn and Queens, and the place where the Industrial Revolution actually happened, provides a dramatic and picturesque setting for this exploration. We’ll be visiting two movable bridges, the still standing remains of an early 19th century highway, and a forgotten tributary of the larger waterway. As we walk along the Newtown Creek and explore the “wrong side of the tracks” – you’ll hear tales of the early chemical industry, “Dead Animal and Night Soil Wharfs”, colonial era heretics and witches and the coming of the railroad. The tour concludes at the famed Clinton Diner in Maspeth- where scenes from the Martin Scorcese movie “Goodfellas” were shot.
Lunch at Clinton Diner is included with the ticket.
Details/special instructions.
Meetup at the corner of Grand Street and Morgan Avenue in Brooklyn at 11 a.m. on August 5, 2012. The L train serves a station at Bushwick Avenue and Grand Street, and the Q54 and Q59 bus lines stop nearby as well. Check MTA.info as ongoing weekend construction often causes delays and interruptions. Drivers, it would be wise to leave your vehicle in the vicinity of the Clinton Diner in Maspeth, Queens or near the start of the walk at Grand St. and Morgan Avenue (you can pick up the bus to Brooklyn nearby the Clinton Diner).
Be prepared: We’ll be encountering broken pavement, sometimes heavy truck traffic as we move through a virtual urban desert. Dress and pack appropriately for hiking, closed-toe shoes are highly recommended.
Clinton Diner Menu:
- Cheese burger deluxe
- Grilled chicken over garden salad
- Turkey BLT triple decker sandwich with fries
- Spaghetti with tomato sauce or butter
- Greek salad medium
- Greek Salad wrap with French fries
- Can of soda or 16oz bottle of Poland Spring
for August 5th tickets, click here for the Newtown Creek Alliance ticketing page
perils faced
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Simple of mind, your humble narrator is always overjoyed when a previously unrecorded Tug passes in front of me. This time around, it’s the Mary Alice operated by Donjon Towing. Extensive operations performed by the corporations boats upon my beloved Newtown Creek have been discussed frequently at this, your Newtown Pentacle, and usage of the search box at the upper right hand corner of this page will reveal many of them to those who typed “Donjon” into it’s text field.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
If horses could swim well, it would take 3,000 of them to equal the output of this Tug’s engines, which drive the hundred foot long and 40 foot high boat through the Kill Van Kull along with its barge. A home town girl, Mary Alice was built in 1974.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As she passed me by, the comical windmill generator in Jersey- rising over the oil tanks- came into view. For a while, I’ve been wondering if it was put there to provide comic relief to, or just taunt, the petrochemical companies located on the Kill Van Kull. That’s this week’s Maritime Sunday, Lords and Ladies.
circumstance manifest
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just a short one today, on this Maritime Sunday.
A recent shot gathered onboard the Working Harbor Committee’s Port Newark Tour. Depicted is the Gramma Lee T Moran tugboat hurtling down the Kill Van Kull past the Atlantic Salt facility on Staten Island. Gramma has been described in some detail at this, your Newtown Pentacle, in the posting “Crooked Boughs” from back in December of 2011.
The Working Harbor 2012 Schedule is well underway-
- Next Tuesday is the
North River tour, with the legendary Bill MillerBrooklyn Tour, with Dan Wiley joining Capt. Doswell on the mike. - My own Newtown Creek tour is on the 22nd of this month.
- Captain Margaret Flanagan will be leading a walking tour of South Street Seaport, the next one is on July 21.
- Another Staten Island Walking Tour will be forthcoming from your humble narrator on July the 28th.
Check out workingharbor.com for details and excursion schedules. Also, check out the Working Harbor blog here.
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Click for details on Mitch Waxman’s
Upcoming boat tours of Newtown Creek
July 22nd, 2012- Working Harbor Committee Newtown Creek Boat Tour
mad spaces
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An upcoming walking tour, the Kill Van Kull walk for the Working Harbor Committee on June 30th, has called for repeated journeys to… Staten Island… to be undertaken by a humble narrator. Operations of the Staten Island Ferry make this possible, of course, and provide ample opportunity for the wandering photographer to gather interesting maritime shots.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Goliath hulks like the fuel tanker in the shot above are commonly seen awaiting favorable tide or berthing around this boundary between Upper and Lower Harbors, but off in the distance is one of the true monsters of the sea.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Dockwise Heavy Lift Ship Swan, which is basically a floating dry dock, and those are tugboats on its deck.
Far Eastern correspondent Armstrong, who has been writing the Working Harbor Committee blog for a while now, offered:
A heavy lift ship is designed to move large loads that can’t be handled by normally equipped ships. They are two types: semi-submerging – able to sink down into the water to lift ships and other heavy cargo onto deck for transport; and vessels that supplement unloading facilities at ports with inadequate equipment.
Swan is a semi-submersible heavy load vessel. The ship is 592 feet long (180.5m) and 105 feet wide (32.3m). The Swan’s massive deck is 416 x 103 feet (126.8m x 31.6m) and can handle a deck load of 56.616-20 tonnes/sq.m which translates to about 25,000 tons of heavy cargo.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Apologies are offered for Image fidelity outside of the normal mean, but this ship was FAR away, and these are actual pixel, 100% pixel size and highly “cropped in” shots which represent less than a 10th of the total image originally captured. It was also kind of misty.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Surprises like the Swan often lurk just off the shore of… Staten Island… The waters surrounding it provide egress to the cargo docks of Port Elizabeth Newark, especially the busy Kill Van Kull.
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Also:
June 16th, 2012- Newtown Creek Alliance Dutch Kills walk (this Saturday)
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Newtown Creek Alliance has asked that, in my official capacity as group historian, a tour be conducted on the 16th of June- a Saturday. This walk will follow the Dutch Kills tributary, and will include a couple of guest speakers from the Alliance itself, which will provide welcome relief for tour goers from listening to me rattle on about Michael Degnon, Patrick “Battle Ax” Gleason, and a bunch of bridges that no one has ever heard of.
for June 16th tickets, click here for the Newtown Creek Alliance ticketing page
June 23rd, 2012- Atlas Obscura Thirteen Steps around Dutch Kills walk
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Additionally- the “Obscura Day” Thirteen Steps around Dutch Kills tour proved that the efficacy and charms of the Newtown Creek’s least known tributary, with its myriad points of interest, could cause a large group to overlook my various inadequacies and failings. The folks at Atlas Obscura, which is a fantastic website worthy of your attentions (btw), have asked me to repeat the tour on the 23rd of June- also a Saturday.
for June 23rd tickets, click here for the Atlas Obscura ticketing page
June 30th, 2012- Working Harbor Committee Kill Van Kull walk
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My various interests out on the sixth borough, NY Harbor, have brought me into association with the Working Harbor Committee. A member of the group’s Steering Committee- I also serve as the “official” group photographer, am chairman and principal narrator of their annual Newtown Creek Boat Tour, and occasionally speak on the microphone during other tours (mainly the Brooklyn one). This year, the group has branched out into terrestrial explorations to compliment the intense and extant schedule of boat tours, and I’m going to be leading a Kill Van Kull walking tour that should be a lot of fun.
The Kill Van Kull, or tugboat alley as its known to we harbor rats, is a tidal strait that defines the border of Staten Island and New Jersey. A busy and highly industrialized waterfront, Working Harbor’s popular “Hidden Harbor – Newark Bay” boat tours provide water access to the Kill, but what is it like on the landward side?
Starting at the St. George Staten Island Ferry terminal, join WHC Steering Committee member Mitch Waxman for a walk up the Kill Van Kull via Staten Islands Richmond Terrace. You’ll encounter unrivaled views of the maritime traffic on the Kill itself, as well as the hidden past of the maritime communities which line it’s shores. Surprising and historic neighborhoods, an abandoned railway, and tales of prohibition era bootleggers await.
The tour will start at 11, sharp, and you must be on (at least) the 10:30 AM Staten Island Ferry to meet the group at St. George. Again, plan for transportation changes and unexpected weirdness to be revealed to you at MTA.info.
for June 30th tickets, click here for the Working Harbor Committee ticketing page
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