Posts Tagged ‘New York City’
waxen mask
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wandering aimlessly, that agglutination of wounds, phobias, and general wreckage which you might describe as a humble narrator recently found himself on the acclaimed Borden Avenue Bridge. The existential issues of life in the Big City are quite bothersome, and distract from pursuits of finer cast and higher intellectual firmament, but a fellow must eat (or be eaten). “Bucks, burgers, and beer” after all… it’s just the cold has gotten me down.
Problems maintaining biological homeostasis and personal comforts plague one’s patience during the winter months, for my dynamic equilibrium adjustment and regulation mechanisms are all ‘effed up.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hand wringing is a necessary pursuit for me during the frosts, as my feeble circulatory system cannot combat the normal vasoconstriction of extremities exposed to freezing temperatures, causing my fingers and hands to grow wan and bloodless. Looking like nothing but the curled and grasping claws of a cadaver, nervous feedback becomes intermittent, and it feels as if an amputation would bring nothing but minor discomfort.
Despite all this horror and ennui, I’m nevertheless compelled to wander the earth, and often find my steps have carried me to that sundering of natural law known as the Newtown Creek- or one its tributaries.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The great thing about the Creeklands, and what always draws me back (and causes me to stop my whining self narrative and soliloquy of self pitying sophistry), is that there is always something you haven’t noticed- like the so called Freedom Tower rising over the two LIRR bridges which cross Dutch Kills. Wow.
This is the kind of thing that just keeps on bringing me around this place, despite the ravaged and ruinous condition of my physical incarnation.
arduous detail
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On Friday the 13th of January, your humble narrator was drawn inextricably to the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant’s Nature Walk. A friend, who is a faculty member of a CUNY institution familiar to all residents of Queens, had reported that she (and her students) had witnessed an extant slick of petroleum product while at the location.
So, despite inclement weather and biting cold, your humble narrator crossed the Pulaski from Queens to infinite Brooklyn to investigate.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just to be clear, the NCWWTP (oft referred to as the Temple of Cloacina) has nothing to do with petroleum. The mission of this futurist facility deals with a sticky black substance of entirely manmade origin, its collection and eventual disposition, but definitively not petroleum.
The Nature Walk, which is the subject of ironic humor and contextual mirth for many, is a lovely amenity required by the City’s “1% for art” rules. Designed by architect George Trakas, the NCWWTP Nature Walk offers panoramic views and public access to the nation’s most polluted waterway, and provides an island of calm for a section of Greenpoint sorely lacking in open space.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My friend, as mentioned, serves as a faculty member at the CUNY institution in Queens. For several years, she has been conducted a census and study of the micro organisms which find themselves swept into Newtown Creek on the shallow tide offered by the estuarine East River. Her findings are surprising, as observation and scientific method has revealed that a startling diversity of life somehow finds a way to organize and sustain their existence in the troubled waterway.
Pictured above are the “steps” at the Nature Walk during happier times.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Witnessed on this day in January were the tell tale leave behinds of the event, painted upon the self same steps illustrated in the shot above. Eyewitness description and anecdotal memories described the slick as both viscous and opaque, and occupying no small acreage of water.
Reports of floating “tar balls” accompany the tale of the slick, which was described as moving eastward- up the creek- with the rising tide from the East River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As a note, the tidal action of the surrounding waters doesn’t really flow into the Newtown Creek so much as it forces the waterway to rise and fall in a vertical rather than lateral manner. This why the sedimentary process along the Creek is so onerous, as there is no “flushing action”.
Once something enters the Newtown Creek, it never leaves.
unlighted river
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another DonJon tug is in the spotlight today, this time it’s the Paul Andrew. It’s pictured above at Port Elizabeth Newark, moving a barge past one of the gargantuan cargo docks which distinguish the place.
from wikipedia
The Port of New York was really eleven ports in one. It boasted a developed shoreline of over 650 miles (1,050 km) comprising the waterfronts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island as well as the New Jersey shoreline from Perth Amboy to Elizabeth, Bayonne, Newark, Jersey City, Hoboken and Weehawken. The Port of New York included some 1,800 docks, piers, and wharves of every conceivable size, condition, and state of repair. Some 750 were classified as “active” and 200 were able to berth 425 ocean-going vessels simultaneously in addition to the 600 able to anchor in the harbor. These docks and piers gave access to 1,100 warehouses containing some 41,000,000 square feet (3,800,000 m2) of inclosed storage space.
The SS Normandie arriving in New York Harbor on maiden voyage escorted by several tugboats.
In addition, the Port of New York had thirty-nine active shipyards, not including the huge New York Naval Shipyard on the Brooklyn side of the East River. These facilities included nine big ship repair yards, thirty-six large dry-docks, twenty-five small shipyards, thirty-three locomotive and gantry cranes of fifty ton lift capacity or greater, five floating derricks, and more than one hundred tractor cranes. Over 575 tugboats worked the Port of New York.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These shots were acquired while onboard one of the many Working Harbor Committee tours of industrial Newark Bay and environs in September of 2011, which explains the glorious lighting.
Autumn is one of the times of the year in New York City during which the angle of the sun creates a golden orange “theatrical lighting” effect.
from wikipedia
The port consists of a complex of approximately 240 miles (386 km) of shipping channels as well as anchorages and port facilities. Most vessels require pilotage and larger vessels require tugboat assistance for the sharper channel turns. The natural depth of the harbor is about 17 feet (5 m), but it had been deepened over the years, to about 24 feet (7 m) controlling depth in 1880.[12] By 1891 the Main Ship Channel was minimally 30 feet (9 m). In 1914 Ambrose Channel became the main entrance to the Harbor, at 40 feet (12 m) deep and 2,000 feet (600 m) wide. During World War II the main channel was dredged to 45 feet (14 m) depth to accommodate larger ships up to Panamax size. Currently the Corps of Engineers is contracting out deepening to 50 feet (15 m), to accommodate Post-Panamax container vessels, which can pass through the Suez Canal. This has been a source of environmental concern along channels connecting the container facilities in Port Newark to the Atlantic. PCBs and other pollutants lay in a blanket just underneath the soil. In June 2009 it was announced that 200,000 cubic yards of dredged PCBs would be “cleaned” and stored en masse at the site of the former Yankee Stadium, as well as at the Brooklyn Bridge Park. In many areas the sandy bottom has been excavated down to rock and now requires blasting. Dredging equipment then picks up the rock and disposes of it. At one point in 2005 there were 70 pieces of dredging equipment working to deepen channels, the largest fleet of dredging equipment anywhere in the world.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Writing this in the depth of frozen January, your humble narrator literally aches for the shirt sleeve warmth and long hours of sunlight offered during other seasons. The “photographer’s way” of course is to adapt, improvise, and “get it”, of course- but I truly pine for warmer (and brighter) times right now.
Built in 1968, by Breaux’s Bay Craft of Loreauville, Louisiana as the tug Miss Holly.
The tug was later acquired by DonJon Marine of Hillside, New Jersey where she was renamed as the Paul Andrew.
She is a twin screw tug powered by two Cummins KTA 19-M3 main engines with two Twin Disc MG 516 reduction gears at a ratio of 6:1 turning two 19(ft) 304 stainless steel 5 1/2 diameter 62(in) by 46(in) propellers for a rated 1,200 horsepower. Her electrical service is provided by two 30 kw generators driven by DD 3-71 engines 120-208 Triple Phase.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot of the Paul Andrew above is from a Working Harbor trip even earlier in the year, August as a matter of fact. As a note, it is hitched up to a different sort of barge, and is tied up in a “on the hip” configuration.
Man, I can’t wait for the thaw.
from donjon.com
DIMENSIONS
Length Overall: 68 ft./ 20.73 m
Length Design Load Waterline: 63.6 ft./ 19.39 m
Beam Molded Amidships: 23.0 ft./ 7.01 m
Depth Molded to Main Deck: 9.0 ft./ 2.74 m
Tonnage (Gross): 99 GRT
Tonnage (Net): 67 NRT
CONSTRUCTION
All Steel
PROPULSION & STEERING
Main Engines: (2) Cummins KTA 19-M3 1,200 bhp
Propellers: (2) 19 ft. 304 Stainless Steel, 5½ diameter, 62 inch x 46 inch
Gears: Twin Disc MG 516, 6:1 Ratio
Rudders: (2) Spade
Steering Stations: Pilothouse, Upper Wheelhouse, Aft
PERFORMANCE
Speed (Free Route): 10 knots
Speed (Cruising): 8 knots
Bollard Pull:12 tons
Fuel Use/Range (Towing): 41 gph / 17 days
Fuel Use/Range (Cruising): 25 gph / 28 days
broad roofs
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On of the many corporate giants which distinguished Long Island City (at the start of the last century) was known as Waldes Koh-I-Noor. Located at the corner of Anable Avenue and Creek Street (which is the modern day 27th street and Austell Pl.), the firm was a manufacturer of dress fasteners (snaps, zippers and the like) and was known to produce all sorts of metallic devices- including war munitions, apparently.
from google books
Henry Waldes New York has leased the factory of the Klndel Bed Co Anable Avenue and Creek Street Long Island City NY comprising a four story reinforced concrete structure for the establishment of a new plant for the manufacture of small metal specialties The lease is for a term of years and aggregates $350,000
– photo courtesy google books, from: Queens Borough, New York City, 1910-1920: The Borough of Homes and Industry
A large employer, the building they were housed in is actually a complex of structures which had a rail spar leading to it. Not to be confused with the mechanical pencil manufacturers, or the legendary diamond which the company named itself after, this was an international company which had to end its operations in Europe because of the Nazi witch hunt for members of the Jewish faith.
from google books
STATEMENT OF WALDES & CO INC LONG ISLAND CITY NY The undersigned is the largest manufacturer of snap fasteners in the world and since 1918 have been established in the United States our plant being located at Long Island City NY. The original factory is located at Prague Czechoslovakia which employs about 4,000 men while our American plant now employs from 150 to 200 men Both these factories are equipped with up to date machinery and each one produces the same finely finished metal snap fasteners These fasteners are made either bright finish or enameled Our system of manufacturing and the articles themselves are our own inventions protected by patents by nearly every country.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The structure survives, and like many of the gargantuan factories which distinguish the Long Island City landscape, it has been subdivided amongst several smaller tenants in modernity. Part of the building is used an NYPD impounded property facility, another section is used by a doggy day care company.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From what I’ve been able to discern, the company remained in Waldes family tender for most of the 20th century, and seems to have been dissolved sometime in the latter third. There are literally hundreds of extant patents which were established by both the family and its enormous staff.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
References in historic records describe a late in the game shift to tool and die manufacture, no doubt to exploit this catalogue of patents. The Sears catalog business carried several of their milliners supplies, and I’m told that they innovated the all plastic zippers which came into vogue during the second world war and beyond, largely due to metals shortages.
from nytimes.com
Harry K. Waldes, chairman of the board of Waldes Kohinoor Inc. in Long Island City, Queens, died Tuesday in North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, L.I., after suffering a stroke. He was 73 years old and a resident of Great Neck, L.I.
Mr. Waldes became executive vice president of the concern, which manufactures fastening devices and tools, in 1950.
He was named board chairman in 1961.
– photo courtesy google books, from: Queens Borough, New York City, 1910-1920: The Borough of Homes and Industry
Local realtors found it a devilish proposition, selling the large structure well after the golden age of American manufacturing had passed, and it was Pinnacle Realty who came up with the notion of subdividing the structure and leasing it piecemeal. Pinnacle is still a familiar name in LIC realty circles today.
from pinnaclereny.com
As the exclusive agent for the 100 year old Waldes Kohinoor Company located in Long Island City; Gary came up with the concept that the parts are worth more than the whole. Early in the marketing campaign Gary focused on selling the 3 buildings totaling 200,000 sq. ft. plus 50,000 sq.ft. of land to a single developer. He was disappointed with the offers being submitted by developers. However, if the property was sold off as 4 separate parcels millions of dollars in additional proceeds for ownership could be generated. The strategy worked extremely well and the Waldes Kohinoor ownership was very satisfied with the results.
Project Firebox 28
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hipper than thou, this guardian of the realm is found on the nebulous border betwixt Williamsburg and Greenpoint. As evinced in the shot above, the stalwart nobility of the scarlet sentinel is quite irresistible to the attention of North Brooklyn’s ladies.
The fairer sex is never immune to the power of uniforms, it would seem.
