Posts Tagged ‘newtown creek’
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.
seething column
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photos by Mitch Waxman
Animated gifs at Newtown Pentacle? Indeed, verily, and why the heck not? Tuesday of this week, one managed to secure an invite and site walk through at the SimsMetal Queens Terminal, and one of the commodities they process are ex-automobiles. I was lucky enough to be there when a truck load of them came in.
– photos by Mitch Waxman
I was told that the autos which enter the facility have been drained of vital fluids and other chemicals, as well as having had their gas tanks removed prior to being loaded on the trucks which carried them here. Ultimately, the cars will be loaded onto a barge and carried away for further processing.
– photos by Mitch Waxman
A few “proper” posts next week will describe what I saw at SimsMetal, presented in the normal manner, but I couldn’t stop myself from throwing together these animated sequences to wind this week up. The one thing going through my mind while shooting these was “Hulk Smash.”
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.
quiet travel
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just a short one today. Something pretty cool is in the pipes, and I’ve been developing a massive batch of shots from a site visit I got to do on Tuesday. Accordingly, a humble narrators eyes are tinged with red and the coffee doth flow freely. These Canada Geese are new neighbors, it seems, having taken up residence on Newtown Creek in Maspeth.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It feels as if one has spent the last few weeks doing nothing but hurtling about the harbor. Next week, it should be mentioned, the Working Harbor Committee 2013 schedule commences with the “Beyond Sandy” series of harbor tours. More information and ticketing can be found at the Working Harbor Blog, which is accomplished by Newtown Pentacle Aide de Camp and far eastern correspondent Armstrong. Check her stuff out here, and get more info on “Beyond Sandy.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I plan on being a fixture on those WHC boat tours, but not on the microphone. I’m the official photographer for the group and will be on board just shooting away. Back tomorrow with a bit more substance for you to sink your teeth into.
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.
impassable barrier
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Unhappily, one must report to you that the May 26 Newtown Creek Cruise has been postponed and needs to be rescheduled. Unforeseen circumstance has reared its ugly head, in the form of the NYC DOT announcing a bridge painting project which will preclude the opening of the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge during the time and date of our excursion.
Working Harbor Committee remains committed to the trip, but we need to reschedule it for a more opportune time when the three hour exploration is not in danger of being cut short some 30 minutes in.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After reporting on the bridge maintenance last month, in the posting “tireless and continuing,” your humble narrator contacted the WHC group’s leader- Captain John Doswell- and the two of us began a lengthy debate as to what to do. The NY Water Taxi we use for these Newtown Creek Boat Tours has a shallow draft, but we couldn’t take the chance that a rising tide would trap us in front of or behind the bridge and it was decided to reschedule.
All of you who bought tickets should have already received an email from the Captain, and a refund.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The trip will likely occur in the autumn instead, probably toward the end of September. The silver lining in this is that the Newtown Creek seems to look best in the fall and those of you who are photographers will benefit greatly from the shift of seasons. I will keep you posted as news develops, but for now, apologies are offered for those of you who bought tickets and planned to spend some time with me exploring the Newtown Creek.
The walking tours listed below are offered as a curative.
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 