Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
Project Firebox 73
An ongoing catalog of New York’s endangered Fireboxes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Under the El on Roosevelt Avenue in the angle between Woodside and Sunnyside, a firebox which wears the scars of long tenancy in the shadowed corridor.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
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.
decreasing confidence
Today’s post is about enormous things hidden in the mist.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wandering around during a recent spate of gray skies, your humble narrator found himself staring at the familiar geometries of Whale Creek at the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. Still, rainy days lend a surreal quality to the Newtown Creek and its tributaries. Alongside the futurist architecture and ongoing construction of the great sewer mill, it is impossible for one such as myself not to record such otherworldly scenery.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is a strange compulsion, recording everything one might see. Some tell me that I hide behind the camera, comfortably isolated from interaction with others- which is always a painful and embarrassing experience fraught with unknown possibility and consequence. Thing is, look at the things which I see.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Deep regret exists in me that so many experiences over the years were not recorded in the manner that I employ these days. Places, people, experiences relegated to hazy memory and the dimness of time. Without a photo of some thing or event as evidence, how can you honestly say it happened?
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
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.
wriggling out
Today’s post is about things that really suck.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As often described, one of the many odd things about your humble narrator is my ability to suddenly notice an incongruous pattern or subtle environmental alteration invisible to others.
Something that has popped up recently are a large number of vacuum trucks plying area streets. The crew hard at work in the shot above was cleaning a noisome and aromatic sewer found at the foot of the Pulaski Bridge in Hunters Point, and they seemed to be doing an admirably sucky job.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This truck sucks. It didn’t seem to be sucking in anything other than fuel at the gas station on the corner of Steinway and Northern, but it still had the potential to massively suck. It is, in fact, labeled as being a “Supersucker.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Greenpoint too, it seems, needs trucks that suck. Observed turning north onto West Street from Greenpoint Avenue with the Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory behind it, this massive machine seemed to possess a capability to suck harder than the other two, combined, could.
This odd predilection of mine, noticing hidden patterns and odd coincidences hidden around the blasted heaths of the Northern Brooklyn and Western Queens, often reveals things that just completely suck.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
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.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 