Bayonne Bridge Header

Springtime seven years ago, the roadbed that had existed on the Bayonne Bridge was breached,  In a controlled manner, of course.  Steps in the transformation are captured here.  April 3, 2017 was the day this vessel, Maersk Kolkata, came through the opening that dismantling had just created.  Here were moments before that happened.

As I took the following photos yesterday, I realized I hardly ever

think about the previous shape of that bridge,

the new configuration has been seared into memory, what else would the Bayonne Bridge look like, I think.

After all,

bridges are forever, 

until we think about it.

All photos, any errors, WVD.

No, they’re not.

By the way, I wondered about the tanker name Arrebol.  It wasn’t familiar and didn’t sound appealing until I looked up the derivation.  Nice!

 

Retro 73 Non-Sixth Boro

Triton . . . that’s a sea name that goes everywhere untranslated.  It is after all a proper noun.  So . . . since this retro post is not sixth boro-based, can you guess where I took these photos?  For what it’s worth, Triton was built in Turkey in 2008. 

Carolein is a factory trawler, 414′ x 59′ and built in 1998 near Rotterdam and launched into the IJssel.

Thetis . . . built 2003 in Serbia, launched into the Danube.

Friesland was built in 1982 in Friesland and currently sails under the Portuguese flag.

Yes, no . . . these photos are not from Borneo.  And Borneo here is a 1938 build, in 2014 as is the case now tied up on a canal in Amsterdam.  Click here for more info. 

MV Sirius was a Dutch Navy vessel from the early 1950s until 1980, when it was sold to Greenpeace.  It was scrapped in 2018.

In the Ij when I took this photo, Bavenit is a Russian drillship, built 1986.  It’s currently in the Russian Baltic port of Kaliningrad.  Just last year, this Rauma, Finland drillship was exploring along the US/Russian border.

This Radio Veronica was  the second Dutch offshore radio ship, originally called MV Norderney.  A decade ago Veronica was used as a nightclub, but it has since closed.  I don’t believe it has been scrapped.

Also, if you think you see a submarine in the background to the left, you.  It’s Soviet sub B-80, launched 1957, purchased for use as a nightclub in 1991, a re-use never fully implemented.  It was scrapped in 2019.

The sixth boro sometimes sees a tugboat called Joker, but Joke is a two-syllable common Dutch name.  I have a cousin by that name.

The language here would be the give-away.  Pannenkoekenboot translates literally as pancake boat.    Here’s an ad in English.  

And we’ll end this installment here.  All photos, any errors, WVD, who took them in the Netherlands province of North Holland in May ten years ago.  My historical roots are partly from the province of South Holland; the other from the Dutch province of Gelderland.

 

Graves of Arthur Kill on YouTube

Why am I republishing some photos from a March 2013 post?

Here’s why: the documentary is now on YouTube here.  If you’ve never seen the 32-minute documentary, now you can watch it free.  If you have seen it, have a second look to see how well it has stood up.  If you’ve friends who’ve never seen it, please pass it along to as many of them as you want.

Apologies if you’ve heard me say this before, I’d read about this place years before I actually moved to the NYC area.  It gave me great satisfaction to see it, research what was there, and share that.

Producer Gary Kane and I thank you for your interest.  We also express thanks to all those who agreed to be interviewed in the documentary and helped in a variety of ways, including the good folks at DonJon Recycling.  Special thanks to Bonnie who convinced me to paddle there with her.

All photos above were taken more than 10 years ago by Will Van Dorp, who took the next photo, ILI 105 aka Michigan,  just over two years ago.  I’d call that photo “nature’s resilience.”

 

Back in the Sixth Boro 6

I’ve felt this before . . . this need to reconnect after having exercised an equal need to get away.  Here was number 5.  Getting back to that feeling of simultaneous but dueling centripetal v. centrifugal  inclinations, might there be a term for that, besides extreme ambivalence?  But I digress.

You might be able to identify the location above and below, and maybe the tugboat.   Answer follows.  I saw the sister tugboat–Cape Ann-in San Pedro here.  The tanker is Yasa Pelican, now anchored off Long Beach NY.

Farther from my location, Silver Houston awaited an escort in.

A short distance away nicely illuminated Kristy Ann and RTC 80 were standing by over at IMTT.

All photos, any errors, WVD, who still has photos to process from my jaunt.

The tugboat with DBL 101 is Cape Canaveral and is in the Arthur Kill as of now.

A year ago, I was at the start of a long, compensated indulgence of restlessness.

Yachts a Million 7

Seen in Sausalito . . . it’s a beauty although it’s not ready to sail.  I know some of you have more  words to describe that beauty, maybe even place it in a category.

All I’ll venture is that this no-name hull is a full keel cruiser.

Seen in Stockton CA.  Might Florencia be a product of Stephens Brothers of Stockton?

 

Also seen in Sausalito, or should I say partially seen because of where it was tied up.  It’s a 1906 
Baltic tjalk that has its own FB page called MV Hindeloopen. built in Hindeloopen, Friesland NL.

 

And here’s a delicious mystery . . .   ACF?  Elco?  

Seen in Los Angeles.  

All photos, any errors, WVd.

 

Jaunt ’24 i

I’m back in the borough of Queens. 

Here are some jaunt numbers: an initial 2450 miles by air to San Diego, and then alternating car and train journeys that racked up 5000 miles and 4000 miles respectively.  Amtrak’s railpass provides a good framework to build a journey around the US with;  building that tour carefully paid me back with satisfaction.   I visited lot of friends and family but I also spent a lot of time alone or with strangers, some of whom were quite interesting.  Others were just noisy; next time I’ll pack earphones so that I don’t have to overhear loud and too-revealing conversations on the trains.  Of the 3000+ photos I took, I’ve posted less than a small fraction of 1 percent, although I can’t vouch for the other 99% being any differently interesting .  I saw seascapes, landscapes, and other places I’d only ever imagined.  I saw some animals in numbers I’d never seen in the wild, like bison, coyote, and pronghorn.

I saw farming and water use I’d never seen.  I am genuinely interested in water use, not just because I call this a water blog. Of course California has massive water transfer infrastructure, and that’s what allows it to produce a disproportionate amount of the US food supply.  Here’s another link illustrating that. The Vista del Lago visitors center above Pyramid Lake was the outstanding.  But there were other instances of water distribution systems I saw;  I stumbled onto the Loup Canal that I’d never knew about, small but there nonetheless. 

As an observation, New York City has a massive water supply system, and I don’t know of an education center that as fully explains where NYC’s famed water comes from.

Drought is real in the Great Plains, on again and off again.  Other significant farming regions I saw were in the Columbia Basin and the Willamette Valley.

Surprises were plentiful, like April climates around the US, temperatures like 21 in Arizona, 17 in Wyoming, and 75 in California. Prairie wind is real, whether it’s driving snow or blowing your hat off your head or your car all over the road.   

Among the biggest shocks was the number of people living outside in the US, many in encampments or derelict vehicles along the rails and roads, even more than I did last year when I did my shorter traxter expedition.  I know that my random sightings are far from a basis for any significant conclusions, but a report like this is more solid.  What similarities are there to the US 90 years ago in the time of hobos and Hoovervilles and before?

If you want to read these in chronological order, here are those links.

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

Part i follows.

A different type of surprise happened as I tried to head east of the Badlands on I-90, where I first encountered posted speed limits of 80 mph.  More bothersome than the speed, the land use started to feel too familiar, hinting to me the trip was over even before I crossed the Mississippi, and I didn’t want it to end.

Given my gas-guzzling (20 mpg) rental, I got off the interstate after Mitchell SD and headed southsouthwest across Nebraska for Lebanon KS and then Route 36 east, where my photos pick up in Cuba KS.

Scenery similarities exist between this part of Kansas and the Caribbean island.

A difference is that these are still used,  personal monuments or potential restorations.

I could have counted antique threshing machines in the hundreds across the west.

I bailed off 36 northbound in Hanover KS.

 

Beatrice NE is home to the Homestead National Park, an excellent site.  As an aside, the first homesteader received title to his land was Daniel Freeman in 1863.  Guess when the LAST homesteader received official claim to his land?  Answer follows.

Unrelated, the state oversaw the founding Arbor Day, important in the land of prairie winds. 

My jaunt felt like it ended in Omaha;  after a visit with an old friend, I got on a train, crossed the Missouri at Plattsmouth,

crossed the Mississppi at Burlington IA, 

We passed this display of the 3006, built 1930, in Galesburg IL.  

I changed from the California Zephyr to the Lakeshore Limited in Chicago;  daybreak looked like this near Ashtabula OH.

East of Erie in Lawrence Park we passed the locomotive plant where the tech is changing.

Static display of train equipment is commonplace along some sections of rail like North East PA.

Buffalo Central Terminal awaits restoration.

In Palmyra there’s the crossing I crossed on foot to go to school in grades 1-8 . . . almost seven decades ago!  Back then, the bridge those cars are on was much more primitive and daunting.

Utica is home terminal to the Adirondack Railroad.

Mohawk, Adirondack, and Northern is a line I’d not heard of before.

Albany Central Warehouse, build 1927, will not be long standing here on the edge of the west shore of the Hudson.

Hudson’s shanty town may also be gone soon.

After all the rockiness of the west, it was good to see these crags in Cold Spring NY.

We sped through Sing Sing,

Spuyten Duyvil bridge where the Weeks 574 works, 

the last mile sees us in a “trench” seemingly below the street level of the west side of Manhattan, and then I

head into the LIRR section of the terminal to get my last 17-minute train ride home.

All photos, any errors, lots of omissions, WVD.

PS:  The LAST homesteader, Kenneth Deardorff, received his land in Alaska in 1988.

Some really really quirky surprises include the following in no particular order:  Antelope OR.  Scenic SD, Badlands National Park, Cosmic Highway CO, and Earthship Taos visitor center, and Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.   

Amtrak routes ridden on this pass include parts of  Southwest Chief, California Zephyr, Coast Starlight, Empire Builder, and Lake Shore Limited.  Last year I did a similar trip blogged here as traxter.

I still have mostly ship photos from the trip, and will be posting those soon.

 

 

Tagster 11

The last time I did a tagster post I commented on my collapsing of the terms tag, graffiti, and murals, and this post will continue to blur those words, I admit. 

I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. 

If you want more on illustrated buildings, click here for someone else’s thoughts on this topic.

The one below might be making false claims.  I wonder what claim the one above might be making.  Even more official looking history markers might mislead by detail or omission.

Advert?  A clever one though although the contents of the glass might be toxic–not intoxicating– to the koi.

Above are some from San Francisco and below, Maupin OR, two watery places that couldn’t be more different.  Without the water in the DesChutes River, there’d be no town Maupin.

This one from Alameda is just an advert, obviously a dated one given the charm of the image of aircraft an choice of itinerary.

This is an advert with a bit of silliness, as seen in Omaha.

Is there a point beyond eye candy–or bitter pill– here?  Eyeless … is that vandalism or a message?

I like this dynamism.

Mural?  I’ve seen variations on this on Roosevelt Island NYC.

Here’s new terrotory in the topic, from Mitchell SD.  Look close, 

see the material,

closer . . .

Yup, those are products of South Dakota farming.

If you can’t read the fine print below, click here and get some of the same points.

Other than eye candy, I prefer one that serve as reminders, like signs referring to speed limit, parking restrictions, or private do-not-trespass lines. 

Click here for context for these Lincolnesque lines.

All photos, any errors, WVD.

Maybe someone reading this post can comment on the oceans of ink being injected under people’s skin and how it might related to “murals.” 

In spite of this photo you see when you scroll here, I have no ink under the skin of my back or elsewhere; the pencil lead under the skin of my hand as a result of a 3rd grade accident does not count as a tattoo, at least not an intentional one. 

 

West Coast Fish Boats

Let’s limit this post to fish boats made of wood, like the classic 1930s Western Flyer, built for sardines and salmon and now recently reburbished . . . or rebuilt.  I regret I didn’t see it under way.

Similar in appearance, bait boat Billy Boy may never dance the waves again.

 

I’ve confirmation that Linda J

has made her way back into the sea to fish.

Farther up the coast I saw some real beauties called Monterey clippers, and 

I’ll devote the rest of this post to these lookers.

 

 

In case you didn’t guess, this is the less glitzy side of Fisherman’s wharf.

All photos, any errors, WVD, who by this posting, might just have found his way back to the less glitzy side of the sixth boro.

More West Coast fish boats can be seen here and here. 

 

Pilots 14

On the San Pedro side of the ports of LA/LB stands this memorial by Jasper D’Ambrosi.  Add this to another tugster post about memorials.

Warehouse No. 1 is another type of memorial.  Brad Nixon wrote a lot more about the warehouse, including the water tower, here.  Hat tip, Brad!!

On the water side of the warehouse is a pilot station.  So what would be an appropriate name for a pilot boat from here?

 

 

 

I think that’s a great name.

Now let’s jump up to San Francisco.  What names would you imagine here?

 

 

 

I like Golden Gate.

California works too. 

But this one surprised me, although it speaks to my lack of familiarity with West Coast history, like this 1579 visit to the area.

All photos, any errors, WVD.

Random Trucks! 33

Yes, I know this is the third truckster! post in a row, but I’m heading for the sixth boro albeit quite slowly.

I hope you’re enjoying these old trucks.  I’ve not identified this fire truck;  i shot the photo through the fence at the West Kern Oil Museum in Taft CA.  It was closed the day we passed through, and it’s not an easy place to get to. 

Let’s stick with a few more pics of fire trucks from decades ago.

 

I’m not sure what the reasoning for topless Mack fire trucks was.

Some old trucks have a patina; others a sheen, like this one right outside Port Hueneme CA.

A few of these I caught outside the Columbia Gorge Museum in Stevenson WA.  Inside exhibits were great as well.

Sometimes pairs or greater numbers just get left outside, like these in Oregon and 

these in California.

Mack ACs are how that company began, with their first headquarters in Brooklyn.  I’m not sure any trucks were ever built in Brooklyn.

White, named for founder Thomas A., is one of a long list of discontinued nameplates.

White at one time had owned Diamond T.

 

This circa 1957 White once pulled a log trailer.

And this half-track log skidder (?) reminds me of a number of tugboats, like YTBs, originally built for military purpose and later sold to the private commercial sector.  I’d love to know how many half tracks were 

All photos, any errors, WVD.