OK, Seattle just has to wait when a bridge (that gets built over 100 miles north of the location where it’s destined to replace another bridge that has stood for 109 years) gets shipped downriver by three tugboats AND gets covered by the NYTimes AND the Wall Street Journal. My plan is to get fotos early tomorrow morning as it navigates between Manhattan and Hoboken or Jersey City. For now, with many many thanks, here are fotos from Deborah dePeyster . . . as it passed by Coxsackie, where she camped out so as to ensure not missing the excitement, then
then fotos by Jeff Anzevino from the walkway and bridge at Poughkeepsie;
then Harold Tartell with fotos from Newburgh.
What the mainstream newspapers missed was the names of the tugs: left to right: Ruby M, Margot, and Elizabeth.
I have and will share lots more fotos from Seattle, a location seriously trying my faithfulness to the sixth boro. But for now, my plan is to get up early enough to catch the bridge edging somewhere tomorrow at dawn through the sixth boro.
Articles from the mainstream media are here: NYTimes, Wall Street Journal. New media here: DNAinfo.com, iStockAnalyst. My only criticism of these articles is that they do not specify the names of the tugs, not to be picky or anything.
After “taking your house on a trip,” moving a bridge to somewhere is the next best thing. Oh, what is the world coming to?
Thanks to Deborah, Jeff, and Harold for these fotos. So if the old Willis Avenue Bridge lasted 109 years, how might you imagine the replacement for THIS one happening in 2119?
More Seattle soon.
tugster: a waterblog 
4 comments
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July 14, 2010 at 12:24 am
Theresa
Very cool. These pictures are much better than what I saw in the Times and give a much better idea of what an awkward cargo it was.
I’m still wondering why it was built 100 miles away, instead of being delivered in pieces and built on site.
July 14, 2010 at 10:19 am
Deb dePeyster
I’m not sure why it was built at the Port of Coeymans, but the builder, Kiewit Corporation, also did the 145th St. bridge about three years ago.
One of the things that caught my eye viewing the bridge being transported downriver was that two Weeks barges were welded together side-by-side. The prow ends of the barges were facing the shore, so in effect the barges were towed sideways. In addition to the 2400 ton bridge, that is a lot of drag.
July 14, 2010 at 10:35 am
Frank Ostrander
Thanks for providing the Tugs names! It allowed me to post my photo on VesselTracker: http://www.vesseltracker.com/en/ShipPhotos/564409-Margot-5222043.html
July 14, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Capt. Mike
What you’ve never seen a bridge plying the waters of the sixth borough before? 🙂
http://biankablog.blogspot.com/2009/09/electric-sailboat-cruise-to-new-york_26.html
Seriously, I suspect things will get really exciting when they bring this rig up the East River and into the Harlem River in August for the installation.