Turning 80b

On Sunday, APL Qatar was tied up at the dock at Howland Hook.

Note the snow on the Elizabethport bank.  Imari is the smaller vessel forward of AP Qatar.  I wonder if she’s the only vessel ever named for  export porcelain??  Given the marine environment, I can’t imagine feeling safe on a vessel named for a material so fragile, but I digress.  And let me digress some more, the snowy bank a century ago was home to Crescent Shipyard, where an early generation of submarines was built.  Click here for fotos and story.

As of this writing, Qatar’s already at the dock in Savannah after having arrived and departed Norfolk.  By early afternoon Sunday, she had been backed down, nosed her way past Bergen Point and

slipped beneath the Bayonne Bridge.

Escort appears to be Elizabeth McAllister.

Will there be regrets when this beautiful bridge gets modified?

It appears here that some masts have been folded down.

On the question of the future of this bridge, read the Nathan Holth comment . ..  scroll down.  Not every agrees with the idea of modifying the bridge.

Funding to change the bridge . . . wonder why tolls have recently increased on all the bridges over the sixth boro?  Details  on bridge modification–if it’s a done deal at this point–have been scant.  Will the bridge have an 80th party?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Ever wonder what bridge was the longest steel arch prior to Bayonne’s  acquiring that distinction in 1931?  Before you find out by clicking here, a clue is that it’s also over a sixth boro waterway.