Bayonne Tower

So  . . . the bright sunshine and 45+ degree temperature coaxed me out to take some fotos, and soon I’m having a conversation with a gentleman whose first thought was wind power device was deck-mounted equipment on the reddish tanker.  Clearly here . . .  t-o-w-e-r   rhymes with power and not lawn mower.  I’m guessing it to be the tallest structure in Bayonne.    Any idea what Manhattan’s first skyscraper was and where?  It lasted only three years (1853–6) before it burnt down.

It’s definitely land-based.  But I thought I could have some fun creating

some alternative-powered shipping, like a wind turbine barge  DoubleSkin 303.

How about a Jane A. Bouchard with a huge air prop, or

this on an extra-tall Quantico Creek?

Ditto Greenland Sea?

Or a turbine atop the tower of the newly-minted Mediterranean Sea?

Closer up, this is what the hub looks like.

Some of the parts are US-made;  others come from Austria.  Here are some introductory  technical details.  If I read Leitwind’s homepage correctly, this is their first turbine delivered to the US.  Here are even more technical details, again from a New Jersey publication.

Northern New York state has a surprisingly large number of such turbines, as documented in tugster here, and “salties” have been delivering components into the upper Midwest through the St. Lawrence and into the Great Lakes, as Marlene Green, shown here . . . although I caught her running empty.  The five states that currently have the highest percentage of their electric power generated by turbine are:  Iowa, the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Kansas.  Atlantic City has five turbines.  Are there others in NJ?  And Staten Island . . . the idea of wind turbines atop Fresh Kills has certainly been discussed.

As of this writing, I’ve not seen any NY papers mention the Bayonne tower.  Hmm.

Oh, the first “skyscraper”  was Latting Observatory, standing 315 feet.  To learn more, click here.   This bit of erudition comes compliments of Tom Flagg, who is also responsible for this great but maybe slow-loading document of the bygone era of marine rail on the west side of Manhattan.  Thanks, Tom.