Balder’s Belly

The link here may show the first glimpse I had of Balder.  Let me share my getting better acquainted, but first . . . the foto below I took 13 months ago.  Note the different colors of salt, reflecting

different provenances, as explained in Ian Frazier’s New Yorker article below.  Buy a copy to get the rest of the story.

Without this vessel, all of us who drive the roads or walks the sidewalks and streets within the metropolis surrounding the sixth boro would be at greater risk of slipping and crashing.  Framed that way, Balder could not be better named.   Here’s what Kimberly Turecamo looks like from Balder‘s bridge.

On the far side of the channel, that’s Dace.

Here’s what has come forth from Balder‘s belly, a bit of the Atacama Desert on the KVK.   Huge tractors load the trucks that come to a highway department near you today.

This 246′ arm, reaching nearly to Richmond Terrace, offloads at the relatively slow rate of 8oo tons per hour.

And here’s the hold just emptied, one hold of five.  Notice the ladders and the tracks at the base of the hold.

Click here to see the unloading machinery in action.

Navel, perhaps?

Here’s what gets even the last pound making up the nearly 50,000-ton payload onto the salt dock.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.  Thanks to Brian DeForest of Atlantic Salt and the Balder crew for the tour.