Thanks to a friend, I learned this morning what this is.  But I’ll give you an opportunity until the end of this post to ponder it as I did.

I’m guessing that since I’ve been paying attention to other soon-to-happen non-routine events in the harbor like the loading of Peking (more on that at the end of this post too) and the raising of the NYWheel legs, I completely missed this one until yesterday afternoon when I just happened to be walking to an appointment near Richmond Terrace.  Yes, I ALWAYS carry my camera, because in NYC, you never know what you are going to see in any of the six boros.

When I saw that it was DonJon equipment, I thought these might be additional structural members to be lifted into Rockefeller University’s River Campus.  After all, it was only about a year ago that preliminary structures were lifted into place over there, here and here.

Notice the curves and the staircases?

And the tow moved up toward the North–not the East–River.

So thanks to my friend Hank Beatty, those ARE structural members for something called “The Vessel,” unveiled months ago, a large assemblage of public art to be erected over at the Hudson Yards area of Midtown.  Click here for the speeches on the event of the unveiling back in September 2016:  2500 steps mounting 16 stories . . . billed as the Hudson’s Eiffel!  And the Hudsonside Midtown already has a pyramid!!

So here’s the update of Peking.  Now plans are for it to be loaded in early June onto Combi Dock III, not the identical Combi Dock I as I had been led to believe earlier.  So, put that on your calendars . . .  Thanks to T. V. for that update.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.