Here’s another photo shared by Ingrid Staats.  If you’ve been to this blog before, you recognize the bridge, but what are Vega and Altair you might wonder.  The ferries are aptly named, since they are two characters in a Chinese love story, Vega the weaver girl and Altair the cowherd.

Here they operated within the fleet of the Bergen Point Ferry, both built in 1946 and discontinued in 1961. 

The ferries were sold after discontinuation of the service, and both were lost in 1961:  Vega off New Jersey and Altair between Mexico and Cuba deep in the Yucatan Channel.   These are small boats to be going to Mexico:  61′ x 38′ x 8′, but another of the set, Deneb, made it and appeared in the Mexican registry.

To drive along Richmond Terrace these days, you don’t get the same sense crossing Port Richmond Avenue that you would have had 70 or 80 years ago . . .  click on the photo below for a photographic tour of what used to be a crossing into NJ.

I used to have a photo of the sign still hanging near the ferry until quite recently, but when I gallivanted around there a few days ago, it was gone and my photo is as well, victim of one of my misguided cullings to reduce the memory demands on my computer.

In that recent gallivant, I did look along the west side of Port Richmond Avenue at this church and graveyard. 

This is some old NYC history, and

names memorialized in places are reflected here . . . .  Prall’s Island today is uninhabited but known to everyone who travels through the Arthur Kill.

Many thanks to Ingrid for use of the Vega-Altair photo.  More of her photos to come.

And while you’re at the Reformed Church, go another 100 yards inland and check out Nat’s Men’s Shop and buy some warm work clothes.