Landmarks 4 Follow-up

I’ll start with Landmarks 4, which had these snaps from the past.  First in July 2003, voila the castle as seen from the Channel, looking roughly east. Notice the lower wall and the upper wall with four sides, which I’ll call west, north, and east and south sides not visible.  [Sidenote:  I remember taking this photo that day and nearly running out of the channel.  Glad I got it though, and gladder I didn’t run aground.]

Here’s an August 2013 closer-up, showing the  top level upper west wall only  left standing.

Here’s roughly the same scene from two days ago, November 2023.  Note the braces that’ve been up for half a decade at least.  Enjoy the rest of these photos, all taken Saturday.

Here’s another comparison, the facade of the residence, as taken in 2013, and

as taken in 2023.  Although outside appearance has not changed much, there huge difference is that the inside is now 

not only open but also filled with 

sketches, photos, catalog pages,exhibits, and 

more photos.  A crowd came on the tour, so I didn’t take more photos of the interior, but it has a newly renovated center stairs that hints at eventual completion of the second interior floor.

Backing up a bit, I took this as we approached the island from Beacon.

This was the builder’s plan, a retro castle not constructed for the ages . . . rather a labor of love and calculated effect by an entrepreneur not trained in sustainable architecture.  Hats off to the tour guide who could likely have talked all day.

 

I took lots more photos this time, trying to focus on previously ignored parts of the structure.  For the record, I went as part of a guided tour that allowed some time to explore as well.

Let’s hope the interventions will slow the dilapidation.

Imagine this place a century and more ago when all floors were crammed with uncounted numbers of militaria.  If you click on only a single link in this post, click on this 10-minute description of the catalog along with a fascinating family history.  Oh, skip the first one-minute of intro.

Any sense of reinforcing seems lacking . . . .  Also, concrete globs present 10 years ago are now mostly missing.  The bastion below,  where Gatling guns were once mounted, are also crumbling.

As I said earlier, the residence on the island is where most evolution has happened.

The grotto on the south side is now exposed.

That’s a cistern to collect rainwater.

The “red path” allows view of more side of the house too.

Towers marked the corners and gaps in the breakwater built around parts of the island, visible at low tide here.  Go back to the labeled aerial b/w photo above.  

 And this reminded me of this photo below I took from Amtrak in March traxter day 1 this year [really lucky shot].  Tide was high that day.

Let me end the post here;  if anyone the other day of the port side of the train took a photo at about just this second, I’m in that photo.

In closing, back in 2007 I did my first [quite contemplative I admit] post on the island, using photos I took that winter from what’s now the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail.  Learning about that trail has me thinking about another bikester journey.  

All photos, any errors, WVD, who needs to re-enact this day near Bannermans also . . .

If you have two hours to deep dive into Francis Bannerman, here and here are formal presentations of the person and business.  Here’s a fascinating talk and slides by Val Forgett Jr, who cleared the island back in the 1960s.

Above the Highlands 4

Still between Newburgh and Beacon, I see the shadows lengthening and light adding rich tints of every color.  Can you already identify the tug-barge unit rounding the corner tower of Bannerman’s Castle seawall. I’ve heard a story of a long-distance canoeist who slept inside that low tower, but I digress.

Here’s a clue to the name of that tug: a few years ago, it had a different name.   From the north and bathed in deep color, it’s a southbound ship. That generating station is at the intriguingly named Danskammer Point. Those Dutch really had such wild imaginations they seemed driven by superstition or at least an acquaintance with the supernatural.

Also southbound with a spotlight that caught my imagination . . .

it’s Evelyn Cutler meeting

Kristin Poling, 

but the Da Ming Shan will proceed as Evelyn holds back.

 

 

The color may not be in the leaves yet, but at this hour the color is on them.

 

 

The tug-barge units pass after

the asphalt tanker has gone on ahead into the Highlands.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who has again missed all the wonderful activities raising funds for restoration or stabilization of the Bannerman’s ruins.

 

Hudson Downbound ’18b

Pre-foliage spring is optimal time for seeing the landmarks along the Hudson.  This one is near Wilderstein (scroll), but I’d never seen it before.

Esopus Meadows cannot be missed either down bound or up.  Get on the wrong side, and you’ll regret ever being here. Click here for tugster posts showing the light in all the seasons.

I wonder what the crew on the anchored bulker thought of the Beaux-Arts structure on the bank.  I wonder what some of foreign crews coming up river think of the river as a whole?

Comet heads northbound with segments of dismantled TZ Bridge.  The first specific example I’ve heard of reuse is here, in Mount Vernon. 

At first glance, I thought this was odd snow accumulation on the banks,

closer up . . . an auto auction lot.

Tilcon operates one of the most conspicuous quarries along the river, seen here last week from the water and here

from the train.  Quarrying has been a major activity along the river.  And here finally I see the derivation of “trap rock,” which this crushed aggregate is sometimes called:  trap, as in stairs, for all those Dutch speakers out there.

I’ve been curious about this large crane near Chelsea NY since last summer.  Now my best guess is that it’s related to NYC Water Tunnel No. 3.  Any DEP readers help out?

Just below the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, we meet the Buchanan 12 and her herd of barges, heading up to Tilcon for trap rock.  For many more views of Buchanan 12, click here.  We met her just as she left the sublime highlands.

Of all the many posts I’ve mentioned Bannerman’s in, here and here are my favorites. For close-ups, click here.  In this era of gun questions, here’s an article with specifics of his unregulated trade.

Breakneck Ridge looked particularly ominous with afternoon sun cast shadows.  It appears MTA trains will stop there if you have a ticket.

And movement on a ridge in Little Stony Point . . . a photographer.  Like me.  And the “point” . . .   it was once an island. 

South of here, more beautiful scenery awaited, but I got distracted and took no more photos in the fading light of late afternoon.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Ice Work on the Hudson 2

Here was the first in the series five years ago.   Allen Baker took this photo of Thunder Bay last Friday near Newburgh.  Four thousand horsepower can get you nowhere sometimes in conditions like these.  It’s hard for me to believe I may never have posted a photo of WTGB 108 on this blog.

Foreground . . . Thunder Bay.  Middle . . .  Bannerman Island.  Distance . . . northern section of Hudson Highlands Park.

Amy C McAllister grunts the Bouchard barge upriver.   For some views of an August day frolic in relatively the same location, click here.   Also for a post comparing summer and winter in this location, click here.

And looking back at the track through ice left by the tug/barge as they headed for West Point . . . it’s straight and sharp.

Many thanks to Allen for these photos.  Be safe.

Hudson Downbound ’13b

To start part 2, I’ll go back upriver a bit to Esopus Island.  Craig Eric Reinauer with RTC 103 is anchored to the south.  Much of the Hudson has  associated with some unusual characters, both in fiction and in real life.  Esopus Island is no exception:  about a century ago it was the magical hideaway of Aleister Crowley.  My friend Mitch–Newtown Pentacle–wrote about him here.

Farther south is a place with a magical name but a quite mundane though necessary construction on it.  This is the current resident of Duyvil’s Danskammer Point, idled in litigation I think.  The Dutch called it “devil’s dance chamber” because they saw natives doing a ceremonial dance there by firelight . . .   A lighthouse and several brickworks also once stood here.

Looking back upstream . .  the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and Danskammer Point in the background.  Foreground is picnic boat Gem.  A Hinckley?

River Rose previously appeared here about three years ago.

Justine McAllister . . . I caught her the day before east- and then northbound at the KV buoy pushing RTC 120.  Also, three years ago I caught Justine towing the same barge on the Hudson.

Upbound off Cornwall . .  it’s Kimberly Poling, also a frequenter of both this river and this blog.

I’m not sure why so many large yachts were on the river the other day . . . off Bannerman’s Castle, location of a ceremonial swim a few months back, it’s Blue Moon.

Here’s Bannerman’s from the south side, juxtaposing the residence (left) with the warehouse.

I’ve yet to deliver on closeups of the residence, but here’s a preview.  The “picture window” serves to illustrate the interior for now.

That’s Bannerman’s in the background as Black Watch passes northbound.  Slope on the right is dauntingly named Breakneck Ridge.

The Hudson is truly loved.

Here a crowded Clearwater lowers sail in the Hudson Highlands.

Seastreak New York, usually shuttling south from the sixth boro, travels north when the leaves start to turn color.   Not pictured to the left is West Point.

Peak behind Bear Mountain Bridge is Anthony’s Nose, which I scaled back in April.

And finally . . . just south of the Bear Mountain Bridge . . . it’s another people mover usually associated with the confines of the sixth boro, Circle Line Queens, here assisting in leaf peeping.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Landmarks 4

Here’s a previous post with this title.

For anyone venturing upriver, no landmark is more intriguing than Pollepel Island, 50 miles north of the Battery.  But it’s changing.   Note this difference between these fotos I’ve taken over the past decade.

2003, as seen from the Channel, looking roughly east. Notice the lower wall and the upper wall with four sides, which I’ll call west, north, and east and south sides not visible.

earlier this August 2013 as seen from Patty Nolan from the same approximate location.  Notice that the upper structure NOW has only a west-facing wall.  Unrelated to this landmark, but you can see the photographer in the mirror.

Here’s an August 2013 closer-up, showing the upper west wall only.

Here are the south and east walls as seen from the land looking west in spring 2007.  The east wall is now all gone, as is a large portion of the south wall . . . here bathed in the most sunlight.

Same vantage point… south and east walls, as seen from MetroNorth train later in the spring 2008.

And another view of the west and north walls from fall 2008.

The island is off limits, but you can get a tour via Bannerman Castle Trust, Inc.

I took the tour yesterday.  Here’s the south wall.  Compare what remains of the stairs here with what you could see in the 2007 and 2008 fotos.  Click here for more before/after views.

Closer-up of those stairs.  Notice the metal tubing near lower right side of the foto?

Here’s that metal tubing, remnants of a drawbridge.

More of the south side.  Bannerman saw architectural cannonballs as his logo, and they are everywhere.

Balls and balls and more balls.

Here are closer-ups of the north and west walls.   Scaffolding will soon appear here, as attempts are made to keep these facades from crumbling as well.

More cannonballs.

Reportedly, these “balls” are cementaceous orbs stuck onto surplus bayonets embedded in the brick.  I can’t verify this story, but Bannermans business was Army/Navy surplus, which his father started while the family lived near the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  Click here to see a six-minute video of their 1927 catalog;  if you generally click on no  links in this blog, this one is worth it.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who plans at least another Bannermans Island psot soon.

More Ghosts 2

Spring sunlight penetrates where winter’s hidden intrigues entertained by hearth or mere candle flame. Secrets then are no longer secret now. In spring ghosts mostly retreat, but sometimes they dare intrude with friendly nudges or unidentifiable noises or scents.

 

 

“Don’t you recall what plans we once spawned here in private?” the spirits say.

 

 

“What clandestine arrivals? What furtive departures? What profound events feted? What parties til dawn with excitement heightened by what music or what wine?” Now mostly gone, the sprites are almost forgotten like . . .

 

 

. . . strolls for pairs seeking private vantage from a bridge bed long crumbled, even friends who no longer talk as they did, ties ravaged by personal pirates.

I hear you still, my heritage; I consume your memory, like recalling cargoes once carried by these ships. They too are like lovers gone way off course and left high and dry.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.