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Here are previous installments and related ones.
Technically, infrastructure could include launch services, without which port activities would slow.
Survey services ensure that channels and depths at docks allow activity without literal impediment.
USACE overlaps with Rogers in some areas.
But more commonly when one thinks of infrastructure, it’s what allows terrestrial activity,
like bridges and their on- and off-ramps.
With all the bridge building and innovation going on the the greater land area around the sixth boro, it’s not surprising to see bridge components arrive this way. And what travels on the waterways post-demolition isn’t only parts of roadways; here large pieces of scrapped vessel traveled.
New bridge component above, old bridge component below . . .
Without liquid infrastructure, these would not be moving.
Thanks to Glenn Raymo for use of his photos. All others by Will Van Dorp.
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.
I’ve left on another gallivant before “processing” photos from the trip in from Chicago, these being from a portion of the Hudson in various times of day, qualities of light, and types of weather.
Down bound in the port of Albany, we pass Daniel P Beyel, Marie J Turecamo, and –I believe– Comet.
By now, Daniel P is part of the way to Florida. And I’m intrigued by the units on the dock beyond her stern . . .
…nacelle covers–and I assume the innards–for what looks like 20 wind turbines. This led me to find out how many wind turbines are currently functional in upstate NY. I come up with a total of at least 770 as of a year ago: 528 installed since 2006 in the northernmost band from the Adirondacks to the Saint Lawrence Valley, 165 since 2007 in western NY, and 77 since 2000 in central and Southern Tier NY. Read specifics here.
Treasure Coast loads cement in Albany County, where Lafarge has just dedicated an upgraded facility.
Pike awaits the next job at Port of Coeymans.
B. No. 225 gets moved northward
by Jane A. Bouchard.
And Tarpon–has to be the only one in the Hudson–moves a fuel barge as well.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
In the drizzle, BBC Alabama awaits cargo in Port of Albany.
Pocomoke transfers cargo,
Brooklyn heads south,
Hudson Valley sentinels keep vigil no matter
how much rain falls,
Doris hangs with Adelaide,
as does Coral Coast with Cement Transporter 5300,
Strider rests from striding,
Union Dede docks at a port that 10 years ago was sleepy,
HR Pike (?) rests on rolling spuds,
Saugerties Light houses B&B guests,
not far from Clermont, home of the father-in-law of the father of steam boating on the Hudson and then the Mississippi,
Comet pushes Eva Leigh Cutler to the north,
Spooky‘s colors look subdued in the fall colors, and
two shipyard relatives meet.
Will Van Dorp took all these photos in a 12-hour period.
Time to recapitulate the “go west” journey and post the many photos of tugboats I’ve omitted . . . .
Passing Senesco, we saw Buckley McAllister approaching us; I photographed the boat as someone there photographed us. I’m not sure which Reinauer tug that is in the background.
In the East river the next morning, we passed Cornell at the Brooklyn Barge, a food and drink venue I need to make time to visit.
Over by the Circle Line pier, it’s–well–Miss Circle Line, a reinvention of a Matton tug launched in 1955 and previously called Betsy. Thanks to Paul Strubeck for reading the name board lettering here before it’s applied . . . That was a joke, but thanks, Paul.
James William moves stone Mississippi River style down the sixth boro into the gargantuan building site encompassing the other five boros.
Near 79th Street, this unidentified tug was supporting a pier project.
Along the Palisades north of the GW Bridge, Comet pushed Eva Leigh Cutler.
And Miss Yvette moved a scow not far from where
Carolina Coast waited for her sugar barge to be emptied into the maw of the Domino plant in Yonkers.
All photos by will Van Dorp, who hopes to see you at the screening of Graves of Arthur Kill at the the Staten Island ferry terminal on August 13.
I’ve held off moving from 99 to 100 because 100 suggested I do something special, but ultimately, I decided that random means random, so here it is. Guess the location if not the tug? It IS sixth boro. Answer at the end of the post.
Almost 30-year-old Franklin Reinauer entered the Narrows light as Sun Right departed the other day.
Less than an hour earlier, Emerald Coast (1973) overtook the same Sun Right at the turn around Bergen Point. I’ve seen Sun Round recently (although I didn’t take a foto) here but not Sun Road. Are there more in this Manila-registered series?
Note the small tug assisting with Energy 11105 barge . . .
pushed by (?) Liberty Service. It’s Freddie K Miller, which I first met as Stapleton Service, even though that was not the first identity for this 1966 built tug.
Susan Miller (1981) meets Akinada Bridge –named for a Hiroshima bridge–at the Narrows recently.
Coho lighters G. Agamemnon. Has repainting started on any of the ex-Penn boats?
Comet (1977) heads under the Bayonne Bridge, while (?) Brian Nicholas following.
Atlantic Salvor (1976) followed Atlantic Coast (2007) into the sixth boro the other day.
Resolute (1975) escorted in Americas Spirit.
Finally . . . that first foto . . . it’s Diane B southbound in Eastchester Bay (til now a tugster-neglect portion of the sixth boro) with Throg’s Neck Bridge in the background.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated: Does anyone know if and when Athena was scrapped?
Pioneer headed southwest, then
west.
and Clipper City taking her stern.
Laura K Moran takes the stern of an Offshore Sailing School boat.
A small sloop appears to go head-t0-head with Meriom Topaz and does the same with
Americas Spirit, as the tanker is lightered and provisioned.
And finally . . is the green cata-schooner passing off the stern of Comet really Heron, which I last saw in Puerto Rico here (last foto)?
Here she tacks to the east just north of the Verrazano. And Saturday night I spotted her again passing southbound through Hell Gate.
I hope to have more exciting autumn sail soon.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Comet, Eva Leigh Cutler, Manhattan skyline in September 2009.
Ditto . . . . September 11, 2012.
Buildings are replaced,
trade flourishes,
channels are carved deeper,
the open is
closed up,
precautions
are exercised, but
we remember. Many thanks for the foto below to Capt Jack Joffe, Liberty V of the National Parks Service in the sixth boro.
We heal although scars at times recall pain.
Unrelated: An NYTimes story about a revival in moving raw product to steel mills on inland waterways.
The past 24 hours has seemed the right time to reread parts of Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. Not that I’ve ever visited the Arctic. And ice is part of the bargain living at our latitude.
Ice is habitat, among many other things. We see some, but if it was 20 in the sixth boro this morning, it was at least 10 degrees colder a single latitude farther north, and that means crossings like this, less than 50 miles north of New York City.
We catch a glimmer of the Arctic here in winter, as birds from the North migrate in and travel around in formations like the one beyond Comet.
The goose in the middle came in for a landing, over-extending forward, and needed to use the underside of its neck as a skid plate.
Buffleheads are the first migratory birds I notice each fall.
Gulls–most sorts are here all the time, although occasionally unusual gulls appear. Stowaways? Torm Margarethe and Doris Moran await clearance to enter.
Egrets fish, undeterred by having their feet in freezing water, although
a few weeks back in Chincoteague, a sole pony offered rides to a flock of birds. Tender-footed ones, perhaps? Really . .. not a single bird rested on any other pony. What was the social contract?
Watching these Brant geese swim out (I thought of them as surfers headed out beyond the breakers) through the wake of Comet, I recalled Lopez writing about snow geese: “what absorbs me in these birds, beyond their beautiful whiteness, their astounding numbers, the great vigor of their lives, is how adroitly each bird joins the larger flock or departs from it. And how each bird while it is part of the flock seems part of something larger than itself. Another animal. Never did I see a single goose move to accommodate one that was taking off, no matter how closely bunched they seemed to be. I never saw two birds so much as brush wingtips in the air, though surely they must. They roll up into a headwind together in a seamless movement that brings thousands of them gently to the ground like falling leaves in but a few seconds. Their movements are endlessly attractive to the eye because of a tension they create between the extended parabolic lines of their flight and their abrupt but adroit movements, all of it in three dimensions.”
That “part of something larger than itself” makes itself visible as a flock of starlings moves through a tree with berries, a fruit crop reaped by an insatiable harvesting machine.
Without this cold season, I’d never have time to reread the books I savored before. Nor would I find new ones.
The top foto comes from Paul Strubeck, crew on Cornell, who took the foto near Kingston. I’ve seen eagles but never gotten a good foto. Thanks, Paul. The next foto–kayaker passing eagle–comes from the flickr stream of ninjaracecar. Thanks for putting these on flickr, ninjaracecar. All other fotos here are mine, including the one below of my 28-year-old boss. The green one. For some really exotic bird fotos, see the ODock.
North Sea (ex-Eileen M Roehrig, ex-El Gallo Grande) launched 1982 
Comet 1977
Odin 1982
Pati T Moran 2008
Thomas Dann, ex-Yabucoa Service, Yabucoa, Yabucoa Sun 1975
Nicole Leigh Reinauer 1999
Virginia, ex-Bayou Babe 1979. Yes
this used to be Bayou Babe, not Bayou Base.
All in all, amazingly diverse machines and physical backgrounds.
Top foto by Carolina Salguero. To see many more recent fotos by Carolina in connection with Portside NewYork, click here. All others by Will Van Dorp.
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