Retro Sixth Boro 12

March 2009 . . . Stephen Scott here passes Port Ivory, near my old job, pushing RTC 70.   I’m still looking for Stephen Scott photo is her new profile, sans upper wheelhouse.  Port Ivory was an intriguing place name for me when I first moved here;  once a North Shore Branch of the SIRR even had a station there.

Kimberly Poling already had the color scheme, but adding a few more teal stripes to her current appearance is a big improvement.

Lettie passed by once while I scheduled my lunch break.  As of today’s posting, Lettie G is in Mobile AL!!  If she continues, she could end up back in Lake Erie by way of the great loop.  Is that what’s happening?  A few months I caught her at the top end of the Welland Canal here.

More Port Ivory area, Specialist was around, then called Specialist II.

So was the huge K-Sea fleet, which included Falcon.

This post should be called “sixth boro and beyond,” since I took this photo of Justine with RTC 120 up near Saugerties.  Back then,

was that a red canoe along her portside rail?

Side by side  in the Rondout 10 years ago were Hackensack, the 1953 colorful one, and Petersburg, 1954 vintage and still in the general area.  Last I knew, Hackensack was in Guyana pushing molasses barges.

And going  farther out, it’s Allie B pulling Goliath on a cargo barge Brooklyn Bridge out of Quincy MA, with assistance from Vincent D. Tibbetts Jr and Justice.

Here’s a closer up of Liberty.  For the entire reportage on that journey to Mangalia, Romania (!!), click here.  Damen operates the crane in their shipyard there, the largest shipyard in the Damen collection.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who hopes you enjoy these looks back as much as I do.

Bayonne Bridge Transformation 1

More of the Great Race soon . . . but a bit of back story.

When I moved to our fair metropolis in 2000 and started paying attention, I was taken by the Bayonne Bridge, so enamored in fact that I choose it as the header image for this blog in 2006, and now out of stubbornness– or something– have kept the old view.

I renewed my focus on the Bridge in 2011, “turning” became the key word in the titles.  Click here to see posts I did for its 80th, 84th, and 86th anniversary of initial construction, and here I marked the 80 mark again twice.   Over 10 years ago I alluded to the raising for the first time here.

Here’s a single post that looks at the change from 2011 until 2017.

For a baseline, let’s use sunrise April 24, 2008, looking from the west, those two boats are Justine McAllister and Huron Service, now Genesis Victory.

And from the east, December 2011, and that boat was Barents Sea, currently known as Atlantic Enterprise.   As to the bridge, note the box-grid work (not a technical term) on the Bayonne side of the arch.

From Richmond Terrace (Staten Island) perspective, here’s the bridge in February 2012.

By September 13, the box grid was covered, possibly to allow sand blasting.

By January 2014, the cover was off the box grid.  Yes, that’s Specialist.

By October 2015, the box grid was being extended upward, as

the vertical supports were being erected farther into Bayonne.

Here’s a December 15 view, showing the symmetry of the construction.

Here’s March 2016, and you can begin to see the location of the raised roadbed.

Here’s a view from May 2016 from the west side of the Bayonne shore.

By August 2016, the new span has been completely defined.

Here’s a closer up, showing the old level–still poet traffic–and the new level, along with the device used to place pre-cast portions of the new road bed.   The tug is Taft Beach.

Here, as seen from the west side, is most of the bridge in September 2016.  Note the gap still remaining on the Staten Island side.

By March 23,  2017, the upper deck was open to wheeled traffic, and the lower deck was ready to be dismantled.

Here’s a closer-up of that opening.

By April 2, a gap existed, and

by April 11, 2017, ships that might have scrapped  year before were shooting through the opening that grew wider by the week.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who will continue this progression soon.

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.

Perspective

I thought I’d used this title before, but I was thinking about this one, backgrounds.  The idea here is similar.

From this angle, can you identify this vessel?

It’s a shipshape Pegasus!

From the same perspective, Justine McAllister and Franklin Reinauer leaving the KVK for the AK.

Ditto equally shipshape Mary Turecamo, from a perspective such that the visor practically obscures the house windows.

What’s the tale of three wakes . . . one recent and the others less so?

This is a good view of how a model bow fits snugly in the notch.

Where’s this and what’s this?  Although it looks like a building being overrun by tropical flora and fauna,

this might generate a different set of associations.

This was taken from the same  vantage point but with the camera pointed a bit higher yet, and it makes all the difference.

It’s OSC Vision entering the Upper Bay last weekend, giving new meaning to the term “shipshape.”  And the fauna here could be called landscaping goats . . . . or “scapegoats,” for short.

Two ships . . .  well, at least until you examine the farther one more closely.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who did this earlier goat homage here.