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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.
Know this New York NY boat?
How about this one?
Know this background?
The one above is Taft Beach in lower Newark Bay and that’s the Union County (NJ) Courthouse prominent in the distance. Below that’s Captain D on garbage detail.
I’ve no idea what’s making that brilliant flash behind Joyce D. Brown . . . unless it’s another one of those supertall buildings springing up in Manhattan. I guess “supertall towers” supersedes “skyscraper.”
It’s Pegasus and
Charles A and
Genesis Vision. Know her former name? It’s here . . . the top of the Great Lakes.
OK, so the “B” in the first photo is a vestige of Banda Sea. See the complete name in raised letters in this post (scroll) from 2009.
And Capt. Jason looks like this. Know it?
Yup, Mister Jim with the paint still drying.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Land mass area can be quantified in square miles, but I’d love to work with a mathematician to measure the area within NYC limits which is navigable, i.e., the sixth boro. Of course, “navigable” would need defining too. Immeasurable, of course, is the number of photos taken daily of vessels with the sixth boro.
Like this one of Crystal Cutler pushing
Patricia E. Poling westbound at the Brooklyn Bridge.
Taft Beach pushes BMLP 703 and 305 in the opposite direction. Also working recently have been
Paul Andrew with scrap,
Sarah Ann with more scrap,
Thomas D. Witte with crane barge Columbia,
James E. Brown with a spud barge,
and Fort Schuyler in various locations.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated, here’s an interesting video on the salvage of Modern Express . . . passed along by JM.
Also, as we near the mermaid parade, here are details on a performance to get you in the mood, an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s the “Fisherman and his Soul.”
This is a repost of the 4th photo in the post from two days ago, showing General Humphreys.
I repost because Dan Owen responded as follows: “General Humphreys was rebuilt into a conventional tug in 1950, 76 x 18.2 x 6.6, reportedly had two GM 6-71 diesels, 330 hp., which would have made it away under-powered. Data is very sketchy but I have a photo taken at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, Tex., which is undated but may be where it was rebuilt. I am sending this photo as it is the only one I have showing the SARAH R. II as an operating tug. This is a contact photo made from an original negative and is starting to turn yellow with age, hence the fading, but if the photo was made in 1950 at the time of rebuilding.
Louisiana Marine Repair and Service Co., Inc., Baton Rouge, owned it in 1950. They sold it in March 1966 to John C. Jackson, Jr., dba River & Canal Enterprises, Inc., Baton Rouge.
In Nov. 1976, still owned by Jackson, but removed from documentation as dismantled. For many years the SARAH R. II was lying along the bank of the Port Allen-Morgan City Route of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway at Plaquemine, La. It may still be there. I am also attaching two photos of the SARAH R II in this derelict condition.” Anyone know what remains at that location?
Many thanks to Dan Owens for his quick follow up and permission to post these photos. Hats off to all of you out there working today, like Taft Beach.
. . . aka a jumble.
I took the foto below of Stephen L. Colby (St. Louis, MO-built, 1967, 144′ x 40′) on 1/4/2013 in Cairo, IL. Yesterday, the boat sank into 14 feet of water farther north on the Mississippi.
Below, s/v Concetta meets Charles D. McAllister (Jacksonville, FL, 1967, 94′ x 29′) in late October.
Twin Tube (Blount, 1951, 64′ x 19′) passes the polytube rack. If you click on the link in the previous sentence, you’ll see the very next completed Blount project was of Ceres, a “grain elevator.” A google search turned up no fotos. Anyone know of any?
I took this foto a week and a half ago. Currently, Grande Sierra Leone has left Dakar bound for Cotonou, passing the older Grande Buenos Aires en route.
Bow Hector in the Kills a few days ago . . . now in Morehead City. Bow! Hector!
Taft Beach . . . shuttling dredge spoils, inbound.
Sludge tanker North River noses past 118,000-bbl barge Charleston.
On Marathon Day, this was Explorer of the Seas ( I think) approaching the Narrows, as seen past the stern of Transib Bridge.
A few days ago . . . it’s Challenge Paradise. I wonder if that’s ever a command. . . .
And at the same moment, crude oil tanker Felicity. By the way, I passed between felicity and challenge paradise . .. steering clear. Both vessels are currently southbound off the coast of the Carolinas.
Finally, in the Buttermilk, it’s MAST’s r/v Blue Sea, passing Wilson Newcastle and McAllister Responder. Responder and Charles D. are two of the triplets built near the end of the run at Gibbs Gas Engine, currently a place to sleep and stroll. The last time I saw Roderick-the third triplet– in the sixth boro was here.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Sunrise to the left of Coney Island Light and tug Escort, a Jakobson boat. Note how calm the water is.
The mighty Resolute passing the lofty Chesapeake Coast, with a loftier tower off in the distance.
James Turecamo–a Matton boat– tailing Stolt Aquamarine
Gulf Dawn with GL 54
Escort six hours after the lead foto . . notice what 22+ knot wind out of the west does. That’s Taft Beach disappearing behind the island.
And Potomac heads eastbound. I’m thinking to use Robbins Reef light as the terminal punctuation for all posts this week. Do you remember these signs that used a product name in the same way? I’m gathering if you are over 55 and a US resident, you’ll know about Burma Shave. Otherwise, you’ll think I’ve lost it again.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, this morning.
And check out this Staten Island Advance story on Robbins Reef light rehab work, featuring my foto!
Barney Turecamo with barge Georgia and
Buchanan 12 light, under the same wintry sky. The last time I saw the 12 was back when tugster last took a swimming day. I’d love to see the high and dry hulls of Barney and Mary.
Franklin Reinauer and Taft Beach leaving Erie Basin and
Franklin here refueling with Ruth M.
Robert E. McAllister, passing where warehouses are being transformed into park equipment and
Passing the cranes at the former Military Ocean terminal it’s Mary Gellatly and headed the other way
Marjorie B. McAllister.
Joyce D. Brown westbound past IMTT and here a few minutes later Joyce with
Meredith C. Reinauer right behind.
Shelby slings some barges and
magnificent Maryland –as seen from a low angle–made to the dock.
A Vane unit . . . I don’t recall and can’t identify . . . a few minutes after sunrise.
All fotos taken the past month by Will Van Dorp.
NRT 3 ends with a shot and video of Grouper; given an important news bulletin, it’s fitting I start with Grouper in NRT 4. The news . . . she’s got a NEW LEASE on survival. As soon as she’s fit to travel west, she’s headed to a spot just north of Detroit. Such news! Updates will follow as her uncharted future allows. I tinted the foto a bit yellow . . . as in sunny, a bright future taking her to her 100th! Since 1912, identities she’s carried include the following: Gary, Green Bay, Alaska, Oneida, Iroquois, all before Grouper. Maybe a new name will follow too? Thanks to Jon for 97 years of pedigree info in his comment a few days ago.
Thanks to Jed for this foto of Quenames, headed north here past Governor’s Island, bound for Boston, I suppose . . . with whatever that barge was designed to transport. My last shot of Quenames was in late summer 2007! Thanks much, Jed.
Nope . . . it’s not the Charles D. It’s Responder, featured a dozen times here before, initially in 2007. So what happened to the reel and boom that was her trademark? I’ve no clue.
Taft Beach . . . and her crew worked through Thanksgiving, through the powerful gusts and ebbs of Saturday night’s storm, and will do so more on Christmas Day . . . as the dredging must go forward . . . er downward! Greetings and hats off to all who work through whatever holidays transpire.
While we’re on Norfolk tugs, here’s another, shot on the Delaware. I’ve never seen Lucky D up in the sixth boro.
And while we’re on the Delaware, here’s a sibling of Heron, Falcon, and Sea Raven. I’ve not noticed Petrel in New York harbor.
I mentioned Charles D earlier.
To round these out, a quite random choice although I love her lines, it’s Christine M.
All fotos in the past month by Will Van Dorp.
Where I’m steering here most corresponds to the second post in this series, Coexistence 2. On an ideal day, all traffic gets along, sorts itself out. Big steel and small steel keep clear of one another, again
and again, no matter what the direction or
cargo or time of hitch or
commercial alliance or lack thereof, or
speed for whatever the purpose . . . understandings get articulated, negotiated, and agreed upon.
But then without warning and from out of nowhere, the wild jumps
in. The beast, driven by terror of the predator and the mindless urge to mate, dives in
as members of its species have for millenia. Some have always made it, wild and unfettered. But now the environment has
changed; rules and conditions altered. And intervention happens or
doesn’t.
Many thanks to Bill Bensen for the three fotos of the deer. For the record, Bill took these fotos about three weeks ago although it may be the same buck that jumped in this week. For more of Bill’s fotos of animals of the harbor, click here.
Other fotos by Will Van Dorp. Info on the vessels in the fotos: Foto 1: Bro Albert is a Maersk product tanker with an unidentified McAllister tug in the distance. Foto 2: Marie J. Turecamo and Kimberly Turecamo pirouette parcel tanker Stolt Vanguard out to sea. Foto 3: from near to far, Taft Beach, Captain D, and ATB Pati R. Moran moves the barge Charleston with assist from an unidentified Moran tug. Foto 4: near to far is Davis Sea and Java Sea.
Related: I included the tug Dolphin above as an attempt to broaden the term, given Bowsprite’s recent treat (treatise?) on inanimate harbor “animal” life.
tugster: a waterblog 
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