Today, on the 225th anniversary of George Washington signing of the legislation establishing the Revenue-Marine, the predecessor to the United States Coast Guard, President George Washington and his Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, returned to Federal Hall in New … Continue reading
Tag Archives: New York City
Redbird Reef lies sixteen miles out in the Atlantic Ocean from the Indian River inlet, near the ominously named Slaughter Beach, Delaware. One of three explanations for the town’s name is that the first postmaster was William Slaughter. Likewise, while many … Continue reading
I recently learned about Rocking the Boat, a wonderful organization in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx, one of the five boroughs of the City of New York. Since 1998, the after-school program has been teaching neighborhood kids to build wooden boats. In … Continue reading
Sometime during the Civil War, the poet Walt Whitman wrote a poem about New York City, titled “The City of Ships.” The first stanzas begin: City of ships! (O the black ships! O the fierce ships! O the beautiful, sharp-bow’d … Continue reading
Great activities on the water, on both coasts, this Labor Day weekend. In San Diego, the annual Festival of Sail began yesterday with a Parade of Sail and continues through Monday with lots of great activities. as described by San Diego … Continue reading
The Space Shuttle Enterprise arrived in New York today on its way to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. The Shuttle Enterprise rode piggy-back on a NASA 747, flying a loop over the Hudson River before landing at Kennedy Airport. The shuttle will … Continue reading
The timing could not have been worse. In the midst of a blistering heat wave in New York City, what has been described as a “catastrophic fire” at the North River Waste Water Treatment plant yesterday allowed millions of gallons of … Continue reading
In a lawsuit a whistleblower is charging that New York City’s new $27 million Fireboat 343, named after the number of New York firefighters killed on 9/11, was damaged in a storm last winter when sideswiped by another fireboat, the Firefighter II, … Continue reading
The times are changing. No news there. Rather than welcoming the sailors and marines on the docks, some New Yorkers are reaching out to sailors during Fleet Week using social networking. Some sailors and marines are connecting with New Yorkers the same way. Craigslist seems … Continue reading
The restored South Street Seaport, on New York’s City’s East River, has always been an uneasy balance between a historic seaport and a real estate deal. South Street is now far more shopping mall than historic seaport. The current museum … Continue reading
The New York Daily News reported good news this morning: Whales return to New York City: Massive mammals appearing again in seas near city; draws sightseers … Continue reading
In New York City tonight, just on the other side of the Hudson River from where I am now typing, roughly one million people gather in Times Square to watch a crystal ball being dropped on exactly midnight to celebrate the … Continue reading
New York City is metropolis of eight million organized into five boroughs, four of which are islands or are on islands. This Saturday, the 3rd Annual City of Water Day Festival will be hosted by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance to help remind … Continue reading
One hundred and six years ago today, June 15th, 1904, the Paddle Steamer General Slocum caught fire in the East River and burned killing an estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board. The steamer was carrying members of St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church … Continue reading
Today there are 1.6 million or so residents on the island of Manhattan. How things have changed. Four hundred years ago on September 12th, 1609, when Henry Hudson first stepped onto the island, there were roughly 600 Lenape Indians living … Continue reading