American Vernacular

My friend Stan and I have a thing where when we are traveling we look for photographs that are in a category by themselves, and we call those "American Vernacular."  They are liable to be photographs of an old barn or an abandoned pay phone on the side of the road, or a really old classic gas station sign and things like that.  The subjects are usually architectural in some way, and typically something "American."  We are never sure exactly what our version of "american vernacular" is, but it is fun to share the things we find.  I went to the post office in Sea Cliff today to mail a bill, and was amazed to see this house, which I have photographed before, with its porch all light up with lights.  They are orange lights, so I think these lights are for Halloween.  But it was so interesting for me, and the lights were a big part of it.  I found that seeing the lights brightened my day. So I thought that you all might enjoy this.

 

Painting the Church

I was cleaning out the darkroom, and found this framed photograph.  I had forgotten about this picture.  I took it about 40 years ago, with my 4x5 camera.  I carried that camera with me in the car, just to have, in case I saw something interesting.  I was driving through Bridgehampton out in the east end, and drove by this scene.  It stopped me in my tracks.  I have never seen a church that looked like this with all the white paint stripped from all of it, and then with the scaffolding around it.  It was such a strange scene to see, a classic white church like this!  It was other worldly!  I realized at the time I had a really interesting photograph, so I cut a mat for this 4x5 inch black and white contact print, then framed it and left it in my darkroom, where I found it the other day.

 

Little Island

This is Little Island, an artificial island and a public park in the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan at 13th Street.  The island covers about 2.5 acres and is supported by 132 pot-shaped structures, called "tulips," suspended above the water, which are supported by 280 concrete pilings extending into the riverbed.  How astounding is this to see, all these "tulips" in a row.

The landscape on the island is so beautiful with all kinds of interesting plants and grasses, and with paths to walk or stairs to climb of your choosing.  You can get to all the different places on the island by walkways which are accessible using wheelchairs.

The variety of plantings is just amazing in such a relatively small space.

The views of lower Manhattan, New Jersey and the Hudson River are spectacular.

The design of this park is simply astounding, with surprises at every turn.

What an amazing scene to behold underneath the island with the bases of the "tulips" connecting to the concrete pilings.

And this is fun - this is a panorama I did, and if you click on it it will enlarge and fill your screen from side to side.

 

 

Farewell my Faithful Friend

Welcome to my Electronic Museum!  I have always been on the cutting edge of new electronic devices since I bought my first Macintosh computer, a Quadra 605 back in late 1993.   I have bought Newton Messagepads - four of them - and several Palm Pilots when the Newtons were no longer supported, and then a Compaq iPac.  When the Amazon Kindle was announced I was really excited about it.  You could carry around with you everywhere, if you wished, maybe 100 books on this device, the Amazon Kindle, first generation.  It was released in November 19, 2007 and sold for $399 and sold out in 5 1/2 hours!  It was out of stock for 5 months, until late April, 2008.  I think that's when I bought this one.  I was thrilled with it and loved that I didn't have to look at a bright screen.  I saw black letters on a light gray screen and there was no eyestrain.  I would bring it with me on trips and if I tired of the book I was reading I would select another one stored in it.  This device was lighter than any single book and I hardly knew I had it with me.

I will tell you this, though.  In terms of industrial design, this thing would win no prizes.  It was just plain weird in it's "form."  This is a photograph of the end of it, and you can see it is severely tapered on both sides.  And trying to hold on to it without changing pages accidentally was nearly impossible.  Look at this:

On the left hand side from top to bottom are long flat "lever buttons," the top one says "Prev Page" and the one below it says "Next Page."  You cannot hold the Kindle anywhere on the left hand side.  On the right side, there is another long "lever button" which says "Next Page" and below that, another one that says "Back."  So you can't hold it on the right side!  The only place you can hold it is if you put your thumb to the left of the word "amazonkindle" and your fingers on the rear of it and squeeze.  Who designed this thing?  In spite of those shortcomings, I carried it with me everywhere to read and I loved it.  Well, it started getting wonkey and the little round scroll wheel near the bottom stopped working and then the battery died and there were no replacements.  So I bought a Kindle, 4th generation for $79 which was ergonomically so much better!  I have continued to keep this one for old times sake, but it doesn't work and is time to let it go, sad to say.  But it was a part of my history which I hate to lose.

 

The OTHER Bridge!

In addition to the old Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge now transformed to the Walkway over the Hudson, which I showed you photographs of, one-half mile south of it is the Mid-Hudson Bridge.  I had wanted to photograph this bridge as well as the other one.  It was easier to get underneath this bridge, which I did on the day we were leaving.  This bridge is a Suspension Bridge with two giant cables which are anchored at each end, and then go up to the tops of the towers, before swooping down in a parabolic curve at the center of the bridge then back up and over the tower and down to the other side.  There are smaller cables that go from the giant suspension cables, straight down to connect to the steel structure on which the roadway is built.

From a distance the bridge looks so delicate as if it was made from threads.  Up close you can see that it is a massive structure.  This bridge hardly looks 94 years old!  It seems more modern than that.

Each suspension cable is firmly anchored in the massive structure in he ground on each end.  It is impossible to even think of the incredible loads that are on these cables!  Here, the cable comes out of its anchor an runs through a fitting before it begins its sweep up to one of the towers.

This is the anchor on the west side of the river.  Look at those massive granite blocks.  I am not sure if inside them is poured concrete, and look how far back it goes into the trees.  In addition to anchoring the suspension cables, it has to hold up one end of the roadway structure.

This is a view of the entrance to the bridge on the west side of the Hudson river.  Look at the complex structural beams that look like the Erector set that I had as a child, with all the criss cross members.  What is really cool is that they built a walkway on the left here so you can walk all the way across the bridge!  It is a long walk - the bridge is 3000 feet long and the clearance under the bridge is 135 feet above the river.  I walked out maybe 500 feet, so I could get those nice views of the railroad bridge.

I love the beauty of this image, with the bridge structure looking so delicate, and then the mountains in the distance, which are called the Hudson Highlands, and that is in the vicinity of West Point.  Construction of this bridge began in 1925.  Caissons weighing 66,000 tons were sunk into the riverbed, and dirt was removed by crews working in a pressurized environment and then the concrete bases were poured.  The 315 foot-tall Gothic steel towers were constructed in April 1929.  Then Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor attended the opening ceremony on August 25, 1930 and the bridge was named for him.

I Left One Out!

When I was working on the blog post about the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge, now known as "The Walkway Over the Hudson" I felt like I messed up because all my photographs were mostly looking along the walkway.  I did have two photograph of things you could see to the sides of the bridge, but I didn't have any photos of people LOOKING off of the bridge.  Today I was working on a different bridge post, and realized I was missing some photographs that I took.  I finally found them, in another folder and there was a photograph of someone looking off the bridge.  It is Kathy and she is looking at the Mid Hudson Bridge.  I thought it was so strange not to have a photo like this, and low and behold, I did take one!  So here I am, a day late and a dollar short, but you deserve to see this photo to complete the post on the old, repurposed bridge.  Actually, I did have a couple of other photos of the old bridge, and I may post then in a second post about the Bridge Across the Hudson.  Please stay tuned!

 

Writers Read...

On Sunday we were invited to a program called "Writers Read" by Stan's wife, Ann.  She worked as an editor for one of the major news services in New York a good part of her life, and she has been writing personal essays as long as we have known her.  She is such a good writer, able to write deeply moving personal essays, and also some "lighter" things.  The theme of this event was "Wine" and the stories could only be long enough so they could be read in 5 minutes!  There's a challenge!  There were 10 writers who read their pieces on Sunday afternoon.  Ann's story was a very funny piece about a wine tasting with she and Stan and her parents.  It was a wonderful afternoon and something so different for us - I can't remember the last time we heard writers reading their own works.  It is a much richer experience in some cases, than just reading the stories ourselves, while alone.  And the reaction to the different stories by the audience also added to the richness of the experience.

This was the event space.  It was small enough so that it was intimate - we were close enough to each of the writers to be able to see their expressions, which added to the power of their stories.

This was the curtain call at the end of the event and the audience was thrilled with the speakers and was generous with their applause.  What a wonderful afternoon!

 

The Bridge!

So this was my secret!  A bridge over the Hudson!  It was once called the Poughkeepsie Railroad bridge, but now more than one hundred years after it was built, it is the Walkway Over the Hudson.  And what an amazing thing this is!

This is the view of the entrance to the bridge on the west side of the Hudson, on a beautiful Sunday morning.  Look at all the people walking across!

This is a closer view, mid span, of part of the bridge, showing one of the supports and two of the trusses.  Built as a double track railroad bridge, it was completed on January 1, 1889 and was part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.  Considered an engineering marvel of the day, the bridge has seven main spans.  The total length is 6,768 feet, including approaches, and the top of the deck is 212 feet above the water.  It was taken out of service on May 8, 1974 after it was damaged by fire.   The Walkway over the Hudson was opened on October 3, 2009.  What a brilliant idea to save the bridge and make it an incredibly popular place for tourists like us to visit!  Even in this close up view, people on top of the bridge are just tiny specks.

The bridge was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2009.

As you can imagine there are wonderful views from the top of the bridge.  In the foreground is a cable-laying ship anchored for the weekend.  The gray buildings in the middle of the photograph are of Marist College.  The brick buildings in the distance appear to be an abandoned religious facility that seems to be being demolished.  I could not figure out what that was.

For me, one of the best views was of the nearby Mid Hudson Bridge which we crossed several times to get from the west side of the river to the East side to get to Hyde Park.  This is a beautiful suspension bridge and a joy to see from this close.  It is only half a mile from the Bridge over the Hudson Walkway.

Another view of all the people out walking on the bridge.  The original railroad bridge is made of steel,  and the top of it was covered with huge wood beams which then had railroad ties fastened to them, and then the railroad tracks were on the ties.

I found this historic photograph on Wikipedia of the bridge after the fire. There was so much heat from the burning timbers and railroad ties, that the tracks were warped.  This photograph was taken in 1981, seven years after the fire, and the photographer was Morgan D. Wright.  What a stunning image!

And last, but not least, here is a panorama of the entire bridge from one side of the river to the other!  please click on this and it will open up much larger so you can see detail.  I hope you will think it was worth waiting to find out how I managed to photograph those three speedboats!

 

I Lied...

 Well, I hate to tell you this because I promised I would tell you how I got the photograph of the three speedboats on the river.  But today was a busy day, and we got up early and went to the city for something.  And THAT will be another post, I promise...  So I didn't have time tonight to post the story of the speedboats photo.  So this is kind of another mindbender photo, I think.  Any idea what this is, from first glance?  If you click on it, the "things" that are in the photo will be obvious at least, and maybe that's a help.  Here's another photo of the same thing with a better clue, I think.

OK the answer to today's mystery.  It is the wall and stairway in a place called City Winery on Pier 57 in Manhattan.  It is a restaurant and a wine bar, and it has a small event space.  We went to this place because of what was in the event space.  But that is going to take two more days for you to hear what we saw there.  Man oh man one puzzle after another with me these days...  Patience, please.  But this is an astounding thing to see, an entire wall made up of empty wine bottles, right?

Formation

OK, so THIS is a cool photograph!  But what the heck IS it?  It may take you a bit of time to figure it all out.  I love the fact that it is not clear right away what this is and where it is and that it isn't immediately obvious.  So this is a photograph of three fast boats coming down the river kind of in formation.  But here's the thing.  How did I take this?  From an airplane?  Clearly I was up high, and I was also over the river.  Gee, what a mystery!  Well this photograph ties in with what I am going to post about tomorrow, so enjoy the mystery and I will tell you everything in a day.

 

The Pool Garden

I showed you my favorite photograph of the garden yesterday, so today I will show you the garden itself.  It is beautiful.  This is a view from the North Pergola toward the south, where there is a pool and a statue.  All of what you can see is part of what they call the pool garden.

Something to photograph from along the pathway between the pergolas.

This is a close up of the south pergola with this beautiful statue overlooking the pool.

And this is the whole pergola around part of the pool.  If the pool looks strange it is because it is under renovation and there is black plastic fabric underneath the water.

This is the view back toward the north pergola.  The pond looks better because the water is reflecting the blue sky and the clouds.

And this photograph brings us back to where I started.  My back was to this when I took the first photograph.  The brick in all of these structures seems perfect for the structures surrounding the garden for some reason.  Maybe because it is brick, it seems like a more natural building material.  This was such a spectacular garden to see in person and I hope my photographs give a sense of what is there.

 

A Scene in the Garden

We were finished visiting the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park and we took our time to sit on benches and look out over the Hudson river.  We had a very relaxing afternoon which was nice.  Then I happened to see a map I had picked up at the visitor center and I noticed that there was a large garden at the southern end of the property.  It was far enough away and with all the trees you wouldn't know it was there.  So we walked over to it and were amazed.  This was the first thing I saw and it stopped me in my tracks.  Pretty amazing, right?  Then we wandered around for another 45 minutes looking at all the brick architecture there.  This may just be the best photograph I have taken all year.

 

Inside the Mansion

I hope these interior photographs of a few of the rooms don't get tedious to look at and read about.  So I will be brief.  This is one of the guest rooms in the mansion, for weekend guests visiting the Vanderbilts for horseback riding, golf, tennis, swimming and formal dinners and dancing.

A marble bust in a niche on the stairway leading to the second floor.

This is Mrs. Louise Vanderbilt's bedroom, and I think that the park ranger said it was based on Marie Antoinette's bedroom?  Why a bedroom needs a heavy wooden wall around the bed is beyond me.  Maybe to keep her husband out?

OK, so here's where I reveal my ignorance.  I cannot imagine why someone would choose these two marble statues for under the mantlepiece of the fireplace in the first floor entrance room.  I would love to know what they signify, though.  They are, to me, bizarre.

What a magnificent tapestry!  This is just stunning.  I do not know what it represents, but it is just beautiful.  And the artistry on the wooden chest, if that's what it is, is just astounding.  Once again, no clue on my part who made these, or the date, sorry to say.  Touring the mansion and seeing these rooms and architectural details and artwork was a wonderful and enlightening experience.

 

Frederick Vanderbilt's Mansion

Frederick Vanderbilt and his wife bought a two story mansion on this spot, with the intention of adding a third story.  In the survey of the mansion they found that the foundation was not in good shape and that the vertical beams were not capable of supporting a whole new third story floor.  So they decided to demolish the mansion on the spot and build a whole new one. 

So this is wild...  They quickly had a small mansion built within a hundred yards of so of where the new mansion would be.  It was all hands on deck and from start to finish the small mansion took, I think the ranger said, something like 67 days.  So they had a place to live while the new mansion was going to be built.  Amazing what you can do with a lot of money.

I have seen and photographed a number of mansions in my day, and I didn't find this building all that attractive.  But what do I know about architecture?  McKim, Mead & White designed this neoclassical building with Beaux-Arts ornamentation and incorporated all the latest innovations: electricity, central heating and indoor plumbing!  It was built between 1896 - 1899.

These are columns on the south end of the building.

And this view is of the north end of the mansion, looking south.  In another post I will show you some of the interior rooms which we saw on the tour.