Saturday 6/4/05 Hudson Paddle, Pier 63-DTBh « Read Less
A relaxed Saturday Paddle from Pier 63 Maritime to the Downtown Boathouse for the Blessing of the Fleet - and some picturetaking, too.
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Pier 57
bkfrogma
Jun 08, 2005
This is the Pier 57 Marine and Aviation terminal. It was built in the 1950's and it was constructed in a fashion unlike any of the other piers in NY, which all used pilings for support - the foundation of this pier is formed by three giant concrete boxes which were brought by tugboats down the Hudson, floated into place, and then sunk there to form the foundation of the pier.
Right now this is a bus garage, but the Hudson River Park Trust has recently accepted a proposal from a group which includes the Cipriani family (of Harry's Bar in Venice fame) to turn it into banquet halls, a marina, and public spaces. I am happy because the barge where I keep my kayak is supposed to move there - we exist at our current location on a very year-to-year basis due to an odd little pencilled-in last-minute addition to the legislature which no one involved in the crafting of the legislature has ever admitted to adding, but which nevertheless is now law. However, it looks like this will be our future home. Thank goodness.
There is a piling field just to the south of this pier which I've been told was the pier where the Titanic was supposed to berth at the end of her maiden voyage.
In the recent past, this pier gained infamy as the impromptu jail where the New York Police Department held protestors during the Republican National Convention. I have two friends who got arrested - one just happened to be in the wrong place when the police were doing their sweeps with the orange plastic netting; another was actually in the Critical Mass ride that was the focus of that action. They put the plastic cuffs on him too tightly, and he suffered mild but possibly permanent nerve damage to his hands because they didn't cut them off until it was too late (didn't have the cutters because they were only supposed to be processing there - or something like that). You heard all kinds of crazy stuff worse than that, too. That was a very strange weekend here. I still wonder if those conventioneers had any clue, sheltered as they were, of just how much resentment was focused on them.
Right now this is a bus garage, but the Hudson River Park Trust has recently accepted a proposal from a group which includes the Cipriani family (of Harry's Bar in Venice fame) to turn it into banquet halls, a marina, and public spaces. I am happy because the barge where I keep my kayak is supposed to move there - we exist at our current location on a very year-to-year basis due to an odd little pencilled-in last-minute addition to the legislature which no one involved in the crafting of the legislature has ever admitted to adding, but which nevertheless is now law. However, it looks like this will be our future home. Thank goodness.
There is a piling field just to the south of this pier which I've been told was the pier where the Titanic was supposed to berth at the end of her maiden voyage.
In the recent past, this pier gained infamy as the impromptu jail where the New York Police Department held protestors during the Republican National Convention. I have two friends who got arrested - one just happened to be in the wrong place when the police were doing their sweeps with the orange plastic netting; another was actually in the Critical Mass ride that was the focus of that action. They put the plastic cuffs on him too tightly, and he suffered mild but possibly permanent nerve damage to his hands because they didn't cut them off until it was too late (didn't have the cutters because they were only supposed to be processing there - or something like that). You heard all kinds of crazy stuff worse than that, too. That was a very strange weekend here. I still wonder if those conventioneers had any clue, sheltered as they were, of just how much resentment was focused on them.
