Posted on 06/02/2009 10:30:28 AM PDT by Fawn
What lies beneath the surface of New York Harbor? For starters, a 350-foot steamship, 1,600 bars of silver, a freight train, and four-foot-long cement-eating worms.
The steady transformation of New York’s waterfront from wasteland to playground means more of us are spending time along the city’s edge. That can lead a person to wonder: What, exactly, is down there? Until recently, we had patchy knowledge of what lies beneath the surface of one of the world’s busiest harbors. What we did know came largely from random anecdotes, and depth soundings done the way Henry Hudson did them—by rope and lead sinker. This first GPS-era picture comes from the team at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who have methodically swept the lower Hudson with state-of-the-art sonar. LDEO’s Dr. Frank Nitsche stitched together their data, along with several other researchers’ work, into this elegant color-keyed map, which we’ve supplemented by talking with sea captains, historians, and the divers pictured above. There’s a whole other city down there. Here and on the following pages is your guide.
1. A New Main Stream
The Hudson’s main current has, for all of recorded history, clung to lower Manhattan’s edge, skimming along the West Side. Battery Park City, built in the seventies, juts out into that flow, and since then, the current has been cutting a new channel, out toward the center of the river. That current is scraping mud off the top of the Lincoln Tunnel where it never did before; the underwater traffic tubes have lost 25 percent of their soil coverage in some spots. If the tubes ever became exposed, they would be at risk for shifting, cracking, and terrorist threats. The Port Authority is studying solutions.
2. Teredos and Gribbles
Two kinds of hungry pests gnaw away at the pilings that hold up structures like the FDR Drive, the U.N. school on East 25th Street, and the Con Ed plant at 14th. Teredos, which start life looking like tiny clams, grow up to be worms “as big around as your thumb, and nearly four feet long, with little triangular teeth,” says commercial diver Lenny Speregen. Like underwater termites, they devour wood. And Limnoria tripunctata, a.k.a. “gribbles,” are bugs about the size of a pencil dot that look like tiny armadillos, and eat not only wood but also concrete. Speregen says he’s seen fifteen-inch-diameter columns that have been gnawed down, hourglass style, to three inches. The city has tried jacketing pilings in heavy plastic to keep the critters out, but it hasn’t worked well: Floating ice tears up the jackets in winter. “I never said this wasn’t a war,” says Speregen.
Maybe Jimmy Hoffa too.
The article said — “... 1,600 bars of silver...”
—
Ummm..., that’s the one I’m interested in... LOL...
1,600 Bars of Silver, Weighing 100 Pounds Apiece
In 1903, a barge in the Arthur Kill—the oily, mucky arm of the harbor between Staten Island and New Jersey—capsized, spilling its cargo of silver ingots. It carried 7,678 bars; about 6,000 were recovered soon after. The rest are still down there. At today’s prices, they’re worth about $26 million. Every now and then, someone tries to find them. So far, no luck.
Zero’s birth certificate
No mention of the treasures in Hell Gate.
http://www.eastrivernyc.org/content/geography/hell-gate/index.html
It is interesting and creepy:
Dead Bodies
When homicides and suicides end up in the river during winter, they often stay underwater until April, when decomposition speeds up, bloating them with gases. They then bob up, and currents have been known to drive them to nooks near the Seaport and Manhattan Bridge. “The worst one I ever saw was half in the mud, half out,” says John Drzal, a veteran of the NYPD scuba team. “The skin was peeling back.” He scuttles his fingers up his arm. “The critters were eating it.”
...
A Piano and a Dead Giraffe
The Army Corps of Engineers, charged with the task of scooping up floating debris, once fished out a grand piano. Another time, they found the corpse of a giraffe that had fled a circus.
...
The Last Remnants of Dreamland
One of Coney Island’s great early theme parks, Dreamland existed for only a few years before it burned down in 1911. Nothing survives of it aboveground, but a group that Speregen co-founded, called Cultural Research Divers, found the lampposts underwater, melted and deformed from the fire.
AND THE MOMENT HE DOES, some historical association or insurance company will lay claim to them and they will end up in litigation. You also can be sure that the IRS, as well as New Jersey and New York's tax authorities, will have a boat on the site waiting for the bars to come up. Those bars might as well be on the Moon.
Hmmm
The H.M.S. Hussar Disaster
The H.M.S. Hussar was one such vessel. The Hussar was a British frigate of War, part of a fleet of privateers. It had left Charles Town carrying soldiers, slaves, rations and a vast fortune of Gold and Silver — payroll for the British forces stationed in the colonies. On her way she attacked two ships, confiscating their treasure and sinking the. Then she met two sister ships. Both had been commissioned into battle so unloaded their cargoes onto her. As you can imagine, the Hussar was now heavily overloaded, and became easy prey for the the jaws of Hell Gate. Weighed down, she was unable to maneuver around the currents and smashed her bow into Pot Rock. She went down on November 23rd 1780 with 150 men and $15 000 000 worth of gold on board. Some believe the treasure still lies on the river bed today. A treasure, is now estimated to be worth up to $1.5 billion.
Ping to murky warters
As kids in the 50’s, we’d sit on the benches on the Gate’s east shore and try to figure out how to get at it.
}:^)
In the dead of night, eh? :-)
Also referred to as the “Kill van Kull”
Having been born on Staten Island and attended high school a few blocks from there my Dad referred to it as such.
I can imagine ...
On L.B.I. we’d rush out after a storm with our medal detectors to see what we could fine.
I’ll never forget ... during their last MAJOR storm we waited in line to get on the island. My parents had proof of house ownership etc... Once we got on, it was so strange. Rooftops were still floating in the ocean. Houses were in the middle of the street. Stuff was all over the place. The floating roof tops, past the breakers still haunts me. There is ALL KINDS OF STUFF out there.
We no longer own anything on Long Beach Island.
They’re DUE for a MAJOR storm again. Usually it’s about every twenty years. At some point all of it will be under water. The ocean often meets the bay during more mild storms. Pilings wn’t stop houses from being underwater when the ocean claims L.B.I..
If you figure out how to get it ... I’ll help!!!
:)
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