Free Republic

I've watched (and far too many times, endured) the Macy's Fireworks broadcasts... ...but this year rocked like a New Madrid earthquake. Musically it was at 30 minute Trump rally. Nothing woke. "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" buried in the middle...well after an outstanding rendition of our National Anthem at the beginning with melodic quotations in several musical bridges.

On September 7, 1776, during the Revolutionary War, the American submersible craft Turtle attempts to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howe’s flagship Eagle in New York Harbor. It was the first use of a submarine in warfare. Donated to the Patriot cause after the outbreak of war with Britain in 1775, Ezra Lee piloted the craft unnoticed out to the 64-gun HMS Eagle in New York Harbor on September 7, 1776. As Lee worked to anchor a time bomb to the hull, he could see British seamen on the deck above, but they failed...

Federal Railroad Administration officials approved a Record of Decision Friday for the Environmental Impact Study for the tunnel project between New Jersey and New York, that’s part of the larger Gateway Project. That will allow rehabilitation of the existing 110-year-old tunnels currently used by 450-plus Amtrak and NJ Transit trains a day. The decision allows significant work to begin on a tunnel project that has been sought since October 2014 when an Amtrak engineering study that found the original 1910-era tunnels built by the Pennsylvania Railroad were on borrowed time. Flooding from Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 and the wear...

Spring rains often bring scores of earthworms to the surface, where they writhe on top of soil and sidewalks. But recently, heavy rainfall in a town near New York City was followed by something a little more unusual: a wormnado. A resident of Hoboken, New Jersey was out for a morning walk in a park near the Hudson River on March 25, when she spotted hundreds of worms spread along the walkway. The woman, who asked not to be identified, told Live Science that after her initial surprise she noticed something even more bizarre — a number of the worms...

The old Tappan Zee Bridge in New York's Hudson Valley went crashing into the Hudson River late Tuesday morning. Traffic was backed up in both directions about 10:50 a.m. as explosives were used to tear down the eastern portion of the bridge. Video clips posted to Instagram show the bridge, first built in 1952, plummet into the water, sending up massive clouds of gray smoke.

Tala and Rotana Farea, the sisters from Saudi Arabia whose bodies were found taped together in New York City's Hudson River last week, were said to have preferred suicide over returning to their home country According to police. Dermot Shea, chief of detectives for the New York City Police Department, said "sources" in Virginia, where the Farea sisters had previously been living, informed investigators ...(snip).. would "rather inflict harm on themselves and commit suicide than return to Saudi Arabia."

Retired airline pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who landed the famous "miracle on the Hudson," said Monday that “this is not the America I know and love” in a message encouraging voter participation ahead of the midterm elections. Sullenberger wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post that he “witnessed the best in people” on Jan. 15, 2009, when he led 154 people to safety by making an emergency landing on the Hudson River after a malfunction. ADVERTISEMENT "To navigate complex challenges, all leaders must take responsibility and have a moral compass grounded in competence, integrity and concern for the greater good,"...

Ferry commuters were stunned to see a man in a suit paddleboarding across the Hudson River Thursday morning The man, Scott Holt, tells News 4 he was running late for a meeting so he decided to hop on his paddleboard from Jersey City He made it across in 30 minutes, but was met by a confused cop and an angry ferry captain, he says Sure, it's common in New York City to see men in suits commuting on the subway or in taxis -- but on a paddleboard across the Hudson River? That may be a first. Eunice Rivers was...

It's rare for a president to pull funding from a sweetheart transportation project. But on the final Friday of 2017, the Trump administration announced that it was backing away from an Obama-era plan to lavish billions in federal aid on the Hudson Tunnel project. Billed as "the nation's most urgent major infrastructure project" by its proponents, the venture envisions a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River along with repairs to an existing rail tunnel damaged by Hurricane Sandy. All of this would mostly serve to increase rail transit service within the New York City metro area. Given the huge...

The nearly $30-billion Gateway program to overhaul Northeast Corridor rail lines between Newark and New York City, an array of tunnels, bridges and viaduct over wetlands has two main thrusts: rehabilitation and expansion. These objectives are deeply intertwined—the project team must build new structures in the huge effort before it can upgrade old ones. That’s why digging two 1.4-mile, 28-ft-dia train tunnels under the Hudson River—an estimated $12.9-billion project component—isn’t just an expansion job but a lifeline to free a pair of 107-year-old tubes heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and in need of a rebuild. It’s also why...

NEW YORK – A small World War II vintage plane celebrating its 75th anniversary crashed in the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey on Friday, but the pilot suffered only minor injuries and was rescued, authorities said. The pilot ditched the plane, a P-47 Thunderbolt, on a part of the river near where a US Airways commercial jet carrying 155 people splash-landed in 2009 in what became known as the Miracle on the Hudson. The P-47 Thunderbolt pilot was the only person aboard, and he was being taken to a hospital, New Jersey state police Sgt. Jeffrey Flynn...

A driver spoke out Sunday evening, two days after recording a truck hauling scrap metal as it tipped over and lost some of its wheels on the Tappan Zee Bridge. The crash happened around 9 a.m. Friday on the northbound side of the bridge. Images from the scene showed the overturned truck with pieces of scrap metal and debris all over the roadway, and the video showed truck sending debris and two wheels flying across the road. The trailer and flying debris narrowly missed the car behind it. As CBS2’s Hazel Sanchez reported exclusively, Qing Chang of Ardsley was driving...

It’s no surprise that the commuters and commercial truck-drivers who regularly slog across the George Washington Bridge are not happy with the news: Starting Sunday, auto motorists using cash will have to pay $15 to cross, a trip that until recently cost half that. They are the drivers from North Jersey and beyond who help make it the world’s busiest motor-vehicle bridge. And they are the same drivers who now must pay one of the most expensive tolls in the country. On Saturday afternoon, motorists were given a chance to vent, and they were more than willing to step up....

Clint Eastwood To Make Film about Capt. Sully Sullenberger By Stephen Pope / Published: Jun 04, 2015 Warner Bros. Pictures announced on Tuesday that the life story of Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger is coming to the big screen in a yet-to-be named motion picture that will be directed by none other than Clint Eastwood. The film will be adapted from Sully's book, "Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters," co-written with Jeffery Zaslow.

NEWBURGH, N.Y. – A suicidal mother who loaded her four children into a minivan and drove off a boat ramp into the frigid Hudson River changed her mind as the van sank and cried, "I made a mistake, I made a terrible mistake," said her 10-year-old son, who survived by crawling out a window and swimming ashore.

The exterior of Peter Townsend’s house in Chester, now torn down. Contract for West Point’s Great Chain signed in Chester 233 years ago. In these days of intercontinental ballistic missile shields and missile-tracking radar, it’s hard to imagine that the national defense once depended on a simple iron chain. During the Revolutionary War, a patriot named Peter Townsend lived on a three-acre lot not far from the corner of present-day Elm and Main streets in Chester. He was a member of an important family from Oyster Bay, Long Island. The family home, Raynham Hall, is today a museum, and...

Volunteers Needed to Rig Half Moon, April 17/18 & 24/25 This is our first email sent through Constant Comment. It is also the first HTML (web-like) email for us. If you would prefer to change your copy back to "plain text" or modify your email address, scroll to the bottom and click 'update profile.' 1. Help Rig Half Moon, Weekends in April 17/18 & 24/25 Volunteer crew are needed the weekends of April 17/18 and 24/25 to help rig the Half Moon for seasonal sailing operations. Jennifer Reilly will manage the re-rig, and assign training and jobs according to ship...

LONDON - The first of several British investigations into the e-mails leaked from one of the world's leading climate research centers has largely vindicated the scientists involved. The House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee said they had seen no evidence to support charges that the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit or its director, Phil Jones, had tampered with data or perverted the peer review process to exaggerate the threat of global warming — two of the most serious criticisms levied against the climatologist and his colleagues. In their report released Wednesday, the committee said that, as far...

Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger has flown his final flight. [SNIP]

Once upon a time, when you were just a kid, Mom or Dad probably read you "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge.” And years later maybe you read this 1942 classic by Hildegarde H. Swift to your own children.   Little Red was saved twice by children, once from being auctioned off and once from neglect. The story begins with the introduction of a little lighthouse sitting on the rocky Manhattan shore of the Hudson River.  “It was round and fat and red. It was fat and red and jolly. And it was very, very proud.”  The...