The Chelsea working pier again; I don't know what those big wheels are for, perhaps it is some kind of bridge. Or maybe whatever is transported on those trolley rails get moved by these wheels somehow. That little dock on the left goes to the red tugboat beside it. This is the same sort of boat that surrounded the plane that landed in the Hudson this winter, this one was probably out there too. 

I had been watching General Hospital which they interrupted with the news. The announcer teared up, assuming the worst, and I turned the TV off. My gym is on Christopher Street and I went there to avoid watching any more of it. I didn't expect to witness a miracle, since it happened way uptown, but by the time I arrived, the current had moved the plane there as well. I stood on the icy pier for half an hour as the rescue armada floated passed, then left when the paparazzi showed up pushing the civilians out of their way. And later at the gym the televisions were on the news and I got to watch it all over again.

Chelsea is an interesting area, not really a neighborhood, and the waterfront is still industrial although they have started renovating parts of it. This pier is part of a cluster of them at 25th Street, and is as close to a working pier as I've ever seen in New York. Those are trolley rails on the flooring, and the whole thing moves with the water like a ship, these beams make a creaking sound that can be rather alarming. Right next to this is another pier where luxury yachts are moored with a very nice gazebo that I didn't shoot because it was full of homeless people and their baggage who were ignoring the helicopters taking off from the heliport a few blocks away.

A few weeks ago I took pictures in Chelsea but the weather was dismal, rather like today, and I said I go back when it was sunny. So during my little Flower Festival, I did. Here are a couple of them, there will be more for the next couple days as well. This particular afternoon, the river was very low and quite a bit of the water's edge was exposed. The first day I was here, none of what's in the right hand photo showed. And below, the ever-present geese in a lovely V formation, on their way to swim around and eat algae off of those decaying posts.

Another Newport shot, with the harbor in the background; then the one below at the Houston Street pier after riding the PATH home again. Newport has this red and white striped lighthouse, which I know nothing about historically. All clean and modern, at least what I saw of it that afternoon, I assume the town has been there for centuries. If you look closely at the bottom photo, the lighthouse is at the base of the shiny building with the slanting rooftop. And further to the right is the Holland Tunnel terminal from yesterday's posting. 

Two more shots from Newport, that low wide ivory colored shape along the water in the top one is the Houston Street pier; the red building to it's left is the Archive which has appeared in a number of the Christopher Street photos. If you click on it, you be able to see the black water tower from a few weeks back. That big silvery structure that looks like a cigarette lighter is the most recent monument to Donald Trump's ego. Quite the controversy surrounding it, he fought tooth and nail to build it in Soho but the Historical Preservation Society prevented that, so he put it up on Varick Street, the border of Soho, and there have been a number of worker deaths related to it. The second photo is self-explanatory, the big box is the terminal for the Holland Tunnel. If you look closely at the top photo again, you'll see its twin, which is on the Canal Street pier where I like to sunbathe.

Before my flower tangent, I mentioned I might take the PATH train over to Jersey and shoot the West Side from there. Just for fun. Well, I did, and here are some of the results. I went to Newport, which is across from the piers I generally haunt. To the left is the breakwater for the marina with its rocks and waves, and below is the World Financial Center in maximum zoom. The rounded structure under construction is in the Battery Park photos from a few weeks ago. That recessed space between the buildings to the far right is where I shot those harbor sunsets. Tomorrow, the Houston and Canal Street piers, I promise.

Don't know the official name of these, I've always called them African daisies, but that's got to be wrong. These reside next to yesterday's lotus blossoms, you can see the pebble filled barrel of water that they grow in in the left hand background. Clearly I like pink, something I didn't realize until posting all these flowers and recent rosy sunsets. Fuschia is my favorite of that hue, both my wallet and clever folding umbrella are that color, although you'd never know it to look in my closet at my solidly Soho black wardrobe. Ever so chic, but obscure.