Monday, March 9, 2009

East River Barge Nearly Hits Roosevelt Island And Manhattan!

Image of East River Barge Heading Towards Roosevelt Island From Populuxe Books

While looking out the window on a pleasant Sunday afternoon, Design and Decor blogger Populuxe Books, a resident of Roosevelt Island's Octagon building, spotted one of the many barges going up and down the East River on a daily basis going in a peculiar direction - right towards Roosevelt Island and then the East Side of Manhattan!

Image of East River Barge Heading Towards Manhattan From Populuxe Books

Via Roosevelt Island 360, Populuxe Books reports:
A huge barge broke away from a tugboat today just north of our apartment building. (The Octagon) The barge began to float down the East River diagonally past our building. The tugboat men hurriedly threw ropes to the men on the barge and back and forth. They were lucky to reconnect the two vessels just before the barge got too close to the sea wall. It was quite a sight to see. Wow!
This is the direction that East River Barges are supposed to travel - Straight.


We were lucky. Had the Barge hit land, it could have caused significant damage to the seawall as happened several years ago near Lighthouse Park.

1 comments :

Anonymous said...

A bit of deja vu for me. I live in Rivercross and several years ago, I noticed a barge floating down the East River in the middle of the night. Since it had no lights, no personnel on it, and wasn't attached to a tug, I called the Coast Guard to report it. The officer in charge kept my on line while he searched and subsequently located it on cameras they have all along the River's seawall (a surprise to me). I called the next day and was told that a few barges had become loose from their moorings and had floated freely until some lady called to report it. I told them I was that lady. They thanked me profusely. Of course when I tell this story, I start by saying there were explosives on the barges and that I had saved NY City from a terrible explosion before confessing to the truth!!