Reply With QuoteThanks for the update Zippy.
I hope they are taking out plenty of mud, after the trouble they had in getting the Intrepid out.
Thanks for the update Zippy.
I hope they are taking out plenty of mud, after the trouble they had in getting the Intrepid out.
Intrepid's all cleaned and ready
Intrepid's all cleaned and ready to set sail for Manhattan home
BY OWEN MORITZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, September 27th 2008, 7:48 PM
A ship as intrepid as its name is returning for a second act.
The Intrepid, a sprawling aircraft carrier that saw heroic action in World War II and Vietnam, is on its way back to its Hudson River berth after a two-year hiatus.
It's not just any ship.
It's three football fields long, 66 years old and serves as home of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, one of the city's top tourist attractions.
It also displays some of the best-preserved planes of World War II along with the Concorde, the defunct French-British supersonic that frayed the nerves of Queens residents' for years.
One thing most Americans don't know, though: The FBI moved its headquarters to the Intrepid right after terrorists struck the World Trade Center on 9/11.
"The FBI came an hour after the second plane hit," recalled Bill White, museum president. "They shut us down. Hundreds of agents lived there."
Now, after the warship's $15 million bow-to-stern restoration - part of an overall $115 million museum and pier renovation - the Intrepid is due to leave Staten Island drydock at 11:30 p.m. Thursday for its home at Pier 86 at W. 46th St.
If an aircraft carrier can get a celebratory parade without ticker tape, the Intrepid will get one as McAllister tugboats guide her up the Hudson. Fireboats will salute with red, white and blue water sprays.
The Intrepid will pass the Statue of Liberty around 12:15 p.m. and pause at Ground Zero around 12:30 p.m. Veterans - many of whom served aboard the Intrepid when she was an active-duty ship - will unfurl a 100-foot American flag in a salute to those lost on 9/11.
The public can view the journey from sites at Battery Park and lower Manhattan.
The carrier will arrive at Pier 86 around 1:30 p.m.
Officials have their fingers crossed that this trip will be a lot smoother than the Intrepid's embarrassing departure for the overhaul in 2006.
At the time, the 40,000-ton vessel got stuck in the Hudson's mud and it took a Navy salvage team to free her and at great expense.
The Intrepid was launched in 1943. After the war, it aided in NASA spacecraft recovery, then served in Vietnam.
In 1976, the ship was decommissioned and established as a museum ship by New Yorker Zachary Fisher and the Intrepid Museum Foundation.
Among the legendary planes on display are the TBM Avenger torpedo bomber, which was used by the first President George Bush during WWII, a Navy F-14 Tomcat and an A-12 Blackbird spy plan used by the CIA.
The museum will reopen to the public in November.
omoritz@nydailynews.com
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/..._to_set_s.html
© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com.
This should be worth seeing if you are not at work.
Wish I could be there to see it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 1, 2008, 4:54 pm
Intrepid to Head Home to Manhattan
By Patrick McGeehan
Victor Gomez fished near the Intrepid at the Homeport Pier on Staten Island. (Photos: Ramin Talaie for The New York Times)
After almost two years away, the old aircraft carrier that houses the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum is scheduled to be towed back to its longtime home on the West Side of Manhattan from Staten Island on Thursday morning.
The museum, whose exhibit spaces are being redesigned and expanded, is scheduled to reopen amid great fanfare on Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11. But first, the crew from McAllister Towing must return the 65-year-old ship safely.
The Intrepid’s berth at Pier 86 has been dredged thoroughly to avert a repeat of the sort of embarrassment that accompanied the initial attempt to haul the ship away. On the first try, in November 2006, the Intrepid’s giant propellers dug into the muddy bottom of the Hudson River after the ship had moved only about 15 feet.
After the United States Navy sent a team to work with the Army Corps of Engineers to solve the problem, the Intrepid was pulled downriver to Bayonne, N.J., where it was repaired and repainted. Since then, the ship, which carried sailors and fighter pilots into battle in World War II and the Vietnam War, has been docked at the Homeport on Staten Island.
The Intrepid is scheduled to leave the Homeport at about 11 a.m. and to arrive at Pier 86 about two hours later. Along the way, as the ship passes ground zero, a team of former crew members will unfurl a large American flag that hung on One Liberty Plaza after 9/11, said Bill White, president of the foundation that operates the Intrepid museum. The New York Police Department’s band will serenade the crewmembers from the flight deck, Mr. White said.
Nate Kessler, left, and Jim Rogers, both of Display Dynamics, helped with the placing of the Intrepid ceremonial bell during its installation on Staten Island.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...-to-manhattan/
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
For those who can't be there, you should be able to get good views from these Web Cams. (Weather permitting)
Wired New York Web Cam.
http://wirednewyork.com/webcam/new-york-live.htm
Earth Cam . Pier 86 on camera 4.
http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/intrepid/
Just spent 3 hours in front of the computer watching the Intrepids return.
Picked it up on Earth Cam, Statue of Libery Cam, then on to Ground Zero Cam, then on the Wired New York Cam, and finished with the Earth cam Pier 86 below.
^Excellent!
We watched it go by the WTC from my office - fireboat, helicopters, tugs - quite a sight.
Excellent pics Brian, truly shows your dedication to this forum.
This is for brianac, for being such a big, devoted fan of this ship...
After almost two years of refurbishing, the Intrepid aircraft carrier is returning to Pier 86 in the Hudson River
Park, which was rebuilt to accommodate the floating museum, the submarine and the retired Concorde
supersonic jet.
The 65-year-old vessel was towed from Staten Island by a team of four tugboats, accompanied by a flotilla
of police boats and sightseeing craft.
A band performed in honor of the Intrepid's return.
The ship is three football fields long.
The Intrepid had served for almost 25 years as a military museum before it departed to be repaired and
painted in late 2006.
The overhaul of the ship, combined with the reconstruction of Pier 86, will cost more than $100 million,
much of it paid for by city grants.
Passengers took in the views from the deck.
During World War II, the Intrepid was attacked by a Japanese ship near the Phillipines. About two dozen
aircraft, some repainted to look as they did when they flew combat missions in past conflicts, were tied
to the steel flight deck as the ship floated across the harbor.
More than 200 former crew members, many of them older than the Intrepid, were aboard for one last ride.
Alongside the former site of the World Trade Center, a giant American flag that had hung on the west side
of One Liberty Plaza after 9/11 was unfurled.
NY Times
I think the Times may be wrong on this one. I'm sorry but it does not look like three football fields long.The ship is three football fields long.
Maybe 1 and 1/2 at most, but not three.
I headed down to Battery Park nice and early, but of this being the Intrepid things didin't go exactly as planned, so I started walking north towards Battery Park City ...
There were some great sailboats streaming down the Hudson ...
Lots of vessels waiting to welcome the Intrepid in the choppy waters at the southern tip of Manhattan ...
Along the BPC esplanade there was a kid who found something that interested him a lot more than a bunch of boats ...
Finally the Intrepid came into view ...
intrepid 100208
I zipped up to Pier 84 to watch as the Intrepid returned home -- crowds were not all that big (I yearned for thousands packing the docks like in days of old) -- but Old Glory was flying everywhere ...
intrepid 100208
Tugs nudged her back into place ...
intrepid 100208
Original length - 872 feet.Originally Posted by antinimby
After retrofit - 898 feet.
So yes, three football fields.
Whats up with that blotchy paint job?
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