New York Waterways

-An exploration of life on and alongside New York City's waterways New York City is defined by water, yet many of its shorelines are largely unknown. Photographer Susannah Ray spent more than two years exploring these shores and waterways that New Yorkers utilize year-round to fish, swim, sit and daydream. The resulting images, inspired by Walt Whitman's poetry, take us on a seasonal journey past sheltered bays, under great bridges and over deep rivers to give us a new perspective on a mega-city we thought we knew so well. In a city so often considered to be racing forward, Ray's work serves as a powerful reminder that the communal human connection to water is as present today as it always has been.

A guide to the forgotten waterways hidden throughout the five boroughs Beneath the asphalt streets of Manhattan, creeks and streams once flowed freely. The remnants of these once-pristine waterways are all over the Big Apple, hidden in plain sight. Hidden Waters of New York City offers a glimpse at the big city’s forgotten past and ever-changing present, including: Minetta Brook, which ran through today's Greenwich Village Collect Pond in the Financial District, the city's first water source Newtown Creek, separating Brooklyn and Queens Bronx River, still a hotspot for urban canoeing and hiking Filled with eye-opening historical anecdotes and walking tours of all five boroughs, this is a side of New York City you’ve never seen.

"One of the most complete boating guides to the eastern waterways I have ever seen. . . . a top-notch, well-conceived and wonderfully produced book . . . This one's a winner!" Great Lakes Cruiser No serious boater planning a cruise in the area would want to be without Cruising Guide to New York Waterways and Lake Champlain, written in the same format as Pelican's other famous cruising guides. This firsthand account covers everything from more than 1,000 miles of popular waterways (including Lake Champlain, the Hudson River, the Erie Canal, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario) to less-traveled waters.The Thousand Islands are also explored. The author's personal knowledge perfectly complements the data on the NOAA charts that he suggests for each area. Among the many useful topics covered are Current navigational data Shoreside dining and other attractions Water depths Dozens of invaluable maps Anchorage locales photos, and tables Detailed marina evaluations Intriguing historical profiles.

Once a tidal creek meandering through marshlands rich in herbs, grasses, fish, waterfowl, and oysters, Newtown Creek today is a toxic cesspool that brings up raw sewage every time it rains. A tributary of New York's East River that forms part of the border between Brooklyn and Queens, Newtown Creek has long been at the heart of the city's "industrial backyard," serving as home to numerous industries, storage/warehouse facilities, waste transfer stations, and power plants, and as the dumping ground for unwanted byproducts and toxic waste. Site of a 17-million-gallon underground oil spill that still contaminates the area, Newtown Creek is currently under consideration by the Environmental Protection Agency for designation as a Superfund site, but the creek, whose waterfront is for the most part inaccessible to the public, is still largely unknown to residents and visitors of New York alike. Newtown Creek: A Photographic Survey of New York's Industrial Waterfront is an extensive documentation of this forgotten landscape that shows the evolution of the built environment over five years in more than 230 images. Photographer Anthony Hamboussi followed the creek through the neighborhoods of Hunter's Point, Greenpoint, and Bushwick, shooting over fences and gates where he could not gain access, to record the bare industrial landscape. From the ruins of Morgan Oil and the Newtown Metal Corporation, to the construction of the new water treatment facility, to the footprints of the former Maspeth gas holders, Hamboussi recorded sites that may soon undergo further transformations. His survey captures the creek at a moment in time when gentrification and revitalization are just starting to change the area, providing a glimpse into the history of industrial New York. An insightful essay by Paul Parkhill puts Hamboussi's work into context.

Ask the average American anywhere in the country to answer the association question "Staten Island" and you get "Ferry" in immediate response. what is regularly billed as "America's favorite boatride"- not least because a round trip still costs an astonishing twenty-five cents- is the last public survivor of New York Harbor's once immense fleet of those doughty double-ended ferryboats. Dozens of ferryboats in a myriad of liveries crossed the harbor's waterways as recently as one generation ago Most have vanished as though they never were, leaving in their ghostly wakes only fading memories and a few gorgeously restored ferry terminals. The handsomest of these terminals, on the New Jersey side of the Hudson, is probably the one dubbed by Christopher Morley the Piazza San Lackawanna. Over and Back captures definatively nearly two centuries of ferryboating in New York Harbor, by a master narrator of the history of transportation in America. In stories, charts, maps, photographs, diagrams, route lists, fleet rosters, and in the histories of some four hundred ferryboats, Brian J. Cudahy captures the whole tale as concisely as one could hope. The transportation expert, the ferry buff, the model builder, the urban historian: each will find grist for his or her mill. The photographs capture a highly significant footnote in America's past and present; the colored illustrations preserve some of the stylish rigs in which the owners garbed their boats, despite coal soot, oil smudge, and urban grime. Fully a third of the book comprises the most complete statistical compilation that the nation's public and private archives permit. The data show, among other things, that some of the former workhorses of New York Harbor are filling utilitarian or social roles elsewhere in the United States and overseas, and that the newest boats in the harbor began life along the Gulf of Mexico and in New England.

Museum, brings his intimate knowledge of the boats, their work, surroundings, and crew to his account. The volume is oversize: 12x9". Annotation 2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).