Uploads from 95wombat, with geodata

It's 4:20 Somewhere

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:05:41 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

The old Virginia Electric Power Company hydro plant on Belle Isle in Richmond, Va., which operated from 1904 to 1967.

It is now the place to go to smoke marijuana etc. at sunset, apparently. Too many slackers were hanging out inside to shoot any photos there.

There's a variety of industrial ruins sprinkled around Belle Isle, which is now a popular city park.

Fortress Built Of Brick

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:54:50 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

Inside one of the magazines at Fort Washington, an imposing fortress on a bluff above the Potomac River downstream from Washington, D.C.

The first version was built in 1809, and this one was completed in the 1840s. It was last used by the military in 1946 and is now run as a historic site by the National Park Service.

Aside from its sheer size and height above the river, the detail that stands out is how much brick was used in its construction. Most of the forts I've seen are made entirely of stone.

Streamliner

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Sat, 18 May 2013 04:59:29 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

A famous name in long-distance rail travel: The Capitol Limited.

This was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's marquee train, its Washington-to-Chicago run. The Capitol ran for more than 40 years, from the 1920s until Amtrak took over long-distance rail service in 1971.

This piece is from the train's streamliner era, and is part of the collection of the B&O Museum in Baltimore. It's inside now, so perhaps it won't rust too much more.

It's Morning In America

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:49:55 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

Another version of the Fort Howard sunrise.

(LIGHTBOX)

I'm going to spend a week on the coast this summer, far from any abandoned factories, so I'm practicing my nature photography a little. Can't decide if I like the original color version or this one better, "realistic" or "dramatic."

The Anonymous Casualties Of War

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Thu, 09 May 2013 06:14:28 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

Final resting place for some of the soldiers who died in the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863. It was one of the most important battles of the U.S. Civil War, a crucial defeat of the Confederate forces often regarded as the turning point as of the war.

It was also the bloodiest battle of the war, with 8,000 killed outright and 40,000 more being wounded or going missing. The dead were buried haphazardly when the armies withdrew. As the local populace set about rebuilding their shattered community, they soon asked that all the mass graves be consolidated. It was at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery in November 1863 that Abraham Lincoln gave the now-immortal "Gettysburg Address."

Decades after the war was over -- and as recently as 1997 -- bodies were still being recovered from unmarked battlefield graves and reinterred in the cemetery. This is why so many of the markers have only a number, not a name.

Pause In The Destruction

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 04:59:10 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

The wrecking crew pauses while one of their guys rigs up a new firehose to keep down the dust.

I like to post photos in the order I shoot them, especially since I've just begun posting from an epic road trip, but I figured I'd post something of St. Patrick's Church in Watervliet on what will probably be the last Sunday when any piece of it is still standing.

One of the greatest religious buildings in the region, this was begun in 1889 and the first Mass was celebrated in 1891. It served generations of working-class residents of the city, best-known for the U.S. Army arsenal that still operates there today.

The arsenal, the city and the parish shrank in the decades after World War II, and in 2005, St. Patrick's and two other nearby parishes were consolidated and St. Patrick's went vacant.

Once a developer expressed interest in the site, it was doomed. The neighborhood fought to save it but lost. The day after the court ruling the demolition crew went to work, starting on a Saturday so as to head off any appeal.

A new Price Chopper supermarket is planned for the site.

Winter's End

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 03:36:54 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

The Ausable River tumbles into Ausable Chasm near Keeseville, N.Y., in the last days of winter 2013.

The stone work on the left border is the ruins of an 1800s factory. Apparently a number of attempts were made to harness the water flow here and most were unsuccessful.

Across the gorge, just out of the frame on the left, is a hydropower plant has successfully harnessed the water flow. It also reduces the flow of water in the summer and destroys the wild look of the gorge.

Babbling Brook

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 04:01:05 -0800

95wombat posted a photo:

The Chuctanunda Creek winds through some old factory buildings in Amsterdam, N.Y.

I've seen pictures taken from this same vantage point during storms, when the creek has become a raging torrent, especially at the 90-degree turn here.

It was a source of hydropower at one time. The city grew up, and then rotted away, along its banks.

Keep Your Head Down

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 03:38:25 -0800

95wombat posted a photo:

Inside a tunnel at Camp Bluefields, an early 1900s military installation in Orangeburg, N.Y.

It was built as a target range but apparently a lot of bullets wound up going through neighbors' walls, so it was abandoned fairly soon after, but reclaimed for other uses during World War I, and (some sources say) World War II. A main point of embarkation for troops going to Europe in World War II was just down the hill in the Hudson River.

The tunnels were built so the staff could get around without being shot. They remain, along with a few blockhouses and the long concrete walls also designed to stop flying bullets.

Today the whole site is Blauvelt State Park.

Beacon Mountain Railway Ruins

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 04:33:38 -0800

95wombat posted a photo:

Motor house of the old Mount Beacon Incline Railway.

The circa-1902 funicular hauled millions of people up the tallest peak in the Hudson Highlands between 1902 and 1978, climbing 1,540 feet above sea level on only 2,200 feet of track

We see here the effects of a 1983 arson fire and subsequent abandonment. The city of Beacon is below, beyond that is the Hudson River and the Shawangunk Ridge.

High Falls Gorge 2

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 04:39:11 -0800

95wombat posted a photo:

High Falls Gorge, Part 2: A single BW image toward the bottom of the gorge, where the shadows aren't so dark.

To give a sense of the scale here, that fence is about 5 feet high.

The Gorge is a commercial attraction that claims a 700-foot combined drop by its three waterfalls. Not true. The actual drop is 70 or 80 feet. Maybe 700 feet is the length of the gorge.

B-24, Waiting To Fly

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 05:27:19 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

The wing of a B-24J, photographed on the tarmac during a visit to the Schenectady County Airport. A few minutes later the sun would burn a hole in these clouds.

This is the only example of the B-24J still flying anywhere in the world. If I remember the placard correctly, it was actually made for the Royal Air Force, and after World War II the English abandoned it in a boneyard in India. After India gained independence, its air force rebuilt this plane and flew it for 20 years, then put it back in another boneyard.

Eventually it was reassembled and restored to flying condition in the United States.

The Stream Comes Back Above Ground

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 04:25:40 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

That same stream emerges back into the sunlight after travelling some distance underground at Natural Stone Bridge and Caves.

Scarred By Man

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 05:17:15 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

Vroman’s Nose overlooking the Schoharie Valley near Middleburgh, N.Y.

I guess kids back in the 1800s carried stone-carving tools instead of magic markers and spray paint. CBL did some nice lettering on this rock back in June 1863, though he got the “N” backwards.

Mine Kill Falls

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 06:25:12 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

The bottom of Mine Kill Falls in Schoharie County, a few hundred yards before the stream empties into the Schoharie Creek.

This is a nice series of drops totaling 80 feet and passing through a little gorge that gets extremely narrow at points.

I caught the sunlight just about right, backlighting the falls through that little canyon without any lens flare.

A Quick Glimpse

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 03:38:10 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

The nearly full moon rises in Venice.

This was the only moon shot worth keeping from 10 hours of night time photography. The streets and canals are so narrow and crooked here that the moon can be hard to shoot if you don’t know where to go.

Back In The Day

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 04:20:06 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

Some old machinery and some really old artwork at Centrale Montemartini in Rome, a museum that displays ancient sculpture amid what’s left of the city’s first public power plant.

Head In The Clouds

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 03:10:01 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

The view from the top of Whiteface Mountain. A very awesome view it is, provided you don’t have low clouds rolling in.

The skies were clear when we paid the (considerable) toll to drive up. it was starting to get cloudy when we got to the top. In an hour there were actually wisps blowing in lower than the peak.

The Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 06:02:09 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

The abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike near Valley Hi.

The turnpike was built in 1940 with four-lane roads and two-lane tunnels, which became choke points as the number of cars multiplied in the 1950s. By 1968, more tunnels had been added along the turnpike, doubling the traffic capacity -- except along this 13-mile stretch, which was simply abandoned.

Most of the day, the light was not great for photography. But at dusk, with the rainwater steaming off the crumbled pavement, the light is pretty nice.

Please Use Side Entrance

nobody@flickr.com (95wombat) — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 03:11:01 -0700

95wombat posted a photo:

An employee entrance at the Gautier Steel Plant in Johnstown, Pa., that hasn’t been used in a long time.

Peeking beyond the turnstiles, it doesn’t look like the inside has been used in a long time, either. But it’s a big plant, stretching almost a half mile down the river, and other parts of the complex are still in use.

In fact, the company says on its website that it’s looking to hire people.