Bean Road

Halloween Storm

2011-11-12T10:48:00.001-05:00

Well, Halloween Eve, really. 17 inches of wet snow with leaves still on the trees brought down many branches. Power out for seven days.

Canal

2011-11-12T10:34:00.001-05:00

Reflections in the canal between Moffett Field and the San Francisco Bay in Sunnyvale, California.

Field

2011-11-12T10:04:00.001-05:00

Field at Half Moon Bay, California.

KOA Kampground, Madras, Oregon

2011-10-13T17:16:00.000-04:00

This part of Oregon is a combination of rolling farmland (irrigated) and dry ranchland with the snow-covered giants Mount Hood and Mount Adams looming in the distance.

Our campground near Madras, Oregon.

When we were kids, the KOA campgrounds always had the best showers. That still seems to be true today.

On The Road to Oregon

2011-10-13T17:00:00.003-04:00

We've begun our road trip to New York. For the official perspective, see GWS Takes Manhattan.

Our vehicles in pristine condition in San Leandro, California.

The Pac Man car, sighted north of Sacramento.

Carquinez Bridge

Heading north on Interstate 5.

California Central Coast Déjà Vu

2011-09-26T00:18:00.000-04:00

I drove down California 1 today from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz, and I realized I'd been on this road about 25 years ago, after dropping Claire off at SFO airport for a rafting trip in Idaho. I stopped off for the night back then at the Pigeon Point Hostel before continuing on down the coast to do some hiking in the Ventana Wilderness.

Parking lot, Half Moon Bay, California

Pigeon Point, California

Pigeon Point Hostel. Ed Bacher slept here.

Pacific Ocean from Pigeon Point

More Commuting

2011-09-23T23:44:00.000-04:00

I took these photographs this morning with my phone and uploaded them to Google+. So now they're magically in my Picasa album and I can easily post them here. Haven't quite figured out yet whether I need to cross-post stuff, but this blog is more linear than the G+ stream. (As always, you can click on the picture for a larger version.)

Phone cameras have certainly come a long way. Compare to the SavaJe phone pictures from a few years ago in this post: http://beanroad.blogspot.com/2007/06/mobile-phone-pictures.html.

Looking toward the mountains in the East Bay from the San Francisco Bay Trail.

My commuting vehicle. I bought this around when Annie was born, so it's about 20 years old and still going strong.

Sunrise over Poverty Ridge (I think).

Update: Nuclear Lake

2011-09-16T00:07:00.000-04:00

I've added a couple of links to the end of this post about Nuclear Lake Before the AT.

Nice commute in California

2011-08-20T23:03:00.001-04:00

For now, I'm living in Sunnyvale, and can ride my bike to work along the San Francisco Bay Trail. Won't last forever, so I'm trying to appreciate it now.

San Francisco Bay Trail

Moffett Field from the San Francisco Bay Trail

Railroad/Road Bridge in Maine

2011-05-05T21:20:00.003-04:00

I just came across this apparently unique bridge in the HABS/HAER archives. The Free-Black bridge spans the Androscoggin River between Brunswick and Topsham, Maine. It carries a branch of the Maine Central on top, and a single lane road bridge suspended below.

Free-Black Bridge, Brunswick-Topsham, Maine.
Photo by Jet Lowe for HABS/HAER.

The following picture gives you a better idea of how the roadway is suspended from the steel truss railway bridge.

Free-Black Bridge Road Deck, Brunswick-Topsham, Maine.
Photo by Jet Lowe for HABS/HAER.

This bridge was built in 1909, and I was afraid it might have been demolished since Jet Lowe took these pictures in 1994, but a check of Bing Maps shows that it is still there.

Free-Black Bridge, Brunswick-Topsham, Maine.
From Bing Maps

According to an article in The Forecaster,

After a driver struck a support beam on the one-lane bridge in early April, the DOT closed the bridge and engineers discovered the pressure-treated wooden guard rails were rotting.

The bridge is now closed to traffic, but it's still there, so I'll have to go see it.

Kennebec Bridges, Waterville, Maine

2011-02-24T20:00:00.000-05:00

There are a couple of nice bridges in Waterville. The Ticonic bridge is a pedestrian bridge about 200 yards above the Ticonic Falls:

Ticonic Bridge, Waterville, Maine.

At the falls themselves is a massive railroad bridge:

Railroad bridge, Kennebec River, Waterville, Maine.

Another view of the railroad bridge:

Barrel view of Ticonic Falls railroad bridge, Waterville, Maine.

Lap Order, August 1932

2011-02-24T19:41:00.004-05:00


August 3, 1932, Rutland, Massachusetts.

(Click the picture to see the large version.)
This photograph, taken by Harold Judkins of Rutland, Massachusetts, shows the wreck of Boston & Maine locomotives 1435 and 1365. My grandfather was the fireman on engine 1435, and both he and the engineer died in the wreck. The engineer and fireman of locomotive 1365 apparently jumped and survived. The immediate cause of the wreck was a lap order issued by the dispatcher that allowed both trains access to the same stretch of track, but the exact circumstances remain a mystery.

More to come on this...

Jet Lowe in Cleveland

2011-02-17T11:01:00.001-05:00

In the summer of 1979, Jet Lowe took a series of photographs of these huge machines used to unload ore from ships on Lake Erie. In this photograph, you can see a ship (the George M. Carl) docked to the left of the massive Hulett ore unloaders. Downtown Cleveland is in the distance.

Pennsylvania Railway Ore Dock, Lake Erie at
Whiskey Island, approximately 1.5 miles west of
Public Square, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, OH

The unloader operator could drop the ore directly into waiting rail cars for immediate shipping, or deposit it in the storage yard to the left.

Horseshoe Curve, Altoona, Pennsylvania

2011-01-16T21:21:00.003-05:00

Altoona, Pennsylvania, October 12, 1934

(Click the image for a larger version.)
This photograph is from the panoramic photograph collection of the American Memory project at the Library of Congress. The horseshoe curve carried the Pennsylvania Railroad at a reasonable grade through the Allegheny Mountains. Designed by John Edgar Thomson (who soon become president of the PRR) and Herman Haupt (who later started digging the Hoosac Tunnel in western Massachusetts and was a Union general in the Civil War) designed the curve. The horseshoe curve opened on Feburary 15, 1854.

Nicaragua

2010-10-26T20:31:00.007-04:00

A year ago, my daughter Libby asked me if I wanted to go with her and some of her friends to Nicaragua to build a house. The last I had heard of Nicaragua was during the Iran-Contra affair in the 1980s, when the US was funding an effort to overthrow the Nicaraguan government. Since then, the Nicaraguans have overcome the Contras, the Sandinistan government has been voted out, and voted back in again. Daniel Ortega, one of the Sandinista leaders and the former President, is also the current President of Nicaragua.

We built a house in Guanacastillo, a rural area in the town of Nindiri, about 45 minutes south of Managua. Our home for the week was the small village called Papayal, which consists of a small church, where we slept, a two-room schoolhouse constructed by the government, and the teacher's house -- by far the nicest house in town.

We worked through an organization called Bridges to Community, which has worked on a number of projects throughout Nicaragua, including water projects, medical clinics, house-building, and school-building.

Papayal School, Nicaragua, February 2010

The kids have a great time in school, and they all show up with clean white shirts and navy blue pants or skirts.

Guanacastillo, Nicaragua, February 2010

The houses that Bridges to Community builds are simple but practical. The foundation is concrete on a base of crushed stone for earthquake resistance. The walls are concrete block with steel-and-concrete post-and-beam construction. And the roof is sheet steel welded to steel roof beams for hurricane resistance. Each house has two windows and two doors and a tile floor.

Papayal School, Nicaragua, February 2010

During the week it takes to build a house, you get to know the school kids, the masons, the family for whom you are building the house, and assorted other characters and hangers-on.

Building Rosa's House, Guanacastillo, Nicaragua, February 2010

If you've read this far and you'd like to contribute to the work that Bridges is doing, go to our FirstGiving web site: http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/bacher/bridges-to-community-inc. Thanks.

Franconia Ridge

2010-10-21T19:35:00.015-04:00

Lonesome Lake, New Hampshire, October 16, 2010

It feels like fall here in southern New Hampshire, but it's already early winter in the mountains. I went hiking with my son last weekend in Franconia Notch. We stayed overnight in the Appalachian Mountain Club hut at Lonesome Lake. As we climbed up the shoulder of Cannon Mountain toward the lake, we started seeing snow at about 2500 feet. The boardwalk over the bog on the north side of the lake was slippery, but we made it to the hut without falling in.

We couldn't see anything beyond the lake that afternoon, but in the morning, we had this wonderful view of the Franconia Ridge across the valley.

Connecticut River Ferry at Rocky Hill

2010-10-04T20:28:00.006-04:00

When I'm driving back from New York to New Hampshire, if I have enough time, I like to get off Interstate 91 and take the Connecticut River ferry from Rocky Hill to Glastonbury. Ferries are fun, and this is one of the smallest I've seen. The other small ferry I remember is the cable ferry crossing the Missouri River in Montana: the Virgelle Ferry. The Connecticut River ferry itself is an unpowered barge. A small tugboat maneuvers the barge in a wide sweep across the river:

Rocky Hill, Connecticut, September 2010

As always, you can click the pictures to see a larger image.

This ferry carries three cars, or two cars and about 20 cyclists:

Rocky Hill, Connecticut, September 2010

There's also a great hot dog and hamburger stand on the Rocky Hill side, so if you have to wait, you can have a snack and watch the ferry come and go.

Libby at the Souhegan River

2010-04-17T14:59:00.001-04:00

Souhegan River, Amherst, New Hampshire, March 2010

My daughter Libby took this photograph last month with her phone. She wanted to make sure I gave her credit for the photograph, so here it is. She shows a nice eye in this picture, getting the reflections of the trees. And getting Cody to walk right down the yellow line was a masterful touch.

Souhegan River Flood II, 2010

2010-04-01T17:22:00.001-04:00

Souhegan River at Boston Post Road in Amherst, New Hampshire. Just at its banks at 7.33 feet on the Merrimack gauge and 3140 cfs flow on the same gauge. You can see the top of the stairs for the canoe launch on the opposite bank. In the summer, this river sometimes gets down to 80 cfs.

Amherst, New Hampshire, April 1, 2010

Souhegan River Flood, 2010

2010-03-15T15:10:00.002-04:00

No school today in Amherst. The school is just beyond the river:

Amherst, New Hampshire, March 15 2010

The gauge below (from the USGS) indicates that the river may be cresting soon:

Atlantic Interview with Tim Gautreaux

2009-11-19T21:33:00.000-05:00

Another old interview with Tim Gautreaux, this one from The Atlantic: Tim Gautreaux interview.

I just set a couple characters against each other on the first page, and next thing I know, the story is "about" some idea that interests me -- and that is the theme.

Robert Birnbaum interviews Tim Gautreaux

2009-11-18T21:10:00.000-05:00

This is not hot news, but while we're on the subject of great interviews of great authors, check out Robert Birnbaum's interview of Tim Gautreaux. Birnbaum's interviews are great reading, as are Gautreaux's books.

John Jurgensen Interviews Cormac McCarthy

2009-11-18T16:55:00.004-05:00

John Jurgensen interviewed author Cormac McCarthy (author of All the Pretty Horses and The Road) in the Wall Street Journal. McCarthy is a writer of prose that is both muscular and lyrical. In the interview, McCarthy talks about many things, including the difference between making movies and writing novels.

Dick Pearce and I made a film in North Carolina about 30 years ago and I thought, "This is just hell. Who would do this?" Instead, I get up and have a cup of coffee and wander around and read a little bit, sit down and type a few words and look out the window.

WSJ interview with Cormac McCarthy

Charlie Manuel in Philadelphia

2009-09-19T21:49:00.009-04:00

Shibe Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1911

I think you have to give Charlie Manuel a great deal of the credit for the Phillies' success over the past few years. Yes, they have a great core of players in Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, and Chase Utley, along with some rising stars like Jayson Werth and Shane Victorino. But Manuel has managed each year to get the team to the end of the season healthy and strong. It really paid off last year. While it's unrealistic to expect the Phillies to repeat as World Series champs this year, it looks pretty good for the division championship (but Phillies fans can never count their chickens, not after 1964). Thank Charlie Manuel for handling the team with great skill and a good sense of pace over a long season.

The photograph is from the Library of Congress photostream on Flickr. It shows people waiting to get tickets to the 1911 World Series between the Philadelphia Athletics and the New York Giants. The A's ended up repeating as series champs in six games. Phillies fans can always hope.

Downturn Over? Motel 6 Index Rises

2009-09-19T08:24:00.000-04:00

Yesterday morning, the Motel 6 Nashua rate went up to $59.99 from the usual $49.99. When I came home in the evening, the rate was up to $89.99, the highest I've ever seen it. Is the recession over, or are the leaves really starting to turn?

Poughkeepsie Railway Bridge Reopening

2009-09-17T09:00:00.003-04:00

Poughkeepsie, New York, March 2008

The massive railway bridge over the Hudson River is opening once again as a pedestrian and bicycle bridge. For more details, see http://www.walkway.org/.

Update (25 Feb. 2011): they have a link to the text of a short piece on the bridge by Ian Frazier here: http://www.walkway.org/dynamic.php?id=newyorker.

Jet Lowe in Northampton

2009-09-11T21:03:00.007-04:00

This bridge, built in 1897, carried the Boston & Maine Railroad across the Connecticut River just above Northampton. Today it is part of the Norwottuck Rail Trail. Jet Lowe took these pictures in 1984 for the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER).

See also my earlier post about this bridge.

Detail view looking north
Detail view looking East showing lattice truss configuration and bridge plate at far right

Portland in the Rain

2009-09-03T17:25:00.005-04:00

I'd forgotten how rain can make any street into a reflecting pool, maybe even worth a photograph. Hurricane Danny helped me remember this.

Rainy street. Portland, Maine.

Rainy crosswalk. Portland, Maine.

Howard Frank Mosher Blog

2009-08-21T20:57:00.005-04:00

Howard Frank Mosher, who is one of the best and most accessible contemporary novelists, has a blog: The Kingdom Journal. He's not prolific, but it's well worth reading.

In his post about spring reading, he mentions the author Tim Gautreaux, a Louisiana writer of short stories and novels. I picked up a copy of Gautreaux's novel The Clearing, and I can see why Howard Frank Mosher likes him so much: he's a fantastic writer and storyteller who evokes the atmosphere of a bayou logging camp in the 1920s with a fine touch.

Window, Exeter, New Hampshire

2009-04-01T21:28:00.004-04:00

Window, Exeter, New Hampshire March, 2009

Boston & Maine Workshops

2009-04-01T21:20:00.003-04:00

Boston & Maine Railroad Shops, Billerica, Massachusetts
Boston & Maine Railroad Shops - Windows, Billerica, Massachusetts

Iron and Steel, Birmingham, Alabama

2009-03-04T21:14:00.006-05:00

Tenn. Coal Iron & R.R. Co.'s furnaces at Ensley, Birmingham, Ala., 1909

From the panoramic photograph collection at the Library of Congress.

Steelmill and workers' houses. Birmingham, Alabama.

Walker Evans took this iconic photograph of the TCI steel mills in March of 1936 for the Farm Security Administration (FSI).

1. Jack E. Boucher, Photographer, March 1974. GENERAL VIEW FROM THE EAST SHOWING THE 'PIG MACHINE', THE #1 CASTING SHED AND THE #1 FURNACE IN THE FOREGROUND.
HAER ALA,37-BIRM,4-1
Jack Boucher took this photograph of the Sloss Steelworks in 1974 for HABS/HAER.

121. Close up view of 1929 Allis-Chalmers steam turbine with engine housing removed.
HAER ALA,37-BIRM,4-121

Jack Boucher took this photograph in 1974 for HABS/HAER.

Jet Lowe in Brooklyn

2009-02-21T22:19:00.004-05:00

View from top of Brooklyn Tower looking NW

Just saw Man on Wire about Philippe Petit's walk between the two towers in 1974. Jet Lowe took this picture (and many others) in 1982 while documenting the Brooklyn Bridge for the HABS/HAER project. Notice the old Bell System logo on the central office to the right of the bridge. Click on the picture for a larger version.

Original caption:
42. View from top of Brooklyn Tower looking NW showing main cables and suspendors with lower Manhattan in the background. Jet Lowe, photographer, 1982.
HAER NY,31-NEYO,90-42

Cool Dashboard

2009-01-19T21:11:00.005-05:00

Dashboard. Pownal, Vermont photo by Ed Bacher

The weather last week made me feel like this photograph. It was only -4 F here in southern New Hampshire, but up in Berlin, it got down to -37. I made this photograph many years ago in the hills above Pownal, Vermont, where I used my old Ford Pinto as an off-road vehicle to explore the marginal dirt roads.

Walker Evans in Pittsburgh

2008-12-23T22:17:00.004-05:00

This image was taken by Walker Evans in December, 1935 in Pittsburgh for the Farm Security Administration.

Pittsburgh Houses

R. S. Clements in New Jersey

2008-12-23T22:10:00.003-05:00

ZR3 airship entering hangar at Lakehurst, NJ. R. S. Clements, December 1924. From the Panoramic Photographs collection of Library of Congress.

ZR3 airship

Haverhill, Massachusetts

2008-12-23T21:54:00.007-05:00

These panoramic photographs of the Haverhill, Massachusetts waterfront are from the collection of the Library of Congress. That's the Merrimack River in the foreground.

Haverhill Waterfront, 1910

Haverhill Panorama, 1910

Hot Christmas Toy

2008-12-16T11:55:00.001-05:00

From McSweeny's: The Stick

Louise Taft Cawood in Ohio

2008-12-09T21:43:00.008-05:00

Scioto River Bridge

Louise Taft Cawood took this picture in July 1986 for the HABS/HAER project.

HABS/HAER information:
Scioto Pennsylvania Through Truss Bridge, Spanning Scioto River at State Route 73, Portsmouth, Scioto County, OH
1. VIEW LOOKING ACROSS RECENTLY CULTIVATED FIELD, WITH BRIDGE IN DISTANT BACKGROUND
HAER OHIO,73-PORT,1-1

Jack Boucher in Pittsburgh

2008-12-09T21:18:00.011-05:00

Jack Boucher took these photographs at Jones and Laughlin Steel in May 1974 for the HABS/HAER project.

Jones and Laughlin Steel, Pittsburgh
VIEW OF JONES AND LAUGHLIN FROM OAKLAND, LOOKING SOUTH. LEFT: HOT METAL BRIDGE; CENTER: OPEN HEARTH.
HAER PA,2-PITBU,62A-9

Valve, Jones and Laughlin Steel
Jack E. Boucher, Photographer, May 1974. GOVERNOR.

And this of the beautiful Smithfield Street bridge (also in May 1974):
Smithfield Street Bridge
Jack E. Boucher, Photographer, May, 1974. DETAIL VIEW OF THE NORTHEAST PORTAL FROM ROADWAY (WITH TROLLEY).
HAER PA,2-PITBU,58-15

Michael Lewis on Games

2008-11-14T20:41:00.002-05:00

Michael Lewis is the best commentator we have on games, from Wall Street to football.

Walker Evans in Pennsylvania

2008-10-23T18:31:00.004-04:00

Auto dump near Easton, Pennsylvania

Walker Evans took this photograph for the Farm Security Administration in 1935 during his trip through the Lehigh Valley. This picture is one of my favorite landscapes because it demonstrates Evans' gift for composition and his acerbic sense of humor.

Canada

2008-09-24T20:45:00.008-04:00

Chartierville, Quebec photo by Ed Bacher

Just over the border from Pittsburg, New Hampshire, the terrain drops quickly into a wide plain with Parc national du Mont-Mégantic in the distance.

Parc national du Mont-Mégantic

The same place, viewed from above (via Google Maps). You can see how different the terrain is once you cross the border. New Hampshire (and the Connecticut River watershed) pokes up into Canada just north of the Connecticut Lakes. Quebec's Parc national du Mont-Mégantic is the circular ridge.

Bethlehem Steel

2008-09-16T21:44:00.006-04:00

Bethlehem Steel Works.
This image, which is part of the panoramic collection of the Library of Congress, was taken from the north bank of the Lehigh River by William Herman Rau in 1896.

Bethlehem graveyard and steel mill. Pennsylvania.
Walker Evans took this photograph for the Farm Security Administration from a cemetery in South Bethlehem looking north toward the works. (1935, FSI collection of Library of Congress)

Bethlehem Steel Corporation, South Bethlehem Works, Along Lehigh River, North of Fourth Street, West of Minsi Trail Bridge, Bethlehem, Northampton County, PA
Jet Lowe took this picture in ~~1972~~ 1979 for the HABS/HAER project, looking downstream from the north side of the Lehigh River.

Bethlehem Steel is now bankrupt, and stopped operating the Bethlehem works in 1995. Most of the site is now being developed as a casino by the Sands Corporation of Las Vegas.

Beach

2008-09-07T20:50:00.008-04:00

East Hampton, New York

Dog photo by Ed Bacher

Atlantic Ocean photo by Ed Bacher

Ferry

2008-09-07T20:45:00.007-04:00

New London, Connecticut

Ramp photo by Ed Bacher

Rope photo by Ed Bacher

Howard Kaplan on Jonathan Singer

2008-09-05T22:09:00.003-04:00

I'm not normally big on flower photographs, but Jonathan Singer is something else. And Howard Kaplan wrote a wonderful story about him in Vanity Fair: Flower Power

Armed with a digital camera, a decades-old printer, and a jeweler’s tool nicknamed the Gadget, New Jersey podiatrist Jonathan Singer takes pictures of endangered flowers. His extraordinary photographs have impressed Eileen Ford, the Smithsonian, and a Japanese collector with very deep pockets.

You can see some of Singer's photographs on his website: Botanica Magifica.

Jack Alvarez at the Charles Street Jail

2008-07-22T20:21:00.004-04:00

Boston, Massachusetts

Rehabilitation may not work for prisoners, but it seems to have worked for the old Charles Street Prison in Boston. Here's a picture taken by Jack Alvarez for the HABS/HAER project:

Charles Street Prison

Over the last couple of years, the prison has been renovated into the Liberty Hotel, with rooms starting at about $300 per night. Here's the new look:

The Liberty Hotel

Silverware

2008-05-27T16:22:00.005-04:00

Silverware photo by Ed Bacher

I certainly can't claim that this is an original image or idea, but the silver was lying out on the dining room table waiting to be put away, and I just grabbed my camera and shot a single frame; I like it.

Iceout at Lincoln Pond

2008-05-27T16:17:00.006-04:00

Lincoln Pond, Amherst, New Hampshire. April 12 2008 photo by Ed Bacher

The ice on Lincoln Pond broke up just over a month ago. I was on my way to the dump and had my camera in the car. I saw it in color of course, but I think this works better as a black and white image.

Motel 6

2008-05-22T20:56:00.003-04:00

The Motel 6 rate in Nashua just went up again, from $45.99 TO $49.99 in anticipation of the Memorial Day weekend. I don't think there will be much politics going on, so it must be the weather.

UPDATE (Friday, May 23): The price went up again to $59.99 today.
UPDATE (Tuesday, May 27): And back to $49.99 again.

NY Times on Mountain Biking in the White Mountains

2008-05-12T21:33:00.002-04:00

Last Friday, the New York Times' Escapes section had a piece by Matt Furber, who spent several days riding around the White Mountains with some NEMBA (New England Mountain Biking Association) members.

Some riders have called North Conway the Moab of the East, even though it is a forest habitat rather than high desert. The area is more famous among road bikers because of the 7.6-mile Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb every August, or the annual Crank the Kanc, a hill climb that takes place along the Kancamagus Highway in late May.

Link to NY Times.

Joseph Elliott in Southern New Jersey

2008-05-09T22:52:00.004-04:00

Whitesbog Village, Burlington Country, NJ

Southern New Jersey is peopled mostly by a half-mile wide strip of humanity along the shore and another crowd near Philadelphia to the west. In between are miles of pine barrens, tidal marshes, sand roads, cranberry bogs, and dozens of small rivers. It's mostly flat, so sometimes you can see all the way to the horizon.

If you want to read the classic work on this region, find John McPhee's The Pine Barrens.

Joseph Elliott took this picture near Whitesbog Village & Cranberry Bog, Whitesbog Road, Pemberton Township, Burlington County, NJ, for the HABS/HAER project. The year was not listed, but from the cars I saw in some of the pictures, it looks as though he took these pictures sometime since 1990. In any case, the terrain has not changed much in many years.

Jet Lowe in Houston

2008-04-05T21:39:00.005-04:00

Houston Astrodome Ceiling

Baseball season again. Though the Astrodome no longer hosts either baseball or football, the Astros played here for more than 30 years. And in 2005, many people from New Orleans found temporary shelter here as they fled Hurricane Katrina. There are more than 9 acres under this roof. Jet Lowe took this picture in 2004 for the HABS/HAER project.

Triathlon With Kids

2008-03-26T19:52:00.002-04:00

The kids were all fired up tonight to play another game of One Ol' Cat (the snow is only about eight inches deep now, so it's easier to retrieve fly balls). Then we repaired to the kitchen table for a game of Clue. Finally, we descended to the basement to play a round of Guitar Hero. I suck, but it's fun anyway.

Jack Boucher on Connie Mack Stadium

2008-03-26T19:46:00.006-04:00

Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium

Jack Boucher took this picture of Connie Mack Stadium in downtown Philadelphia in September of 1973. The Phillies and the Eagles moved out to Veterans Stadium in 1971, and Connie Mack was torn down in 1976. The Phillies have a nice new ballpark (currently called Citizens Bank Park), and I don't think there are too many tears shed over Veterans Stadium. Except that that Phillies did win their World Series there in 1980.

When I was a kid growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, we used to drive in to Philadelphia, have dinner in Chinatown and go see the Phillies. My mom reminded me the other day that often some kids would offer to "watch our car" for a dollar. Connie Mack Stadium was not in a great neighborhood, which I guess was one reason the Phillies opted to move to the Vet.

There's a great history of Shibe Park (Connie Mack) with some nice pictures at Billy Mupp on Connie Mack Stadium. Wikipedia article at Wikipedia on Connie Mack.

Bridge Collection at Lehigh University

2008-03-21T21:17:00.003-04:00

Plan of a Bridge Over the Mississippi River, at St. Louis

Lehigh University's library has a collection of books they call Digital Bridges. The plan of John Roebling's St. Louis bridge is from a book called Long And Short Span Railway Bridges.

One Old Cat

2008-03-20T19:56:00.003-04:00

Even though there is still a foot of snow here in our yard, my kids insisted that we go out and play our "traditional" opening game of one ol' cat, or shorthanded baseball. My dad used to play with us when I was a kid. I always heard it as "one-a-cat," but have discovered recently that it's really "one old cat." We played modified rules tonight: balls that went off the road and into the snow were foul. The field was quite narrow since the snowbanks are still taking up all of the shoulder and a bit of the road itself. We had a special field hazard as well when one hit ball struck our dog, who was wandering around in the infield.

Working Pictures II

2008-03-19T20:58:00.003-04:00

Carl Weese has a wonderful new blog to accompany his picture-a-day blog, Working Pictures. His WPII blog focuses on longer-form work and has a bit more writing. He's starting off with his large-format series on drive-in theaters.

Nuclear Lake Before the AT

2008-03-14T21:19:00.008-04:00

In December of 1972, a chemical explosion blew out two windows in the plutonium facility near the shore of Nuclear Lake, west of Pawling, New York. I taught physics at the Trinity Pawling School in Pawling during the late 1970s until 1981. Several times I explored the UNC (United Nuclear Corporation) property, which was gated, but not closed to public access. I also went to a couple of meetings of the Nuclear Lake Management Site Clearance Subcommittee, which was trying to make sense of the available data surrounding the accident and the current state of the property.

Accident Diagram
This diagram appeared in Nuclear Lake: A Resource in Question, prepared by the Nuclear Lake Management Site Clearance Subcommittee, published in January 1982.

The lure of an abandoned nuclear research facility where an accident had occurred was too strong to resist. I explored the property several times and took these photographs in 1981.

Plutonium Facility, 1981 photo by Ed Bacher

This photograph shows the plutonium building from the west, looking toward the lake.

Nuclear Lake Window, 1981 photo by Ed Bacher

Unfortunately, I don't remember if this window was in the plutonium building, but I suspect so.

Concrete Slabs, Nuclear Lake 1981 photo by Ed Bacher

These slabs and other debris littered the woods in 1981.

The previous post shows the property in March, 2008. The buildings are gone, though large clearings remain where the buildings stood.

Update (15 September 2011):

Here's an interesting article from Yankee Magazine (1994) about another nuclear accident. It also mentions the Pawling UNC accident.
And another from the LA Times (1986) that talks about the decision to open the Appalachian Trail through the Nuclear Lake site.

Nuclear Lake

2008-03-09T20:53:00.006-04:00

Nuclear Lake view photo by Ed Bacher

Nuclear Lake, in a hollow beneath West Mountain in Pawling, New York, is a beautiful spot with a troubled past.

When I was teaching physics at the Trinity-Pawling school in Pawling, the Appalachian Trail south of Pawling was a long roadwalk. The National Park Service bought a large parcel of woodland with the intent to reroute the trail. The process took several years however, because the property had been operated by the UNC (United Nuclear Corporation) and was the site of one of the few private uranium and plutonium research facilities in the United States. But nuclear research alone was not the main concern. In 1972, a chemical explosion blew out two windows in the north side of the laboratory, spewing an unknown amount of plutonium dust through the woods. United Nuclear cleaned up the property at a cost of $3 million, but local residents and Appalachian Trail hikers were concerned about the potential health risks.

In 1980, the old buildings and retention tanks were still there on the shore of Nuclear Lake, abandoned and decaying. Nearly 30 years later, the AT has been rerouted, and it now passes the site of the old laboratory and hugs the west shore of the lake. The old UNC sign and the buildings are gone now, though several large clearings remain.

Nuclear Lake shoreline photo by Ed Bacher

George Eisenman on the Dingmans Ferry Bridge

2008-02-10T20:49:00.000-05:00

Dingmans Ferry Bridge

This bridge from Layton, New Jersey to Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania spans the Delaware River. It is one of the few remaining privately owned toll bridges and the only one on the Delaware. This photograph was taken by George A. Eisenman in August, 1970 for the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER).

If you're ever in the far northwest of New Jersey, near the magnificent Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, check out this little toll bridge. The bridge is just off the Old Mine Road in New Jersey, said to be the oldest continuously used road in the U.S.

Here's the bridge's official web site, including toll information: Dingmans Bridge.

Clayton B. Fraser on the Nebraska City Bridge

2008-02-05T21:26:00.001-05:00

Nebraska City Bridge

The Nebraska City Bridge, spanning the Missouri River on a branch (now abandoned) of the Burlington Northern Railroad between Otoe County, Nebraska and Fremont County, Iowa, was completed in July, 1889. This photograph was taken by Clayton B. Fraser in August, 1984, for the HAER project of the Library of Congress.

Jet Lowe in New York, 1984

2008-02-01T20:38:00.001-05:00

New torch and flame with Manhattan skyline in background

The Statue of Liberty was refurbished prior to its centennial in 1986. Jet Lowe and Jack Boucher and other HABS/HAER photographers thoroughly documented the operation, taking 230 black and white photographs and 51 color transparencies. These are just the ones that show up on the Library of Congress web site: I'm sure they took many more exposures.

Jet Lowe took this photograph of the new torch with its gold leaf in 1984. The title is: New torch and flame with Manhattan skyline in background.

William Morris Smith, The Chain Bridge

2008-01-27T20:42:00.000-05:00

Shorpy has a wonderfully detailed picture of the Civil-War era Chain Bridge (view large for the full effect). http://www.shorpy.com/node/2478.

This photograph is from the Civil War collection of the Library of Congress.

Normandy Photographs

2008-01-27T20:37:00.001-05:00

Here's a sample from the Normandy Collection on Flickr:
Normandy, June 6, 1944

My French is poor, but this photograph was taken by Robert Sargent of the U.S. Coast Guard at 7:30 on the morning of June 6, 1944. Here's the French caption from Flickr:

Photo prise par Robert F. Sargent, USCoast Guards (USCG)
Un LCVP manoeuvré par les U.S. Coast Guards et appartenant au U.S.S. Samuel Chase (APA 26) débarque ses troupes de la 1st Infantry Division (éléments du 1/16th IR)le matin du 6 Juin vers 7h30, à marée montante devant Le Ruquet, secteur Easy Red.(Saint Laurent/Colleville) vers 07H30.
Le char Sherman N°9 de la A Co du 741st Tank Bn équipé des Deep Wading Trunks (hottes de franchissement) est visible sur la plage.
Photo quasiment identique à la p011333

See more on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/photosnormandie/

Jet Lowe in California

2008-01-22T21:08:00.001-05:00

Los Angeles aqueduct

Jet Lowe, 2001, near Inyo/Bishop for HAER. Jawbone Canyon section of the Los Angeles aqueduct.

The Atlantic Monthly Now Free

2008-01-22T20:12:00.001-05:00

Like the New York Times before it, the Atlantic Monthly has decided to stop charging for access to its online content, including much of its archives. Now, cheapskates like me can browse through back issues and archives dating back to 1857.

The first interviews I looked up are with some of my favorite authors:
Howard Frank Mosher, Annie Proulx, John Irving, and Vikram Seth.

Frank Ontaverous in White Sands, New Mexico

2008-01-21T21:19:00.000-05:00

McDonald Ranch

The McDonald ranch house at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Photograph taken by Frank Ontaverous in February 1983 for the HABS/HAER project. Scientists and technicians from the Manhattan project assembled the plutonium bomb for the first atomic bomb test in this house during July of 1945. The blast, centered only about two miles away, blew the windows out of the ranch house, but the adobe structure survived with little damage and was restored in 1984 by the National Park Service.

If you like a good story with science, politics, war, and tragedy, check out Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb.

Public Domain Photographs

2008-01-19T21:26:00.000-05:00

The Library of Congress has a huge collection of public domain photographs from various collections, including the FSA (Farm Security Administration), the OWI (Office of War Information), and collections from the civil war and the HABS/HAER (Historic American Building Survey/Historic American Engineering Record). The image quality is uneven, but there is some great stuff there.

Apparently, the Library of Congress is now getting involved with Yahoo and they're posting some of their photographs to Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/commons.

In addition, an organization called publicresources.org is posting images from the Smithsonian Institution that seem to be in the public domain: http://www.flickr.com/photos/publicresourceorg/collections/.

Update: Patrick Pecatte alerted me to another great collection of public domain photographs, PhotosNormandie, which has some heart-wrenching images from France during World War II. I'm not sure about how these photographs originated, but Patrick invites people to contribute accurate information about them.

More good ways to waste time!

Walker Evans Liked Angle Parking

2008-01-18T20:37:00.004-05:00

And so do I. Walker Evans took this wonderful photograph of Main Street in Saratoga Springs, New York that featured a lineup of black cars angle-parked on a street shiny with rain.

Here's a link to the image at Yale: Main Street, Saratoga Springs. Evans took this photograph in 1931.

Later, when he worked for the Farm Security Administration, he took some similar images in other places:

Hale County, Alabama
County seat of Hale County, Alabama. 1935 or 1936. Walker Evans for the FSA.

Macon, Georgia
Main Street, Macon Georgia, March 1936. Walker Evans for the FSA.

David Plowden on Photographing Bridges

2008-01-16T21:34:00.000-05:00

David Plowden appeared on Studio 360 this weekend. There's a longer interview there, but also this wonderful short piece on his bridge photography. He's very modest.

Jet Lowe in Windsor, Vermont

2008-01-11T21:24:00.000-05:00

Cornish-Windsor bridge
The Cornish-Windsor covered bridge spans the Connecticut River between Cornish, New Hampshire and Windsor, Vermont. Constructed in 1866, the two spans measure 203 feet and 204 feet long. These photographs were taken in 1984 by Jet Lowe for the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER).

Cornish-Windsor bridge underside

Jet Lowe in Hancock, New Hampshire

2008-01-08T20:50:00.001-05:00

Hancock-Greenfield bridgeJet Lowe took this picture of the Hancock-Greenfield bridge in November 2003 for the HABS/HAER project. What impresses me about many of the HABS/HAER photographs (and particularly those of Jet Lowe and Jack Boucher) is that, while they are intended as historical record, many of them are also beautiful, artistic photographs. Jet Lowe has the eye.

Jack Boucher in New Jersey

2008-01-05T21:51:00.001-05:00

Pulaski Skyway, Manhattan in background

Jack Boucher took this picture of the Pulaski Skyway in 1978 for the HABS/HAER project at the Library of Congress.

Boston & Maine Railroad Bridge

2008-01-05T08:18:00.002-05:00

Northampton bridge photo by Ed Bacher

My grandfather was an engineer on the Boston & Maine railroad based in Northampton, Massachusetts. He crossed this bridge every day as he drove his work train east along the B&M line. This multispan bridge crosses the Connecticut River just north of the Route 9 road bridge. The railroad is gone, but the bridge remains as part of the Norwottuck rail trail.

Northampton bridge, photo by Ed Bacher

The bridge crosses Elwell Island in the Connecticut River, and the trees appear to be winning.

Gary Samson in Concord

2008-01-03T21:27:00.000-05:00

Concord gasholder house

Gary Samson teaches at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester. He took these photographs of the old Concord gasholder house in August of 1982 for the HABS/HAER project of the Library of Congress.

Concord gasholder house, interior view

This shot is looking up at the cupola of the old gasholder house.

Jet Lowe in Montana

2008-01-03T21:22:00.001-05:00

Paragon bridge, Montana

Jet Lowe took this picture of the Paragon Bridge spanning the Yellowstone River in Montana in May, 1980. Lowe and Jack Boucher have taken an astonishing number of pictures of historic structures (including many bridges) for the HABS/HAER project of the Library of Congress.

Walker Evans on Fourth Street

2008-01-03T21:10:00.000-05:00

Street view, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

I've been a Walker Evans fan for a long time, and there are lots of his images that I like. This one was taken in November, 1935, in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Evans worked for the Farm Security Administration for a couple of years (along with many other photographers), taking pictures of industrial towns and agricultural areas around the United States. I spent a couple of years in graduate school in Bethlehem in the mid-1980s and, except for the cars, Bethlehem looked pretty much the same. The steel mill is gone now, and I have not been back to Bethlehem in many years, so this scene may be different now.

Jack Boucher on the Lordville - Equinunk Bridge

2008-01-03T20:40:00.005-05:00

Lordville-Equinunk bridge over the Delaware River.

This bridge crossed the Delaware River between Lordville, New York, and Equinunk, Pennsylvania. This picture is from the Historic American Buildings/Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) project at the Library of Congress. It was taken by Jack Boucher in July of 1971. According to Bridgemeister, this bridge was demolished in 1986.

The Motel 6 Index

2008-01-02T08:27:00.000-05:00

The Iowa Caucus is tomorrow, and the New Hampshire primary is next Tuesday. Four years ago, I noticed that the room rate for the Motel 6 in Nashua is a good indicator of primary activity. Last week, the rate for a single room was $45.99. This morning it was $53.99.

Update, January 9, 2007. The primary was yesterday, and the rate is back down to $45.99. New Hampshire fades from the spotlight for another four years.

The Lost Quarry

2007-12-28T21:09:00.001-05:00

There's a children's book called Blaze and The Lost Quarry that my daughter read in preschool a few years ago.

Blaze and the Lost Quarry cover

It turns out that C. W. Anderson lived in Mason, New Hampshire, not far from where I live, and the lost quarry is in the woods near the center of Mason. It's a pleasant hike or mountain-bike ride and the quarry is quite large and filled with water.

Lost Quarry, Mason, New Hampshire photo by Ed Bacher

Though the quarry has not been active since the early part of the last century, there is still a great deal of evidence of the operation, including old roads, foundations, the Boston & Maine railroad bed, and some rusted cables and bolts.

Bolt, Lost Quarry, Mason, New Hampshire photo by Ed Bacher

Cyclocross

2007-11-30T08:18:00.000-05:00

The New York Times has a nice article on cyclocross racing today.

Z-squared Building

2007-11-29T20:45:00.000-05:00

My friend David Kaneda, who owns an electrical design firm that has worked on a number of innovative sustainable projects, has recycled an existing building in San Jose, California, to serve as his company's new headquarters.

He believes it is the first commercial building to have zero net electricity consumption and emit zero greenhouse gases. To achieve this, he and his design partners used a combination of strategies, including energy conservation, passive lighting, solar-electric panels, and a ground-based heat pump.

See this article from IEEE Spectrum for more information.

Dunstable Rural Land Trust

2007-11-27T20:43:00.000-05:00

The Dunstable Rural Land Trust protects some beautiful woodlands just south of the New Hampshire border near Nashua. The wildlife refuge is open to hiking, biking, paddling, and birdwatching. There's a small parking area off Main Street just south of the state line.

Shaded Terrain on Google Maps

2007-11-27T19:38:00.000-05:00

Just today, I noticed a new button called Terrain on the Google Maps interface. Very nice.

Off Track Blog

2007-11-06T21:33:00.000-05:00

Andrew Wolfe of the Nashua Telegraph has an excellent blog called Off Track. Andrew is a reporter for the Telegraph, but he's also apparently a big trail runner, paddler, and mountain biker.

He has an excellent collection of links to trail maps near southern New Hampshire: Off Track trail maps.

Errol Morris on Roger Fenton

2007-10-24T22:19:00.000-04:00

Great series of blog articles on Roger Fenton's cannonball photographs from the Crimean War: Errol Morris's blog.

Lowell Bridge

2007-09-22T21:55:00.002-04:00

Bridge, Lowell, Massachusetts photo by Ed Bacher

This is a small bridge over one of the canals in Lowell near the Merrimack River.

New York Photographer

2007-09-22T07:49:00.000-04:00

There is a deserved buzz about Eugene Salignac's photographs of New York City.

A Watershed Moment

2007-09-20T21:22:00.000-04:00

At midnight on Tuesday, the New York Times ended its experiment in charging for some of its premium content. For more than a year they held back some of what they judged to be the most popular articles and Op Ed columnists. I know I missed reading Paul Krugman's economic and social insights . Now they're back, and I think this is clearly a case where the wisdom of the crowd has convinced a lumbering behemoth to reverse course. Although I was sorely tempted to pony up the $49.95 per year that the Times demanded for Times Select, I never quite reached the point of actually doing it. Evidently, I was not alone.

Jason Kottke has spent most of the last several days poring through the archives, and has come up with some real gems.

Mountain-Biking New Hampshire

2007-08-02T21:45:00.000-04:00

I've been exploring a number of mountain-biking spots in southern New Hampshire, and I just disovered the My Maps feature at Google Maps. The resulting map is a work in progress:
View Larger Map

Link.

Mobile Phone Pictures

2007-06-12T20:41:00.001-04:00

These pictures were all taken with a mobile phone, the SavaJe "Device of the Show" at last year's JavaOne in San Francisco. This was my first experience trying to take real pictures with a mobile phone, and I'm actually pretty pleased with the way these have come out.

San Francisco, California

Sidewalk Grate
My mother would look at a picture like this and say "Why don't you send me some pictures of the kids?" I do, but I still like taking pictures of things, and I couldn't pass this one up. Not bad for a cell phone picture.

San Francisco, California

Metal Chairs Near Moscone Center
I'm actually pretty happy with the exposure on this picture.

San Francisco, California

Cable Car Turntable
At last year's JavaOne show in San Francisco, I used the SavaJe mobile phone to take a few pictures around the city. These are relatively low-resolutions pictures as digital images go, and I expected to be disappointed with the pictures I took. To the contrary, I was pleased with the image quality. The exposures are not perfect, but considering this is total point-and-shoot, they're not bad. I've adjusted the image quality a bit, but have not manipulated the image other than adjusting the contrast and the tonal range.

Souhegan River Flood 2007

2007-04-18T20:17:00.001-04:00

Amherst, New Hampshire

Pump House along the Souhegan River. photo by Ed Bacher

Souhegan River/Boston Post Road 2007

2007-04-16T18:07:00.001-04:00

Amherst, New Hampshire

Souhegan River flooding Boston Post Road. photo by Ed Bacher

Apple Picking

2007-04-05T14:36:00.001-04:00

Merrimack, New Hampshire

Apple-picking at Currier Orchard. photo by Ed Bacher

Baseball Season

2007-04-05T12:35:00.001-04:00

Amherst, New Hampshire, photo by Ed Bacher

Since baseball season is starting, this seemed like an appropriate image to start off this blog.