A little more than nine miles from downtown Pittsburgh in the Ohio River is Neville Island ,
Friends Deb and Sy, residents of the island, are the guest bloggers today- photographs and writing. This blog post is in two parts.
The first is the moment of Zen sent by Deb to me on my phone and the autumn hillside reflected in the Ohio River and the barge and tug capture the feel of where they live on the island. Peaceful and a gorgeous image. Thanks Debbie and Sy for creating the blog post today.
But the day before there was a lot of activity right by their home.
Gigantic Crane Operation Part 2 of the Guest Blog
Sy writes about the crane photos
The photos reveal a crane on a barge that was towed upstream on the
Ohio River, along with an empty barge, from Midland (Beaver County) Pa
to Neville Island. This crane had a large clamshell bucket, weighing,
according to the owner, approx. 8,500 lbs. EMPTY!
This bucket was utilized to clean out silt from our neighbor’s boat garage. It removed four cubic yards of silt at a time which is a lot of silt! Muddy
river water would flow into this calm area. While calm, the silt
would fall out of the water and onto the river bottom in the boat
garage. This boat garage was last cleaned out in a similar fashion
about 11 or 12 years ago. This crew removed approximately 8 to 10 feet
of silt from the river bottom in the boat garage.
Before this calm area was a boat garage, it was part of the storage area for the
upstream gate to a lock on the Ohio River that was constructed in the
late 1890s and decommissioned in the early 1930s when the present
locks went into operation. The steel lock gate was removed and
utilized for scrap metal around the time of WWII.
Additionally, an old, heavy steel barge cover (at least 60 or 70
years old and more than 2000 lbs.) was removed by the crane as the
boat garage only utilized two such covers and this third cover was
deteriorating and not really needed. All of this work was accomplished
in about 4 hours.”
Ohio River Sunday night. We were visiting our Neville Island friends again. They live on the banks of the Ohio River. We had a wonderful boat ride earlier and it was time for dinner. Two tugs and their barges appeared up river and down river. Our host pointed out the buoy that marked the channel and told us they both had to be on this side on it. How would there be enough room? As the sun was sinking we watched them approach one another, a horn blew. It was a dramatic end of the day on the river.
Neville Island. Shot Saturday during the retirement party at a friend’s home along the Ohio River.
Maybe you saw yesterday’s night photography of the barges and tugboats. Those were taken handheld with Canon 24-70 L series lens. The reflection of the lights on the dark river at night are more dramatic but the daylight shots taken with the Canon 70-200 L serieslet you see the details and appreciate the size of the vessels. They move at a fast clip.
The retirement party at our friend’s home on Neville Island began in early afternoon but the barges and tugs went by into the night. Both directions!
Lots of drama to watch. Multiple freight trains on the opposite bank blew their train whistles.
See the powerful blue light the Captain was shining down river to illuminate a buoy in the middle of the river? Neville Island Bridge is in the background.
Centerpieces with tiny white lights and fishing accessories glowed like lanterns.
Here you can see the dark barges being pushed by the tug as they approach the bridge.
The bonfire kept us warm and warded off the increasing damp chill as the sun disappeared. Skipping the photo my friend took of me devouring a gooey s’more.
Saturday afternoon, after the poetry reading at the Pump House, I walked outside.
I saw the tug pushing the loaded barges up the Mon towards the Rankin Bridge.
Because the leaves are still on the trees, I had to find an open space to catch the scene before it got away. Carrie Furnace is in the background. Shot with the iPhone5.
When you take a photograph, you realize the limitations of the medium. One tries to capture the scene for the viewer to share later.
The photographer chooses what to focus on and catch- and it’s exasperating at times.
The frozen frame can’t recreate the moment, the atmosphere and surroundings entirely.
The sound of boat horns, traffic rushing by below, a blimp circling overhead, the thousands of fans roar or collective sigh….
Take one
The tug and barge in the river are set for fireworks night by the Zambelli
Family
But the day before there was a lot of activity right by their home.The crane arrives
Removing the covers
And there they go
Ohio River Sunday night. We were visiting our Neville Island friends again. They live on the banks of the Ohio River. We had a wonderful boat ride earlier and it was time for dinner. Two tugs and their barges appeared up river and down river. Our host pointed out the buoy that marked the chann
NIghtfall. The bonfire.
The 
Happy Retirement, Sy
