Open Bridge In Case Of Nuclear Attack; There Are Crackers There

Department of Transportation workers inspecting the Brooklyn Bridge discovered a large cache of Cold War-era provisions to be used in the case of a nuclear attack:

City workers were conducting a regular structural inspection of the bridge last Wednesday when they came across the cold-war-era hoard of water drums, medical supplies, paper blankets, drugs and calorie-packed crackers — an estimated 352,000 of them, sealed in dozens of watertight metal canisters and, it seems, still edible.

. . .

The room is within one of the arched masonry structures under the main entrance ramp to the bridge, not far from the Manhattan anchorage. Three city officials gave a brief tour of the room yesterday — taking care to step gingerly over broken glass and fallen wooden boards — on the condition that the precise location not be disclosed, for security reasons.

The most numerous items are the boxes of Civil Defense All-Purpose Survival Crackers. Printed in block letters, on each canister, was information about the number of pounds (6.75), the number of crackers per pound (62) and the minimum number of crackers per can (419).

Joseph M. Vaccaro, a carpentry supervisor at the Transportation Department, estimated that there were 140 boxes of crackers — each with six cans, for a total of some 352,000 crackers.

The officials would not open any of the supplies because of safety concerns over germs, but Mr. Vaccaro said that one of the canisters had broken open, and inside it, workers found the crackers intact in wax-paper wrapping.

Nearby were several dozen boxes with sealed bottles of Dextran, made by Wyeth Laboratories in Philadelphia. More mysterious were about 50 metal drums, made by United States Steel in Camden, N.J. According to the label, each was intended to hold 17.5 gallons and to be converted, if necessary, for “reuse as a commode.” They are now empty.

We Are All Brooklyn-Queens Now

The Queens Gazette weighs in on the demise of Brooklyn-Queens Day:

A tradition in Queens and Brooklyn since 1829 has bitten the dust. This year, Brooklyn-Queens Day, formerly celebrated only in the two boroughs for which it was named, will give students throughout New York City the first Thursday in June as a day off from school. (Their teachers will still be working, attending staff development meetings).

. . .

For a century and a quarter, students and teachers at schools in Brooklyn and Queens, to the envy of their counterparts in the three other boroughs, got the first Thursday in June (the second Thursday if the first Thursday fell in the same week as the Memorial Day holiday) off from school with no remark from anyone. Then in 2005 the United Federation of Teachers and the New York City Department of Education signed a new contract. Among its provisions was one extending Anniversary Day to schools in Manhattan, Staten Island and The Bronx. As of this year, 2006, students will have a holiday, while teachers will attend sessions fostering professional development.

We could lament the passing of a tradition that made living in Queens even more special than we already think it is, but we won’t. People are moving to Queens from other parts of the city because of the many advantages offered by this borough, which gladdens our hearts. We do well to keep in mind, however, that we are part of a greater whole. Customs and traditions such as Brooklyn-Queens Day should be extended to the rest of the city so that we can truly say that living in any part of New York City offers the same advantages.

. . .

Brooklyn-Queens Day was a nice tradition for the two boroughs while it lasted. The time has come, however, to extend the practice to the rest of New York City. At this point in our history there is good reason to foster unity of tradition, especially in our schools. Regardless, we will mark the day on our own as a vestige of days of yore that are no more.

More Battery Wall Found

Workers digging to straighten the South Ferry subway station have discovered more colonial battery wall in their way:

This piece, about 105 feet long and 9 feet thick, is even larger than two other sections found under Battery Park in the last four months. The discoveries have left city officials with an embarrassment of historical riches and a problem: Where do you put several more tons of pre-Revolutionary stone and mortar in one of the most densely developed places on Earth?

They have cobbled together a three-part solution.

Once the construction of the terminal is finished, the City Department of Parks and Recreation plans to reassemble the first large section at ground level in Battery Park and to spread stones from the third one in other parks in Lower Manhattan. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is considering embedding part of the second section in a glass wall inside the new terminal.

. . .

After initially resisting, officials of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have embraced the idea of incorporating some of the stone in the South Ferry terminal. They plan to embed a section 20 feet long and a few feet high in the middle of a white glass wall in the mezzanine, said Sandra Bloodworth, director of the transportation authority’s Arts for Transit program.

The goal, Ms. Bloodworth said, is to “recreate the experience of discovering the wall.” The section the stones will be taken from is too “massive,” at 60 feet long and more than 8 feet thick, to be displayed as a whole, she said.

. . .

Still, some archaeologists would prefer to see the walls preserved in full.

“A piece of a wall I don’t think has much integrity,” said Nan Rothschild, a historical archaeologist who teaches at Barnard College. “It is just a wall. But it’s exciting when you see it. What it speaks to, to me, is the way the space in Lower Manhattan has been manipulated and how it’s developed. The city keeps being rebuilt.”

Scrabble Must Be Stopped Before It’s Too Late!

The Queens Gazette’s Austin H. Armistead doesn’t mind a little hyperbole every once in a while:

Scrabble, a board game that combines the best features of crossword puzzles and anagrams, was invented by Alfred M. Butts, a Jackson Heights resident. The game was first played at then Community Methodist Church at 35th Avenue and 81st Street and went on to conquer the world. [Emph. added because who can argue with that?]

See also: San Jose Scrabble(r) Club Two-Letter Words List.

The Bivalves That Fed A Nation

After tackling the history of salt and cod, writer Mark Kurlansky now profiles oysters, of which New York once had many:

Through the oyster, Mr. Kurlansky’s current book traces the social, economic and environmental history of New York City and its waterways, starting even before the Europeans came on the scene, with the oyster-loving Lenape Indians. From the shells in the middens, or refuse heaps, archaeologists have concluded that the Lenape ate tons of oysters. With the Dutch, then the English and eventually every other group that arrived, the abundant oysters in the harbor and the rivers contributed to the city’s economy.

The Dutch did just fine shipping oysters to Europe, though they were disappointed that the city’s oysters could not revive their pearl industry — they are the ones who named Pearl Street — but Eastern American oysters, Crassostrea virginica, do not make gem-quality pearls. All the native oysters on the East Coast, from Louisiana to Newfoundland, are C. virginica, a different species from many West Coast varieties and from European oysters.

. . .

He marvels at the human taste for oysters. “They take work, and they are not terribly nutritious,” he said. “And a hundred or more years ago oysters were a food that was consumed in more or less the same form by every social class. Throughout most of New York’s history, oysters were incredibly cheap. You could get all you could eat for 6 cents, an entire plate for less than what a hot dog cost, at a time when a single out-of-season strawberry cost 50 cents.”