To the Hudson River
I little while ago I went for breakfast in a diner on Albany Post Road (Route 9). After I’d finished eating, I decided to walk back into Ossining along the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail. Where the trail intersected with Snowden Avenue, I would then walk down towards the river by the Ossining Metro North Station. I anticipated that by the time I got down by the station I’d be thirsty and probably tired, so I’d have something to drink at one of my favorite establishments. With any luck I’d find a few interesting compositions along the way.
Along The Croton Aqueduct
I started my walk on Albany Post Road (Route 9) in Ossining. I knew where I could get access to the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail there. According to the Old Croton Aqueduct State Historic Park section of the New York State, Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Site:
During the 1830s New York City was in dire need of a fresh water supply to combat the steady rise of disease and to fight numerous fires that often engulfed large tracts of businesses and homes. After numerous proposals and an abandoned plan two years into its production, construction of an unprecedented magnitude began in 1837 under the expertise of John Bloomfield Jervis. The proposed plan called for a 41-mile aqueduct and dam to be built in order to run water from the Croton River to New York City. Three to four thousand workers, mostly Irish immigrants earning up to $1.00 per day, completed the masonry marvel in just five years. In 1842 water flowed into above-ground reservoirs located at the present sites of the New York Public Library and the Great Lawn of Central Park. Throngs of people attended the formal celebration held on October 14th and celebrated with "Croton cocktails" - a mix of Croton water and lemonade.
This 19th-century architectural achievement cost New York City approximately 13 million dollars and was believed able to provide New Yorkers with fresh water for centuries to come. The population spiraled upward at a dizzying rate, however, and the Croton Aqueduct, which was capable of carrying 100 million gallons per day, could no longer meet New York City's needs by the early 1880s. Construction of the New Croton Aqueduct began in 1885 and water began to flow by 1890. Although no longer the sole supplier of fresh water, the Old Croton Aqueduct continued to provide water to New York City until 1965.
In 1968, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation purchased 26.2 miles of the original 41-mile aqueduct from New York City. Presently, Old Croton Aqueduct State Historic Park is a linear park which runs from Van Cortlandt Park at the Bronx County/City of Yonkers border to the Croton Dam in Cortlandt. In 1987 a section was reopened to supply the Town of Ossining and in 1992 the Old Croton Aqueduct was awarded National Historic Landmark Status. The scenic path over the underground aqueduct winds through urban centers and small communities. It passes near numerous historic sites, preserves, a museum highlighting the construction of the Aqueduct, and many homes. The Aqueduct's grassy ceiling provides abundant recreational opportunities for outdoor enthusiasts. While primarily for walking and running, parts of the trail are suitable for horseback riding, biking (except during "mud season"), bird watching, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing.
I like this trail because, since it was designed to carry water down to New York City, it’s a very slight incline” No ‘ups and downs” and certainly no long uphill stretches.
Down Snowden Avenue - Stone Steps
As I walked down Snowden Avenue, I spotted this stone staircase (the pictures above are two views of the same staircase). I have no idea where it goes. I imagine there’s some kind of dwelling at the top. I just liked the look of it. I seemed to me like the kind of thing you would find in an old, ruined castle.
Down Snowden Avenue - A Brightly Colored House
The colors of this house struck me immediately: the “pinkish” color of the siding and purple of the faux shutters and the top of the lamp. And then, if you look carefully, you see the small, yellow seahorses on the shutters. Not a combination that you see very much around here, and of course the colors of the flowers in the foreground mirror those of the house. And then there’s the garden. At first glance it seems to be completely overgrown. And it is - but not with weeds. It’s full of flowers. I’ll have to go back in Spring to see how it looks. I like this wild kind of garden, much more than type of garden that’s organization with lots of separate flower beds. Most of the flowers had lost their blooms, but a few like the yellow flower above were still flowering.
Vireum
According to the Village of Ossining Significant Sites & Structures Guide (Page 177):
Property Name: Vireum Schoolhouse Street Address: 1 Snowden Avenue Section, Block, and Lot: Section 89.19, Block 1, Lot 7
Architect/Builder: Unknown
Date of Construction: 1870 Renovation into condominiums: 1988
Architectural Style:
Second Empire (1860s-1880s) Second Empire-style architecture was a style that originated in France and was named for Napoleon III’s campaign to modernize Paris in the mid 19th Century. This style, which is similar to the Italianate style, utilizes elements such as tall, arched window openings, columns flanking the main entryway, and cornices below the roofline. The primary distinguishing characteristic is the Mansard roof, a configuration in which the roof has a steep pitch on the lower section and a shallower pitch on the upper portion. This style of roof was initially designed to provide extra space while not subjecting the owner to additional taxation under French law, as the rooms located inside the roofline were not considered a full additional floor.
The Vireum Schoolhouse, built in the Second Empire style, is three and one half stories in height, with a T shaped plan; the larger west wing is seven bays wide and three bays deep, while the east wing is slightly smaller in its dimensions. The left and right sides of the main façade feature sets of four over four double hung windows with arched openings, with a set of three, two over two windows on the center bay of each side of the third floor. All of the window openings on the main façades and side elevations are arched, featuring limestone keystones and springers on each arch. The first floor windows openings on the main façade and side elevations contain a curved decorative motif below each arch. Bands of projecting brick surround the window bays on the main façade and side elevations, with a dentil cornice above the second story windows.
The structure’s east wing features slightly different architectural detailing on elevations, lacking the raised brick and around the window bays and containing a slightly different arch profile around the window openings. The mansard roof is punctuated by a mix of gabled and shed dormers on the main façade and gabled dormers on the side elevations of the west wing and the entire roofline of the east wing.
Significance:
Architectural and Cultural The Vireum Schoolhouse is architecturally significant as a well preserved example of the Second Empire architectural style used in an institutional context. It is also culturally significant for its association with the Brandreth family, descendants of the eminent Sing Sing-based entrepreneur Benjamin Brandreth.
Narrative:
The Vireum School for Boys was founded in 1870 by Major Henry C. Symonds, a former West Point English professor who was married to Beatrice Brandreth, a daughter of Benjamin Brandreth, builder of the Brandreth Pill Factory (see entry). Symonds later served as president of the village for several years during the late 1870’s and early 1880’s. The original name of the school, Vireun, was a combination of Virginia and Eunice, the names of Symonds’ daughters. At some point in time the name of the school and building were changed to reflect the common mispronunciation of its name, Vireum. It was established as a college preparatory school and was geared toward preparing school-aged young men for entrance into military academies, whose standards for enrollment had become more rigorous following the end of the US Civil War. The school sent several hundred graduates on to schools such as West Point and Annapolis during its years of operation. After the closing of the school in the early 20th century, the structure served as a factory for a time until lying abandoned for many years. It was restored in 1988 and was adapted for residential use, which continues today.
Building Near the Train Tracks
During the Industrial Revolution, the Hudson River became a major location for production. The river allowed for fast and easy transport of goods from the interior of the Northeast to the coast. Hundreds of factories were built around the Hudson, in towns including Poughkeepise, Newburgh, Kingston, and Hudson. The North Tarrytown Assembly (later owned by General Motors), on the river in Sleepy Hollow, was a large and notable example. The river links to the Erie Canal and Great Lakes, allowing manufacturing in the Midwest, including automobiles in Detroit, to use the river for transport. With industrialization came new technologies for transport, including steamboats for faster transport. In 1807, the North River Steamboat (later known as Clermont), became the first commercially successful steamboat. It carried passengers between New York City and Albany along the Hudson River.
I’ve not been able to find any information about this building and the Ossining Significant Sites and Structures Guide is silent on it. I guess it’s not significant enough to be included. I’ve no idea how old it is. But to me it conjures up visions of who the waterfront of most of the Hudson River Towns must have looked at one point: busy, dirty, smelly etc.
Atlantic Recovery Services
As I got closer to the Ossining Metro North Station I noticed some activity. In particular I noticed these three large tanker trucks. Why were they there? What were they doing? That will become clear later, but now suffice it to say that they belong to Atlantic Recovery Services Inc. Atlantic Recovery Services, Inc. was established in 1996 and has become one of the primary service providers to the Steel Mill Industry with a large data base servicing all Oil Response needs. Atlantic Recovery Services provides Industrial Cleaning Serivces and is a leading provider in the Steel Industry. Specifically, they provide the following services: Emergency Response/ Spill Clean Up; Municipal Services; Power Plants; Utilities and Pipeline; Utilities & Pipeline; Disaster Relief: and Dry Ice Blasting. They also provide Waste Oil, Antifreeze and Drum Disposal including Used Oil; Antifreeze; Oil Water Separator Cleaning; Drum Removal; and Contaminated soil remediation. Finally, they provide the following Oil and Gas related services: Frac Tank Cleaning; Confined Space Entry; Pressure Washing; AST/ Impoundment; Pit Cleaning; Rig Wash; Emergency Response; Sand Removal; Dry Ice Cleaning and Disposal.
Now I don’t understand much of the above (I took it from the Atlantic Recovery Services website. I just liked the trucks, impressive vehicles as they were! I was also impressed by the way the trucks were decorated, particularly with the silhouettes on the sides of some of them.
Silhouettes
A couple of the silhouettes can be seen above. Cool, eh?
A Portrait
The two men above were sitting quite close to the trucks. My path towards the station went right past them. I was a little concerned that they might not like me taking pictures of their trucks. How did I know that they were their trucks? Other than the fact that they were sitting near to the trucks, they also had the words Atlantic Recovery Serices on their hats and their shirts. As I went by, I could tell they were going to speak to me. Imagine my surprise when they expressed concern that they might be doing something wrong. Why else would I be taking pictures? I reassured them that walk around taking pictures of anything that interests me and that as far as I knew they were doing nothing wrong.
We had a little chat and asked them what they were waiting for. It seems that some construction was taking place in the vicinity, and in the course of this a large hole was dug. The hole had filled with water, and it was their job to pump it all out. They were waiting for someone to come and let them into the building site so they could do their job.
I was now feeling quite comfortable with them and asked if I could take a picture of them. They agreed and afterwards the guy on the left asked if I would email him a copy. Of course I agreed. He seemed to like it.
Refreshments
I had now reached the end of my journey. My feet were hurting and I was very thirsty. I was near to one of my favorite places Here Coffee and Beer so I decided to pop in and see what they had. Now normally I would have chosen something from their great selection of craft beer, but I wasn't in the mood for anything alcoholic, so I went over to the refrigerator to see what they had. What I found was a can of Ginger Beer. I hadn't had Ginger Beer for quite some time. It was quite common when I was growing up in the UK, but nowadays you tend to see Ginger Ale more often. So, what's the difference? I wasn't entire sure, so I decided to look it up.
According to Liquor.com:
What Is Ginger Beer?
For millennia, people made drinks out of ginger, a rhizome renowned for both its flavor and medicinal properties. Ginger beers are believed to have originated in the United Kingdom in the 18th century, and historians have unearthed advertisements for bottled iterations from the early 1800s.
The first ginger beers were bright, bracing brews made effervescent via fermentation, and they typically contained 2–3% alcohol by volume (ABV) as a result. The drink’s popularity in the Caribbean grew in tandem with British colonization and ginger cultivation. According to contemporary analysts, North Americans currently consume the most ginger beer worldwide, drinking up to 35% of a global market worth nearly $5 billion.
Many modern ginger beers combine fresh, finely grated ginger with sugar and citrus; some commercial bottlings are made with artificial dyes and flavors. Certain producers amplify the beers’ spicy flavors by including capsaicin, a component of chili peppers. While you can make ginger beer with forcibly added carbon dioxide, traditional versions get their bubbles from a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY), a fermenting agent also used to make kombucha.
Most commercial ginger beers are non-alcoholic, but some contain trace amounts of up to 0.5% alcohol. Others, like Crabbie’s Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer, Goslings Stormy Ginger Beer, and Royal Jamaican Alcoholic Ginger beer, have anywhere from 1% to nearly 5% ABV.
Delicious on its own, ginger beer features prominently in cocktails like the Dark and Stormy and Moscow Mule, both of which complement its piquancy with fresh lime juice.
What Is Ginger Ale?>
Once synonymous, ginger ale and ginger beer evolved into different drinks during the temperance movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In response to activists that targeted ginger beer for its mild alcohol content, some producers began to position ginger ale as a non-alcoholic alternative that got its bubbles from artificial carbonation rather than fermentation.
In 1904, after years of tinkering, Canadian pharmacist John J. McLaughlin created a not-too-sweet custom ginger beverage, later marketed as Canada Dry Ginger Ale.
As the 20th century progressed, ginger ale became a popular soft drink and, following the 1933 repeal of Prohibition, mixer in whiskey or rye highballs. Ginger ale is typically sweeter and less spicy than ginger beer, and many modern versions contain caramel coloring and other artificial dyes and flavorings. It rarely contains capsaicin, though the peppers aren’t legally prohibited.
It tasted really good. Very refreshing and a little bit spicier and less sweet than Ginger Ale. I could have gone for another one, but when I went back to the refrigerator the cupboard was bare (at least as far as Ginger Beer went). So, I just picked up my bag and went home.