Fort Tilden

     Fort Tilden is great fun/overdone/overrun by hipsters (select one). On a very windy day, I met up with a Queens contact to show him and his friend around the area. Despite having four layers of clothing, the wind whipped us with its mind numbing chill as we slow-motion sprinted from Jacob Riis Park to Fort Tilden. Then a building. Over the top, and best of luck to you. One building led to more and more, and I feel that this place has more abandoned buildings per square mile than anywhere else. From straddling the Battery with an approximate foot of ledge space and haging onto the the weak fence, to 45 degree rock wall climbing and climbing up a questionable ladder, my second visit to the place was quite enjoyable.

    Here are some photos that we all took.

Why I Explore (Letter to a Friend)

     Where to begin? The best place, I suppose is in the beginning. When I was younger, I liked to read. A lot. I still do, but back then I had more time for it. It was my main hobby, aside from creating whole “films” and “TV shows” with intricate plots just from playing with my toys. Now, I still love to read, but it’s displaced by other things, like music, parkour, acting, filmmaking and exploring. Exploring…what is that, exactly? Exploring the beautiful rivers and meadows that span miles over the City…yeah, right. It’s exploring the built environment. Its architecture. Its history. Its life.

     How did I start off on such a strange “hobby”, if you’d call it that? Well, one day I read a National Geographic article about Parisian catacombs - mazes of tunnels sometimes built entirely out of human skulls and bones. There was a short section on people who explored these areas, called, “cataphiles”. They set up illicit movie theaters, threw parties, came down at 1 am to feast. After they were evicted by the police, they then left a note for them saying, “We are leaving. Do not look for us.” What captivation! What mystery! Who are these cataphile people, anyway? Well, after some research, I found that these people did not only find interest in the catacombs. They went out to many places. Abandoned, restricted, or off the beaten path. The road less traveled. I found something beautiful in the imperfection of these places, and wanted to go off on my own. New York City is a haven for these types of places if you look hard enough. My photos have captured the many types of places I have gone to, including:

Buildings that have gone forgotten

 

Rooftops

Derelict Railway Tracks

The Underground…

Storm Drains

 

Still Active Subway Tunnels

     It’s not just about the adventure. It’s not just about the thrill. It’s not just about the memory. Perhaps it goes deeper - maybe as a sort of soul searching. Trying to quell the flood of people in the city with those few quiet places, and find yourself. One thing that it definitely does is lead to a greater appreciation of the city.

Still active subway tunnels? You’re insane! You could get hurt.

Yes, I suppose I could, if I were anyone else but me. I know my limits and don’t do anything beyond them. Some people climb bridges and other tall structures. The following is not my picture, though that’s not to say that I won’t try it when I feel more comfortable with the idea.

 

     That is the Coney Island Parachute Jump. I pass it on the way to my classes every day, not ever expecting that at the sleepy hours of the morning, people may be climbing it to get an astounding view from the top. Maybe.

     When I started out, no one was willing to view these sometimes post-apocalyptic scenes with me. I was alone. But as I advanced and grew…saw more places and met more people, I began seeing eccentric types who shared a common interest. Some of them were my friends and I didn’t know that sometimes my best exploring partners would be right under my nose. Remember that, “active subway tunnel” picture? I have been there many times, each time taking along someone new, who was totally shifted by the experience. During one of my more recent trips to the Freedom Tunnel, as the tunnel in the picture is called, I sat against a wall with a friend who was feeling disillusioned with life in the big city and as we watched the train rush by, she confided to me, “Now I can see why you want to stay in the city.”

     And so, that’s my story. It’s something I enjoy doing and hope that I can continue doing for a long time. Because this city is also someone. A living and breathing person, with a story to tell. And as long as the city is alive, I too, will be.

Manhattan Rooftop Infiltration

My blog title promised that I'd do active sites, and I will deliver that promise.

Imagine this: You just got out of a movie theater. You're walking along the floor that it's situated on when you come across a series of double doors. Look to the left and to the right. Through the doors, you see the heavy downpour mix with the lights of Times Square. Push the glass doors. Damn. Won't budge. But the view gets you hooked and you need to try again somewhere else...somewhere you've been to before. A place you said you'd return with a camera, and maybe go to eat lunch. Let's do this.

Ground View

 

Through the Window

Top Floor

Album Cover

Looking Down on the Park

Intersection

R.I.B.

Sound Queens Town

Triborough

Closeby

Manhattan

Spiral Staircase Extra Height Boost

Spiders

Down

The Narrows' Storm Drain

   I pushed open the doors and walked out of the building. Footprints in the beach led to me, clambering into an outfall. This drain pipe was ridiculously small; I couldn't even squat like I could in my first one. Flashlight getting soggy, I crawled through the sand and water. I crawled and crawled until my muscles were sore and I needed a break. Eventually I gave up trying to stay dry and plopped my pants and coat down into a soggy mess. I shone my light hoping that I would find something noteworthy, but there was nothing to be found here. There was no way I could keep plunging my arm into sandy water, keep having water pour into my shoes and chill my socks, keep leapfrogging through the 2' high drain. Screw this. I headed back. There are other drains. Like my first one.

 

I found this drain back in the summer of '11 and have explored it several times each time going further than the last. The best two adjectives I could use to describe the experience are boring and scary.

The sounds from the passing cars bumping through the tunnel, the dripping water, my boots sinking into the freezing wet mud, the stale air and the pitch blackness made it a scary experience.

However, the storm drains had a predictable pattern. Walk this many yards, then come across a rust-colored ladder and maybe some bacteria. Yipee. I saw almost no variety in my hour and a half explo of this place; in fact, the most exciting part was when the route curved. 

 

My perception from this tidally affected location is that going deep into storm drains is not worth your trouble. Few people go there, so there's nothing to see, and you always have to keep the tide in the back of your mind to make sure you don't drown from a drain flood. The mud is sticky, the water jumps into your boots and freezes your feet, and the darkness is intimidating. None of this is meant to detract you from drains, but be aware that some are more interesting than others, and get to know the risks and experiences involved before going.

Floyd Bennett Field Hangars

       Back in September 2011, I considered this spot to be the site of my first, "real" exploration, because I took a whole day off to check it out with a friend. During that day, we also went to Bottle Beach and climbed around the underside of the Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge. I always send my exploring pictures to my partners and tell them to do the same, but they usually never do the same. This worked against us when my friend lost his beautiful $300 camera phone and lost all of the pictures we took with it (this is why he can't have nice things). However, even though I knew that some of the hangars were having construction done on them, I went back. I knew there was more to see.
       I checked out the basements in one of the hangars going nowhere, totally dark and filled with either dirt or water, and stepped on a large rusted nail...again. Right at the same time that I was telling my exploring partner that the last time I was there, I stepped on a large rusted nail. The huge hole in the shoe miraculously patched up, and fortunately, the skin was not penetrated deeply. This is the importance of watching your step/having boots. If you go here, be careful. Those rusty nails are death traps. Another tense moment was laying low in a hangar as sanitation trainees walked by and helicopters whirled over us.
     Anyway, I must say I am quite pleased with the photographic results. Here are the fruits of our labors.

                                                                              Until next time!

The Bay Ridge Branch

  "I don't know why. I'm not an impulsive person".
  -Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

      This should be a tale of a young adult's heroism and overpowering sense of adventure. This should be about how he/she braved an oncoming slew of traffic from one side and a flanking from pedestrians and still managed to hop a tall spiked fence. This should be about that. But it isn't. Instead, let me tell you a tale of human incompetence and dumb luck.
      On the same day that I was exploring the Rockaway Branch I decided, on a total whim on the way home, to make my way to the Bay Ridge branch (just for a peek). This is location has gained infamy even among my non-exploring friends, and they cutely refer to it as, "The Avenue H Station". The seemingly abandoned Bay Ridge Branch, however, does run through that part of town. This was a location I had passed several times and peered into the fence, and have longed for an occasion (perhaps at night) where I could jump the fence and explore the place. However, it turned out I didn't need to.
     My eyes hopped from the prickly fence top to the frigid metallic padlock chain. Wait, what chain? The door ajar just ever so slightly, it invited me to enter. I couldn't believe it. The door was left open? How long was it like that? Perhaps it was only for a day. Even so, if I had decided to come just a day later, the place would be chained up and getting in would be so much more difficult. Wary of workers, I slipped through the thin crack in the door and vaulted over the rail to hide myself from the publicly viewable stairs. How many people have passed by this location without even making the conscious effort to peer beyond the gates? This is the importance of keeping plants of curiosity freshly cultivated in your mind, as well as saplings of impulsiveness - because acting on a hunch may provide you with the rich opportunity I had.
     Dark. The world was dark, and the only light shone in from a strange overhead angle. Contributing to the blackness, I had to walk in the shadows to ensure I wasn't seen from pedestrians from above, or any random homeless or workers.
     At one point, I climbed up a rusted set of stairs to peer through a grating. One of the stairs was missing and it looked like someone might've fell through the gap. Imagine stepping on a stair you believed to be sturdy only to have it collapse and crash to the ground eleven feet on impact. Time to turn back. As I went down gently, I heard bits of rust from the stairs rain down onto the dirt. Though the track is still active, it feels like nobody has been here for a long, long time.

      You see that elevated spot in the middleground? The R train passes through there between 59 Street to Bay Ridge Avenue and back. If you take the R and pass between these stations, make sure to steal a peek out the window. In the background to the left appears to be the line which the N train runs on. From this point, one can see three train lines at the same time!

     If you want to check out more on this long forgotten place, check out Nathan Kensinger's photo essay on the Bay Ridge Branch.  It's cool seeing his summetime shots because they contrast grealty with the barren winter I was shooting in. This site provides a virtual tour of this branch.                              

Many subsequent expeditions planned. And now, a little photo from the archives.

                                                  

These are tracks from an abandoned trolley station in Sunset Park. It's not worth a whole trip to check out the line, but if you're nearby, it's cool to see it. Peace, everyone!