Photo of the Day: Shark River, Avon-by-the-Sea, NJ

Yesterday an event took me down to an area that, despite my lifelong residence in the state, I have rarely gone to in recent years: the Jersey Shore. As soon as I stepped out of my car in the parking lot next to the Marina Building, I was enthralled by this setting, with the bridge leading to Belmar off to the right, so I took this picture.

The Shark River is one of three bodies of water, along with Sylvan Lake and the Atlantic Ocean, that surrounds Avon-by-the-Sea. It was a quiet late afternoon when I got down there, so I missed the parade of boats that often go by. But I gloried in the view and the crisp air of this seaside community.

Running eleven miles, the Shark River is bordered by Avon-by-the-Sea, Neptune City, Neptune Township, Wall Township and Belmar Borough. Despite its approximately 800 acres of shellfish growing waters, much of the river is classified “Restricted “by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Oh, yes: wondering about sharks? Turns out none is present in these waters. So why this name? Some possible theories:

*Maybe the name dates from the mid-1800s, when a shark might have been in the river;

*Maybe it derives from the “low-grade” fishing huts or shacks around in the late 1700s, with “shark” being a twisted form of  “Shirk” or “Shack”; or

*Maybe it comes from because upstream in Shark River Park can be found shark teeth left in fossil from the Cretaceous geologic period.

For an interesting oral history of the Avon River (including bootlegging that went on during Prohibition), see this interview with longtime area resident Ray Dodd, recorded and posted online by his son Charlie after his death.

Photo of the Day: Late Fall, Hackensack River, Bergen County NJ

I took this image a week ago today, while walking through Johnson Park in Hackensack, NJ. With temperatures dropping, the number of walkers like myself weren’t as numerous as they were earlier in the year—and I expect that to be even more the case through the holiday season.

Quote of the Day (Michael Wood, on Destroying Rivers and the Past)

“The health of our rivers is vital to everyone. If you love history, it is even more pointed, for in our landscapes are carried all our histories. Destroy a river and you also lose its past; it is akin to losing part of our collective memory. We live in times of the degradation of landscapes across the world, caused by poverty but also by the deliberate actions of the rich and powerful. And in Britain these disasters threaten not only our environment and our physical and mental wellbeing but our history, too.”— English historian, broadcaster, and documentary filmmaker Michael Wood, “Michael Wood on…The History Carried in Our Landscapes,” BBC History Magazine, April 2023

Professor Wood’s article deals with rivers in Great Britain. But these waterways—from the Hudson and Potomac in the east, through the Mississippi and Missouri in the heartland, to the Columbia in the West—have been crucial not only to American commerce but also American culture.

The Passaic River in northern New Jersey might not be as famous as these, but it has been as important to those lining its shores. This waterway has been essential to commerce in the area, but also shamefully abused, even listed in 1970 as the second most polluted river in the United States.

In September 2013 I took the image accompanying this post, of a revived tract of land on its banks: Riverfront Park in Garfield.

The creation of Riverfront Park shows what can be done with great effort in a concentrated area. Much remains to be done elsewhere along this 80-mile-long river to ensure the health of residents in the area—and the maintenance of historical memory of how the waterway helped give birth to America’s manufacturing industry.

In addition, the stream forms the backdrop to William Carlos Williams’ poem Paterson, which, the doctor-turned-writer noted, “follows the course of the Passaic River, whose life seemed more and more to resemble my own: the river above the Falls, the catastrophe of the Falls itself, the river below the Falls and the entrance at the end into the great sea."

Photo of the Day: Late Winter Sunday Afternoon, Hackensack River, NJ

I took the attached image late this past Sunday afternoon. I had just finished walking on the west side of the Hackensack River, a few miles from where I live in Bergen County, NJ, before crossing the William Ryan Bridge over to Olsen Park in Bogota. Looking west off in the distance into Hackensack, you can get a bit of a sense of the development going on this capital of the county.

Unless something unusual happens in the next 24 hours, before the spring equinox, I see the time when I took this picture as, in effect, the last stand of winter.

We had had, in the last few days, some wild swings of 40 degrees, and last Sunday was no exception. Nobody wanted to be out for a walk or jog. The ground was brown and the sky green, and while I tried to get some last-minute walking in, a snow squall blew up, making me hurry towards my car.

I can’t say that the weather won’t cause me more concern going forward; some days over the last few weeks have been unseasonably warm, making me dread when the worst summer days hit. I was about to write that I won’t miss days like this past Sunday. But in this time of dread and death, any day alive is a day to be savored. Breathe in the air and take in the sky.

Photo of the Day: A Raft of Ducks on the River

As I contemplated a potential headline for this photo I took yesterday of the Hackensack River, a few miles from my home in Bergen County, NJ, I thought of the waterfowl at its center. What was the name for a group of ducks?

At first, I thought of referring to a “school of ducks,” with all sorts of wordplay related to that. But it turned out that “school” was out—it wasn’t the proper word.

Then I thought of making the headline about a “duck dynasty.” But that’s a pretty long line of heirs I see. And if you can spot even a scintilla of facial hairs on these guys, your eyesight is far better than mine.

Then I took the easy way out and did a Google search for a group of ducks. “Raft” described these creatures on the water—and, together with “river,” there was a bit of alliteration involved. 

Thanks, Google--you kept me from committing fowl play.

Photo of the Day: ‘And the Sky is Gray’

A humorous meme of the past week reminded me of a popular song of the mid-1960s that baby boomers will recognize. (For the rest of you: Just Google it, okay?) That line lingered in my mind out here in northern New Jersey as I looked out over the Hackensack River from Foschini Park.

This past summer, even with COVID-19 raging, the park was heavily used by walkers. It was a different story late this afternoon, with only three other people around while I was there. (One, oddly enough, was practicing his golf swing in the gravelly parking lot.)

The emptiness was borne in on me as I walked on the wooden planks that formed the path on the riverfront park’s perimeter. With nobody near me, the sound of my footsteps echoed all the more loudly around me.

Photo of the Day: View of East River, From Brooklyn Heights Promenade, NY

I took this photo in early October 2016—in effect, Indian summer. It was the type of day so glorious, walking in the area around the Brooklyn Bridge, when you could understand why so many people have flocked to the borough in the last two decades. 

It all seems so far off now. I live in Northern New Jersey, but I have always been glad to realize that a larger city exists out there, waiting only for me to take public transportation to get there. I’m not sure if I will experience that sense of security and wonder again any time soon.

Photo of the Day: The Potomac River, As Viewed From Mount Vernon

I took this picture in November 2010, while visiting Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate in Alexandria, VA.

Ignore the apocryphal tale about Washington tossing a silver dollar across this waterway (more likely, it was the narrower Rappahannock River). It is an undeniable truth that in every other way that counted, the Potomac River remained central to his life. 

He located his business—his plantation—here. Believing the Potomac to be “the Nation’s River,” he helped formation a company that sought to link it to the Ohio River, binding the different sections of the young republic in a web of commerce.

And I have to believe, looking out from the back of his home, that Washington appreciated the sheer beauty of this landscape, and sought, every time he had the chance to grab greater power, to forsake it all for the chance to return here.

Photo of the Day: View of the Hudson From Allison Park, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

With the weather warming up to near-summer temperatures the last couple of days, people are becoming more and more restless about staying cooped up inside. I could see this plainly this afternoon when I visited Allison Park, an eight-acre park in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, not far from where I live in Bergen County.

I came to behold and photograph the spectacular cliff-top view overlooking the Hudson River. Plenty of other people did, too: By the time I got there in mid-afternoon, there was only one parking space in the whole lot. 

While most people seemed careful to give others a wide berth on the paved walkways winding through the grounds, they were not quite as careful about practicing social distancing in their own groups, as you can see here on the park benches (or, not shown, couples on blankets in the middle of the grass). But most, if not all, were careful to wear some sort of facial covering. 

And, lest anyone disagreed, a “Parkway Police” vehicle entered the parking lot to make sure everyone knew where they stood.

A writer friend of mine told me she was continuing to jot down her thoughts daily, in what she has come to see as a diary of COVID-19. While I have never been disciplined enough to maintain a diary (and have never been crazy about anyone somehow getting their hands on my innermost thoughts), I realize now that for the last two months, with my “Photo of the Day,” I have, in effect, been creating a photojournalistic equivalent of Life During Plague Time—with even pictures taken several years ago now acquiring a different meaning in the light of this catastrophe. 

Today’s post is squarely in that vein.

Photo of the Day: West End Overlook, Pittsburgh PA

I took the image accompanying this post in late June, on a weekend visit to Pittsburgh. Although the vantage point from which this is taken is formally called West End-Elliott Overlook Park, locals have reduced that mouthful to West End Overlook. 

Whatever you want to call it, this is the best spot to view where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers unite to form the Ohio River. The Native-Americans who inhabited this area first knew enough to take in the area from this bluff, and—now that the smoke that once belched from the city’s factories has gone—the view still can’t be beat.

Photo of the Day: View From the Hackensack River Pathway, Bergen County NJ

Late in the afternoon on this brilliant past Sunday, I walked along the western shore of the Hackensack River and snapped this photo.