Ghosts of Boston Harbor

When you live near a very old harbor, odd things are always showing up at your doorstep. For instance, this just appeared in my corner of the harbor last week:


It's a barge -- or more exactly, about a third of a barge. It was a complete vessel when it arrived, with a bow, a stern, and everything in between intact. I saw it every day as I crossed over the Neponset River Bridge on the subway.

But by the time I rode out to it on my bike this morning, all that was left was:


Now, I love industrial ruins. Abandoned factories, dilapidated wharfs, crumbling mills ... they all have an eerie, dark beauty about them. And this barge seemed especially mysterious as I passed by it on the subway, when it was all in one piece.

So looking at its remains this morning...


...I was sad to see it in the process of being demolished. The grimy old barge would have felt very much at home naturally decaying among the other ruins in this quiet part of the harbor, like the sparse remnants of Flounder Fleet Wharf next door...


...the overgrown runway just across the water I wrote about last year...


...and the strange industrial tower on my normal riding route (here in a photo I took on a gloomy morning last month):


It must have had an interesting life, this old barge. So as I got back on my bike to head for home...


I took a parting photo...


...and wished it well as it joins the many ghosts of Boston Harbor.