The Big Apple’s Big Harbor

When Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger brought US Airways Flight 1549, an Airbus A320 carrying 155 passengers and crew, to a safe stop on the Hudson River on January 15, the world watched in awe. That dramatic water landing became one of the most widely remembered moments of recent aviation history. For those who live and work around New York Harbor, however, that event was only the latest chapter in a long series of memorable stories that have defined the harbor from the days when New York was New Amsterdam to the present.

In her anthology, Harbor Voices: New York Harbor tugs, ferries, people, places & more (Sea History Press, 2008), Terry Walton opens the doors to the harbor’s back channels and working piers, introducing readers to the people, vessels and businesses that make the harbor unique. The book reads like a curated scrapbook: a mosaic of interviews, personal recollections and focused essays that together form a living portrait of this maritime landscape.

Walton devotes a major portion of the book to the everyday labor that keeps the harbor alive. In the section titled “The Jobs That Make the Harbor Work,” tugboat captains, ferry operators, longshore workers, mariners, fishmongers and harbor pilots describe how the harbor shapes their daily lives. Their stories emphasize the practical rhythms—dawn shifts, loadings and unloadings, navigation through crowded channels—as well as the emotional ties these workers have to the water, the vessels, and the communities clustered along the shoreline.

Alongside personal narratives, Walton provides vivid descriptions of the many kinds of vessels that transit New York Harbor. Readers encounter everything from historic schooners and sightseeing boats to powerful tugs and the ferries that link boroughs. The book also touches on the massive container ships that form the backbone of modern maritime commerce, reminding readers that the harbor is both a workplace and a global trade gateway. Walton’s account balances affection for traditional sail and small craft with clear-eyed coverage of the industrial scale of contemporary shipping.

Harbor Voices highlights notable landmarks and local institutions that have been central to harbor life. Walton writes about places like Fulton’s Fish Market and the waterfront features that often go unnoticed by casual visitors—small ecological details and historic military sites, such as the battery weed at Fort Wadsworth. She also covers practical curiosities, including routine statistics and operations, for example, facts about the Staten Island Ferry’s daily schedule and its role as a vital commuter link. These grounded observations give readers a sense of how the harbor’s past and present coexist in surprising ways.

Terry Walton brings more than three decades of experience writing about New York Harbor to this collection. Her background as the former managing editor of Boating magazine and as the former editor of Seaport magazine informs both the depth and the tone of the book. Walton’s writing combines journalistic clarity with an evident respect for the people whose lives are woven into the harbor’s fabric, producing a work that will appeal to enthusiasts of maritime history as well as to local residents curious about the waterfront’s daily realities.

The result is an anthology that functions as both a reference and a human portrait. Harbor Voices preserves oral histories, practical knowledge and the small, telling details that might otherwise fade as waterfront neighborhoods change and technology reshapes maritime labor. Walton’s selection of voices—captains, laborers, historians and entrepreneurs—offers readers varied perspectives while underscoring the harbor’s continuing importance to New York’s identity, economy and culture.

For readers who want a deeper look at the harbor beyond the postcards and tourist viewpoints, Walton’s collection is an inviting introduction to the living, working bay. It captures the energy of a place where commerce, community and tradition meet on the water, and reminds us that the harbor’s most compelling stories often come from the people who spend their lives on and around it.

For more information, visit www.rosalieink.com.

This article originally appeared in the June 2009 issue.