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Martian rovers
By adamg on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 8:33pm
At sunset today, the sky was suffused with orange. At the Lynn end of the Nahant Causeway, it was enough to give you a sense of what it would be like to be on Mars, if Mars were a bit warmer and had oceans and people and a causeway.
Sean Sullivan captured the orange sky near North Station.
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Comments
Great Shot!
That's a terrific photograph.
the posted image doesnt
the posted image doesnt match up with the link
Not supposed to
I posted a photo I took in Lynn and then linked to a separate photo on the same theme that Sean took near North Station.
i read that wrong... makes
i read that wrong... makes total sense now
That begs the question...
That begs the question... what were you doing on Lynn beach in the winter time? Well at least the air is breathable in the winter, in the summer it gets that crazy seaweed that smells it up.
Lynn was merely the way to get to Nahant
We drove up to Revere Beach for our annual mid-winter roast-beef infusion at Kelly's, even sat in that shelter thing across the road and threw French-fry bits up in the air to see if the seagulls would catch them on the wing (they did), and then the kidlet started eying Nahant and asked if we could drive to the very end.
We didn't get to the part that you can see from Revere (the high school?) but we did drive along the rocky coast on the other side of the peninsula, enjoying the views, the houses and the entertaining signs roughly every 10 feet reading:
Now, I had to keep my eyes on the (very windy) roads, so I may not be quoting the signs exactly, but I think I'm close enough.
Orange you glad
that you did.
Thats a good ride, I always
Thats a good ride, I always enjoyed doing the Nahant drive as a kid, the Nahant Country Club is a great place if you ever have a function out that way, its right on the water and is very pleasant. The one thing to watch out for in Nahant is if your driving down the causeway be careful of the exit point into Nahant, the Nahant police will just hang out at the end and pick up any and all speeders, they get pretty bored out there, which can be bad news. The house you saw isnt the one to be worried about, theres another one at the end of the island that doesnt have any signs but just a giant fence and little cameras all over the place that will follow you if you walk around them, if I remember correctly that is the "Mafia" house , or at least it was 10 years ago lol.
This is a good time of the year to hit Kellys, by the summer time those darn sea gulls are much more aggresive and will try to take the food away from you. You need to make sure you go back in the summer though when they have the sand castle contest. http://www.reverebeachpartnership.com/nessf07/ its incredible.
I think we passed that house!
Also, we got a good look at the old WWII observation towers on somebody's property. We tried to figure out what they used them for now ("Grain elevators" was my guess).
Nahant has been equiped with
Nahant has been equiped with artillary guns, and small missile launcing sites since before the 1900's to protect Boston from the European powers during the spat of wars and skirmishes we had with them between the Spanish American War and WWII (and to an extent the Cold War.) What you saw is now owned by Northeastern University and is part of their Marine Science Center now, so no they are not being used as grain elevators lol. To the best of my knowledge they have been turned into lab space and storage for the marine center. Talk about your unexpected uses, I dont think you could have ever guessed that on the spot.
Nahant also has many tunnels running around it, and I believe those are now being used by the town for storage of municipal supplies and equipment. The tunnels average 50 degrees year round so its safe storage.
Nahant tower
But there's at least one that's in some house's front yard, not part of the Northeastern marine center.
The ones we saw
There were two of them right next to each other, on a dead end (didn't catch the street name) and they both looked kind of like skinny concrete Art Deco milk cartons.
I'll look into it because
I'll look into it because now Im not sure which ones your talking about. I have a friend who lives out on Nahant that is a local history buff so Im sure he would know. He's also old enough to probaly have been around when they were in action in WWII, but not old enough to have been in Europe at the time.
Nahant has Google StreetView
so if someone wants to wander around with it and knows what they're looking for, it would be fun to post coordinates here. Unfortunately it looks like the StreetView camera visited in the middle of summer when foliage was at its height.
Here's a privately-owned tower on Swallow Cave Road. The satellite view shows a second one nearby, but I haven't been able to find a StreetView photo for that one. Adam, is this where you were?
I think that's it
Two of them next to each other on a dead end.
Try this
Here's a view without the foliage. Use the bird's eye view and you'll get a better view of the towers.
Towers of Nahant
The Towers were called Fire Towers and they were for the Army to fire the big guns that use to be at Nahant as part of the Boston Harbor Defenses. They were to watch for ships, planes and submarines. They use to house telescope like equiptment and range finders. On Bailey's hill is home of Battery Gardner 1923-1946 which housed one 12" gun in each of its 2 bunker's and smaller AA guns on the roofs. These bunkers are still there today and are used by the town. At the North Eastern site were Battery Murphy/104 and Battery 206 1943-1948. These 2 bunkers housed a 16" gun in each and various other weapons and search lights were at this site and these big guns had a range of 25 miles. These gun systems covered an area which I believe to be from Winthrop were they had there own battery's up to about the N.H. border were they had more guns at Fort Dearborn which was part of the Portsmouth Harbor Defenses. The N.Eastern site is pretty cool and in the 1950's was a Nike Missle site. I dont know how many of these heavy concrete bunkers, and fire towers exist in the U.S. today but Nahant is pretty fortunate to have 4 towers and 4 bunkers still standing and I wish they had the money to turn them into a museum, I would love to get inside the N.Eastern site it looks pretty big. At Halibut Point Park in Rockport is a Fire Tower which was part of the Portsmouth NH System, and I believe that it can be visited becuase it is part of a State Park. I believe the ones in Nahant are know privately owned. I hope that this info was helpful but don't hold me to its accuracy I am only going by what I have been told or have been able to research.
Halibut Point tower in Rockport
Yes, that one's open to the public. I've visited it in past years.
Nahant towers - where are the other two?
Besides the two on Swallow Cave Road that appear to be private, where are the other two in Nahant? I wandered around with that Windows Live view for a while, but couldn't find them.
Fire Towers
One of the Towers is located on Harris St., corner of Breezy Hill Rd., the other is at the bend of Nahant Rd. is just to the right of 40 Steps Beach. I believe there are some more towers in NH and that will be my next destination. I was at Rockport today and the park was beautiful but the tower was closed, will try again some other time