all abandoned.

Ce n'est pas un travel guide

Stone wall at the Nyack Beach armory

Stone wall at the Nyack Beach armory

The history of the building was unknown to me, but one thing that immediately stood out (besides the tunnel leading into the mountain seen at the top of the photo) was the size of the stones used in the masonry wall. The building just screamed "armory" because of the thickness of its walls.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Comments via Flickr

Add a comment

I've done a lot of research on this building. Originally (pre 1910) this building was owned by Manhattan Trap Rock and this particular building housed the steam engines that powered the rock crushing equipment that was used to make the hook mountain into stones used to build the brownstones on Manhattan. After 1910 the PSIP bought the building and converted it into a beach house for the beach. It housed a dance floor and all. I believe, although I can't find anything specific, that those tunnels are the passage ways that brought the crushed stone to the river which was loaded via a huge pier (no longer present) to barges to transport the stone. There are some pictures available at keeprocklandbeautiful.org
-mbsportsman600, 2010-11-16 03:57:48

Thanks for sharing that, although regarding the utility of the tunnels, they were completely enclosed and not particularly long, which makes it very unlikely they were used in mining. If anything, I was recently thinking it was perhaps for cold storage, as there was a passageway from the building to the area where the tunnels began. Your thoughts?
-Sousveillance, 2010-11-17 19:39:53

I went up to look at those tunnels yesterday... it's clear that they originally came to the surface a short distance from the terminus and then were connected to what is now the upper parking lot by a conveyer belt or some sort of mechanism or even just a slide, since the slope is quite steep. Mbsportsman600 is obviously correct in his research and this was indeed a quarry of some type.

On the off chance anybody ever looks here again I've posted a few pictures at the top of the slide, or conveyer, or whatever it was that took stone down to the tunnels in question, just click "Fazookus", at the top of this comment
-Fazookus, 2012-03-06 12:15:38

Fazookus, the pictures above the tunnels are excellent, I had not seen that area before. I know futher north on the Nyack trail (North of Rockland Lake) there is some additional stone crushing equipment that can be seen along the trail. The last I was on the trail was 20 years ago and it was barely passable. I have been unable to find any additional information on the quarry work done in the early 1900s, except that the primary receiver of the stone was Manhatten. There were daily barges of stone floated down the Hudson River.
-mbsportsman600, 2013-03-11 11:58:49

The are above the tunnels is quite open now, if that's the trail you were referring to, there are good paths and a road that goes to the parking lot at what must have been the bottom of the quarry.

This is a loooong piece of correspondence :P
-Fazookus, 2013-07-28 22:18:51

Exploring the gun tunnel

Tag icon

Tags

Map icon Location

Camera icon Camera

Canon PowerShot S70
(Replaced by Canon PowerShot S90)

flickr

Large photo
This photo on flickr

Link icon

Link to this photo

Embed icon

Embed this photo

License icon

License this photo

POSTED: Fair use encouraged, but for commercial use, you must first buy a license.

Violators will be prosecuted.

Plus icon EXIF data

X-Resolution180 dpi
Y-Resolution180 dpi
Exposure0.067 sec (1/15)
Aperturef/2.8
Exposure Bias0 EV
Focal Plane X-Resolution10816.90141 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution10816.90141 dpi