Anyone Up for a Road Trip to Toledo?
On Thursday, August 13, from 3 to 6 p.m., tours are being offered of the S.S. Columbia at the Ironhead Shipyard in Toledo. Groups of twenty will be given twenty-minute tours of the main deck and a view of the ballroom. Reservations for the tour can be made here.
The Columbia has been at the shipyard in Toledo for the past year, while ironworkers repaired the hull. The tour on Thursday is an opportunity to view the progress, but it's also a chance for people in eastern Michigan and northern Ohio to bid farewell to the steamer that once carried holidaymakers from downtown Detroit to an amusement park on Bois Blanc Island in Lake Erie. So, if you don't want to drive nine and a half hours to see the Columbia in person this Thursday, you can take a virtual tour of the ship, courtesy of the Detroit Free Press, or you can just wait. The S.S. Columbia is headed our way!
In September, Columbia will sail across Lake Erie to a temporary berth in Buffalo. The ultimate goal for the steamer, after its restoration is complete, is to be a floating museum and cultural venue, offering daily excursions on the Hudson River. The big question for us in Hudson is: When Columbia is ready to ply the waters of the Hudson, will our waterfront be ready to receive it as it did the great dayliners of old?
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We have to do everything we can to welcome the Columbia to our waterfront. Hudson was a very important port and should be again.
ReplyDeleteThis boat will never come to Hudson, until they make major improvements and changes at the waterfront. They can't even accept other large boats such as the 225ft Independance or even Norman Bramans 175ft million dollar KISSES yacht that had to dock in Catskill. Until they start to consult with the actual users of the water front and involve people who actually know what they are doing, the water front will still be the same 10 years from now. Dunns building will still be vacant and the gravel parking lot will still be absent of any positive development and the Ferry St bridge will still be closed. It isn't about being pessimistic, but stating reality.
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