Lehigh Valley Barge no. 79

Lehigh Valley Barge No. 79 is an old wooden railroad barge built in 1914, the only surviving one of its kind. Today it houses the Waterfront Museum, floating at pier 44 in Red Hook. They discovered the barge in 1985 in Edgewater, NJ. After 9 years of repairing the ship and removing the caked mud, it’s virtually back to its original condition. Amazing that this old ship floats!

                      

As part of the museum, they have a school, or “floating classroom,” aboard the barge. Here, kids can learn about boats, i.e. “knot-tying, why boats float, identification of the different types of vessels that crisscross the harbor daily.”

As if the boat couldn’t get more kiddie-friendly, it also holds regular circus shows in the summer. “Showboat Sazzam” features jugglers, clowns, magicians, acrobats –everything you could want at a circus all in this little boat! It’s cool that this discovered old ship is being put to good use, the people who found it had a cool and interesting idea for what to do with it. It’s a great tool for promoting education of the harbor, and a cool one too.