30 subway cars dropped off Cape May coast

star ledger ^ | 08.25.08 | Brian T. Murray and Wayne Woolley/

[Coleus]

With a tremendous splash and a profound thud, 30 old subway cars were dropped into the ocean off the coast of Cape May this morning, enlarging the nation's most extensive artificial reef system. State officials say the 18-ton cars -- stripped of their windows, wheels, axles and flooring -- will soon become home to a variety of ocean species. "They provide a very good habitat for marine life," said Hugh Carberry, the state Department of Environmental Protection's reef coordinator.

Workers dump New York City subway cars into the ocean off of Cape May on Monday. After a five year moratorium, New Jersey will continue to use subway cars to build up artificial reefs, which provide habitat and homes to marine life.

Today's operation marked the second since March, when the state lifted a controversial five-year moratorium on the use of subway cars for artificial reefs. In the first drop, 44 cars were sunk off Atlantic City. By 2011, some 600 of the decommissioned people-movers will have been deployed along the Jersey Shore. There they will join military tanks, tug boats, telephone cable, concrete blocks and other items that have been dropped since 1984 to establish habitats for fish and other sea creatures that would otherwise steer clear of the open and turbulent Atlantic Ocean floor. Reef programs are underway worldwide to maintain, if not restore, marine life.

The subway cars -- each 60 feet long, 10 feet wide and 11 feet high -- were donated by New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

[Parley Baer]

“enlarging the nation’s most extensive artificial reef system”

Oil drilling platforms make a good marine sanctuary.

[B4Ranch]

>The subway cars -- each 60 feet long, 10 feet wide and 11 feet high -- were donated by New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.<

the New York taxpayers.

[ThomasThomas]

But they could have been made in homes for the homeless!

[Stonewall Jackson]

The History Channel had a program a few years ago called Deep Sea Detectives, and one of the episodes dealt with two locomotive engines that were found off the Jersey coast.

From what they could find, the two engines were probably built by the Seth Wilmarth Union Works of Boston between 1848 and 1855 and were likely lost at sea during a storm, either being pushed off a ship to keep the ship from going down or lost when the barge they were on sank (I support the barge theory since they are sitting side-by-side and upright).

They checked insurance records and shipping manifests, but could not find anything. In fact, the engines might not have been bound for an American destination, as the 2-2-2 wheel configuration was rare in the US, but common in England and Russia.

[Question Liberal Authority]

So why can't we just dump anything in the ocean and call it an "artificial reef"?

And why don't we build more offshore oil platforms, on the basis that they'll become "artificial reefs"?

[Sir Hailstone]

With the price of scrap metal these days there was a better purpose for these steel subway cars.....

[Minn]

And why don't we build more offshore oil platforms, on the basis that they'll become "artificial reefs"?

Noting supports life in the sea as well as an oil drilling platform. It's a fact the enviros can't get there puny little heads around.

[Tainan]

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