Manhattan to Maritime

Fort Schuyler 

From the 4 train to 86^th street to an hour wait to a half-hour express bus ride through Harlem, onto I-278, past Yankee Stadium and Rikers Island is Throggs Neck. This town of 22,000 is in the easternmost section of the Bronx, resting where the Long Island Sound meets the East River, in Community District #10. At the edge of Throggs Neck, on a thin peninsula, is Maritime College—the oldest Maritime school in America.

Maritime College is associated with the SUNY educational system, and is one of the oldest campuses in New York City. The school is built on Fort Schuyler, which was a 19^th century fort that protected the top of the East River from enemy naval attacks.  The national landmark was only active from 1856 until its transition to an academy in 1874. Maritime College is surrounded by New York City’s bays, and has a small extension of land where students dock their boats for rowing.

Throggs Neck and Maritime College are uncharacteristic parts of New York City. They seem to be in a zip code of suburban Boston rather than part of one the most overpopulated places on earth. The largely Caucasian District 10 that includes Throggs Neck is home to mostly Caucasian, one to three family houses. The lawns that line Pennyfield Avenue are filled with flowerpots and ceramic lawn gnomes, and at the end of the street is the gated entrance to Maritime College. The academy has a stern wind that blows constantly throughout the peninsula that’s a constant reminder that the visitor is almost at sea. The buildings are square and brown and there is a padded running track that circles the campus.

An Eight-foot Anti-Aircraft Gun from the 1940s

 “It’s a school of roughly 8,000,” a school store clerk explained. “Students do engineering, business or operation.” Living up to the school’s name, all academic programs have some focus in naval occupations. They (the students) all go on to do different things,” a security guard said. “They become Coast Guards, work for the navy, and work for cruise ships.”

            What may be the most singular part of Maritime College is the 17,000-ton 565-foot long vessel docked on the southern side of the island. In the pamphlet given to perspective student the immense ship points towards the New York City skyline. “Every student has to take three terms abroad,” the guard said. “You can either do it on the Empire or you can study on another ship.

         Perhaps the most noticeable part of the campus has nothing to do with the school itself. An enormous freeway, named after Throggs Neck, cuts through the heart of Fort Schuyler. The eight-lane road soars hundreds of feet above sea level with oppressively large support beams sunken into the water. The sound of roaring cars is constant on the peninsula. While the cover of the applicants’ pamphlet says that you’re only moments away from “the world’s finest cultural and entertainment centers” a more real reminder of the city is the freeway that runs through it.