

New York City's Most Accessible Ruins - Mz
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ghosts-of-new-york-eleven-of-new-york-city-s-most-intriguing-ruins

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jrockway
> _The site protected the Harbor using a pair of concrete batteries, each
> housing a pair of cannons which could fire 30 miles out to sea._

How accurate were the 1917-era cannons at 30 miles?

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omegant
Cannon battles of WW2
[http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/articles/capitalsh...](http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/articles/capitalshipsurfaceactions.aspx)

~~~
tombrossman
Interesting to see this on HN as we dug out an entrance to a WW2 German bunker
yesterday afternoon here in Jersey (the British island). Like urbex _and_ WW2?
Photos here:
[https://plus.google.com/photos/105983129534664287827/albums/...](https://plus.google.com/photos/105983129534664287827/albums/6061218816958114817)

Some videos also on our group's YouTube page, with a quick walk-through. We
already have one of these restored and open to the public, and we were after
parts and a bit of exploration.

As for the accuracy, WW2 guns were good enough. This Youtube video on
mechanical fire-control computers is very interesting and I've seen it come up
on HN before several times.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1i-dnAH9Y4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1i-dnAH9Y4)

Lots of this equipment survives today. It was built to last and many people
still collect it. We've also got about a dozen French and German cannon dumped
from cliffs that we'll recover some day.

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dfc
Is it normal to fire up an angle grinder and not wear eye protection where you
live? In one of the pictures you can see spark bouncing off worker's face an
inch below left eyeball.

~~~
jrockway
The sparks are hot, but don't contain much mass, so I don't think they're as
dangerous as they look. That said, as an official paranoid person, I always
wear goggles.

~~~
dfc
Data/evidence to the contrary:

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Home and Leisure
Accident Surveillance Systems (HASS/LASS) lists angle grinders at #3 in their
top ten list of most dangerous tools, with an average of 5,400 injuries
recorded. [1]

"Angle grinders are one of the most dangerous tools in any workplace. They are
used for cutting, grinding and polishing work. ... Most angle grinder injuries
are from metal particles lodging in the operator’s eye. However, the most
serious injuries are from kick-back, where the disc is thrust back violently
towards the operator." [2]

[1]:
[http://www.hassandlass.org.uk/reports/2002data.pdf](http://www.hassandlass.org.uk/reports/2002data.pdf)

[2]: [http://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/worksafe/angle-
grinders](http://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/worksafe/angle-grinders)

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NoPiece
I know nothing about this site in real life, but immediately recognized it
from GTA IV.

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doomlaser
If you're into urban exploration in and around NYC, this video is a great
watch: [https://vimeo.com/18280328](https://vimeo.com/18280328)

They visit a few interesting spots like the abandoned City Hall subway
station, old sewers, tunnels, and the top of the Williamsburg Bridge

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eksith
If you're not following their Twitter, you should
[https://twitter.com/atlasobscura](https://twitter.com/atlasobscura)

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guard-of-terra
Smallpox hospital looks beautiful. They don't build like this anymore.

