The Titanic Lives On In New York Today

One of my favorite local blogs Scouting NY has an extensive 2-part post this week about New York City and it's link to the Titanic. New York was the destination of the doomed ship, which sank 100 years ago today. As such, there are a surprising amount of memorials and remnants of the Titanic disaster scattered about the city.

One thing I didn't know about which he features is a Titanic memorial down by the South Street Seaport. I had seen this structure many times but never realized it was a memorial to the nautical disaster. This tower was on top of a building over on the west side for many years then relocated to the seaport. I wonder if anyone will leave flowers there this weekend. Also, Scouting NY has some detailed pictures of the White Star dock where the Carpathia came in with survivors, now an empty pier near 14th Street. You can still read the company's faded name on the steel beams!

Below is a photo of the headquarters of the White Star line.  The building still exists on lower Broadway but the entrance where thousands gathered for word of their loved one's fate in the days after the sinking is now a Subway and a Radio Shack store.  That's a sign of the times if I've ever seen one!

NatGeo Has Incredible Titanic Pics On 100th Anniversary

In case you've been living under a rock, this week marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. It's a story that's been hard to miss with all the hype and cultural noise, including the re-release of the James Cameron film TITANIC in 3D and a new mini-series debuting this weekend on ABC.

But leave it to National Geographic magazine to produce some stunning and comprehensive commemorative work.This month's issue of the magazine has some incredible new photos of the wreck of the Titanic that have been taken in the last two years.  They include a mosaic composed of thousands of images of the Atlantic seabed (below) where the ship rests that have been stitched together for the first comprehensive look at the wreck. You can zoom in to details, which are truly remarkable in their clarity.  There are also some stunning interiors of the ship, shot in a similar manner by robots shooting multiple images that are then combined.  The one here is of the lush Turkish bath in the ships storied first class section, with its ornate mosaic tiles still mainly intact. Amazing.

There is also an in-depth article about the process of mapping out the site as well as efforts by the salvage company RMS Titanic, Inc. to take a more historic approach to this ships final resting place.