Behind the Scenes At The Macy's 4th Of July Fireworks

This morning we took a trip out to the secret, secure location* where Macy's is loading 40,000 fireworks shells on to six enormous barges ahead of this Sunday July 4th fireworks show. We weren't allowed on to the actual barges: Apparently handling explosives involves a license from the FDNY. But we were able to snap some pictures of the pyro-techs from SoUSA loading and wiring the display, and we also got to play with a bunch of dummy shells—specially prepared to prevent bloggers from blowing themselves up!

Remember: This year the fireworks display is on the Hudson River (again)—so if you want to see the show, make sure you don't go to the East River by mistake!

*We realize that some of you will be able to tell where these pictures were taken. Please refrain from putting the location (even the borough) in the comments. The FDNY is very concerned about terrorism—and given the amount of high-explosives on these barges, you can understand why.

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By Jake Dobkin in Arts & Entertainment on June 29, 2010 1:04 PM

Comments [rss]

r1b2

These are terrific, just seeing them now, thanks for this great work, Jake.

j0sh

Thats awesome that the shell charges look exactly like the shapes they produce, especially that 3D cube one....

soundfreak

It's not terrorists they should worry about. It's angry Brooklynites.

AYCE

Agree with Steven that they should alternate each year between Hudson and East River. Last year was misery and mayhem trying to get to and out of the watch points along the west side.

hotstepper

neato!

i truly love that we celebrate our country's independence by blowing up a little part of it.

Stevennnn

I though this year will be back at the East River? is the Hudson River the new spot or what?

Macys should just alternative the east and hudson river.

MT

That site is hardly secret or secure. They use the same pier every year and you can see it quite plainly from the road (which I drive down several times a week).

Jake Dobkin

It seemed pretty secure to me- multiple fences and check points, and patrol boats on the water outside. It's probably impossible to keep something this big completely secret- they're just trying to do the best they can.

MT

Of course you're right for the barges themselves. I was just being pissy and negative about the larger site itself. There's quite a few ways to get around that main checkpoint down there.

ab_bklyn

I still don't understand why they're doing it on the west side again this year, but all that aside, is it going to be visible from Brooklyn Heights/DUMBO at all? (I wasn't in town for the 4th of July last year.) If not, what's the best place in Manhattan to see them? Battery Park?

Jake Dobkin

The best spots to watch are on 12th Ave / West Side Highway from 23rd up to 59th- access points are every few blocks and listed on the Macy's site linked in the post above.

CR

Exactly what would attacking a *fireworks display* achieve?

Jamie McDonald

I don't know, what do you think setting off a barge full of explosives would achieve?

longacre

It would destroy the barge, and screw up our party, but not much else. Not like the barge is near anything vital or densely populated.

valeriob

These are awesome, great work Jake!

Jamie McDonald

Yeah, that took about 10 seconds of work on Google Maps to figure out. On the bright side, if the best thing the terrorists got for attack planning is blog photo essays, we'll probably be all right.

Landor

Bing Map's "Aerial/Bird's Eye View" feature is pretty sweet for the armchair urban explorer.

24gotham

With so much concern over the location being revealed, it would have only taken a few minutes to blur the backgrounds in Photoshop. Just enough to make the buildings indistinguishable.