NEW YORK (AP) — Battleship gray contrasted with brilliant blue skies as a dozen military vessels sailed up the Hudson River on Wednesday to open Fleet Week, with thousands of spectators watching from shore, roof decks and small boats.
To complete the maritime spectacular, two military jet flyovers coincided with the morning "Parade of Ships" — a formation of Naval F-18 Hornets over the majestic Verrazano Narrows Bridge at the mouth of New York Harbor — and a half-hour later, U.S. Marine Corps jets passing directly over the ships.
In a sign of the tense times, the city’s latest addition to anti-terrorism security also cruised the waters: the world’s most advanced fireboat, which can detect chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear agents.
The $27 million fireboat, fashioned in part from World Trade Center steel, then docked with some of the military ships near the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on the western shore of midtown Manhattan in preparation for an evening commissioning ceremony.
The ships, carrying 3,000 Navy, Army and Air Force members, first "paraded" north toward the George Washington Bridge near the top of Manhattan, then U-turned — some to piers near the Intrepid, others farther south to Staten Island.
