Times Square may be where a million people choose to ring in the new year, but Fort Greene, Brooklyn is home to the steamiest way to welcome 2013. Pratt Institute allows the public to blow its historic steam whistles.
Scott Lynch, who was there last night/this morning, highly recommends it, "They're the loudest things you've ever heard, you feel the sound not just in your chest but all throughout you body, plus if you're close up there's so much steam you literally can't see anything at all, but you know you're surrounded by people, so you can't move. So giddily disorienting, like sensory deprivation, but due to overload." And Mark Roberts, who also experienced it, notes, "The engine room dates to 1887, and three of the steam-powered electrical generators date to 1900."
Pratt boasts the oldest continuously-operating, privately-owned, steam-powered electrical generating plant in the country. In the East Building you can see the steam turbines along with a collection of other Brooklyn memorabilia and talk with Conrad Milster, Chief Engineer and steam aficionado.You can learn not only about steam-generated electricity but also about all sorts of steam-powered vehicles from mini-trains to giant ocean liners. If you're around on New Year's Eve or Pratt Graduation, you can hear the great whistle blasts from Conrad's collection of steam whistles. Pulling the lever on the whistle from the U.S.S. Normandy and being enveloped in steam is an experience not to be missed. You can try out railroad locomotive whistles, lake and riverboat whistles in addition to the blasts from major ocean liners.
Here are some old videos of the steam whistles in action:
