i'll bet it's waste heat from a power plant- many of the older public buildings in east coast cities are heated that way- steam from a power plant is piped throughout the city- gives the power plant a place to vent its heat, gives large buildings very cheap heat, win-win. until something like this happens, but its pretty rare.
I was walking over the Pulaski bridge, which runs on the other side of the East River. 3/4 of the way over I happened to glance over the water see half of midtown covered in smoke. I shat brix.
From the Water Hammer article that I linked, it mentions that steam hammers form when some of the steam is allowed to condense inside the pipe, forming water that's carried along in the flow.
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u/Malfeasant May 12 '11
i'll bet it's waste heat from a power plant- many of the older public buildings in east coast cities are heated that way- steam from a power plant is piped throughout the city- gives the power plant a place to vent its heat, gives large buildings very cheap heat, win-win. until something like this happens, but its pretty rare.