Filling a Void
Captain William Connolly wears a solemn expression, one he has earned over his long career with the FDNY, during which time he has witnessed more horror, experienced more loss, than he ever expected from the job.
“There are usually too many people in a fire,” he says with painstaking honesty. “Out here on the water, there are never enough.” This imbalance of first responders is one of the few unfortunate truths he has learned during his eight years with the marine division, 1.5 of which have been with Marine 1, after starting his career as a land-based responder in the Bronx.
His eyes gaze along the waterfront before us, a heavily trafficked section of the Hudson that is always abuzz with commercial traffic, cruise ships, tour boats, recreational craft and even inexperienced kayakers and paddleboarders, who often take to the river after dark.
His eyes land on Little Island, the floating waterfront park that opened next to the Marine 1 station at Pier 55 earlier this year. For the city, it’s an exciting new development at a previously deteriorating section of the waterfront. For Connolly, it represents a new hazard; it’s not a matter of if someone jumps,
