Asbestos, a fire retardant, was used in copious amounts on the SS United States. Sadly, this led to the gutting of the ship in 1992, when she was towed to Ukraine and her interiors were entirely stripped of the toxic material–and nearly everything else.
I took these photos in 2008 and 2009.
View from the crow’s nest
Looking down from inside the crow’s nest
Matthew Christopher has had an interest in abandoned sites since he was a child, but started documenting them a decade ago while researching the decline of the state hospital system. His website, abandonedamerica.us, has gained international attention and is considered one of the leading collections of images of abandoned spaces on the internet. You can follow him on Facebook here.
I have dreamed of getting on board this ship and photographing her. It’s great you got to, especially since her future is so unsure.