Our fan and photographer Steven Hans Lindner shares his recent photo (©2023) of the World’s Tallest Water Sphere. Wow, just look at the autumn color! Unfortunately the beautiful foliage draws attention to the aging paint job. This is a very unique angle of the sphere. Can you see your house on the photo?
A Lego competition held in Union, New Jersey on October 21st, 2023 wins notoriety for its builder and the World’s Tallest Water Sphere. The LEGO Challenge contest hosted by the Union Police Activities League (P.A.L.) had over one dozen entries. Corey D. Samuels, a LEGO teacher featured on LEGO Masters, Union Mayor Manuel Figueiredo, and Union Committeeman James Bowser performed the judging.
Amanda Abbate (UHS class of 1988) reports that her son won first prize for their execution of the “World’s Spookiest Watersphere.” The Abate family is pictured here with their proud son.
Here is artwork from an unknown artist and World’s Tallest Water Sphere fan. This appears to be water color, perhaps water color pens, and ink markers. It is a wonderful collage of beautiful colors and penmanship. If you know the exact artist or time frame, let us know, and we will update the article.
(From January 2023-01-28), On this day someone left the gate open to the World’s Tallest Water Sphere. What a great looking sky, flora, and geese overhead.
Following are some images of what sort or artistic painting may be made to water spheres. This water sphere is from the company Moog, Inc. headquartered in Elma, New York. The photos are provided by WTWS content reporter Mark Fleetwood.
As you can see it is a very creative paint job with the pillar painted as a rocket motor and the sphere atop painted as the planet earth. The scheme has so many interpretations. So well done.
The new painting was revealed in October of 2022. The paint artist is muralist Tim Martin who spent months on the mural. More details on the construction are provided in this Moog video link https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1234917900622607 provided by WTWS content reporter Scott Shafer.
Thanks all for the news, and enjoy this artistic water sphere!
Some time ago in the 1990s, mobile phone antennas were added to the World’s Tallest Water Sphere. This site does not know the exact date (readers, please let us know), but this Star Ledger article from that time gives more details on the update.
This week was a significant time for flight simulator enthusiasts. On August 18th, 2020, Microsoft released its first new edition of Flight Simulator since 2006.
What is significant about this release is that this version of Flight Simulator has the entire world simulated in nice detail without buying significant scenery packages or add-ons. What once was a dreary world is now populated with trees, rivers, highways and lots of glorious buildings. Yes you can fly over and spot your house.
Now there are scenery issues. Sometimes the computer generated buildings are the wrong color or architecture. And there are bugs and glitches in the scenery which are fun to spot. However in general, this is the most extensive and detailed scenery over a broad area in any flight simulator.
Of course, I had to fly my simulated plane over the simulated World’s Tallest Water Sphere. Check out these screen captures. See if you can spot well known streets in Union. See if you can see the Kawameeh Swamp, the ball fields, and Kawameeh Junior High.
Of course, check out the computer model of the WTWS. Yes it is a slightly blocky, funky shape. But it is in the right spot. The nearby water storage tank looks good. All in all, a great simulated rendering of the World’s Tallest Water Sphere.
As part of a nationwide flyover program, part of “Operation America Strong”, the Navy Blue Angels and the Air Force Thunderbirds flew over the World’s Tallest Water Sphere.
This southbound leg of flyover route on April 28th, 2020, was a bit east of Union, New Jersey, but either over Newark Bay or Newark Airport. Later on the jets flew northeast towards Long Island, but rounded back south towards the Verrazanno Narrows Bridge, Staten Island, and then back north over New Jersey. This was a spectacular moment to see these planes from New Jersey, New York City, and western Long Island.
This photo was taken from a video from WABC7 TV New York. The vantage point is a tall building on the Hudson River, either on the New York west side or Bayonne east side.
It shows the six Blue Angel jets trailing smoke in the upper center. Six whiter Air Force Thunderbird jets follow lower and to the right. Bayonne and Newark Bay are shown in the lower foreground. The center of Newark is marked by the Eleven 80 building in downtown Newark, NJ at the extreme right center. Newark Airport is slightly right of this photo from this angle.
In the background, the New Jersey Watchung Mountains from Washington Valley on the left to the Hobart Gap on the right stretch across the middle of the photo.
The World’s Tallest Water Sphere is visible as a white sphere in the center of the photo, midway between Newark and the Watchungs.
Sorry for the screen capture picture quality. It shows up more clearly in higher resolution video from the original source.
Perhaps it is a normal occurrence in the life of a water tower. We take it for granted that water towers function and are useful to their owners and the community. Have you noticed that Union’s World’s Tallest Water Sphere (WTWS) has lost a few mobile phone antennas over the years?
The photo above clearly shows this loss. The photo on the left from 2013-12-25 (Dan Becker) shows the WTWS with five rows of mobile phone antennas. The photo on the right from 2018-06-12 (Chad Aaronson) shows the WTWS with four rows. Clearly the middle row is now missing. There are also repainted areas where the antenna mounts were removed.
Did any folks see this maintenance on the World’s Tallest Water Sphere? Can we more precisely figure the date of the maintenance rather than just the 2013 to 2018 end points of these photos? Perhaps you saw some cranes and some scaffolding in this time period. WTWS want to know!
With a flattering title of “Meet the Texas man who loves this N.J. water tower so much, he built a virtual museum in its honor“, Star Ledger reporter Amy Kuperinsky writes a nice article about Union’s World’s Tallest Water Sphere and various people associated with it.
You get to hear about other towers, water tower artists such as Peter Freudenberg , WTWS builder Armand Fiorletti, American Water project manager ” Christopher DePaola”, and WTWS Museum Curator Dan Becker.
The entire article is positive and supportive of everone’s love of Union’s water tower.
The World’s Tallest Water Sphere Museum is now open. I’ve added a section to the WTWS site that has a virtual museum with lots of artwork, photos, and fun stuff.
http://www.worldstallestwatersphere.com/museum/
The WTWS Museum has been operating as a physical museum in Austin, Texas since 2003. This virtual version of the WTWS Museum was created in 2020. The virtual museum has the advantage of 24 hour a day access and higher crowd volumes.
Please let me know of any navigation, image problems, misspellings with your mobile or browser.
Since Route 22 is the closest highway to the World’s Tallest Water Sphere, and since it is notoriously crowded and difficult to drive, I thought a T-shirt honoring those Route 22 drivers would be in order
Here is a rendering of a possible Route 22 driver T-shirt. Let me know what you think. Feel free to use the graphics that I stole from a T-shirt making site.
As we have mentioned and admired in previous posts, NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia has a beautiful water tower.
We wish them luck in tonight’s launch of Northrop Grumman’s 13th contracted cargo resupply mission with NASA to the International Space Station which will deliver more than 7,500 pounds of science and research, crew supplies, and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2020/02/09/nasa-tv-broadcasts-launch-of-u-s-cygnus-cargo-craft/
In previous WTWS articles we have reported damage to the water tower because of launch failures. We are glad to see the tower looking good and ready to go.
Here is a beautiful photo of the pre-launch with a late day full moon via the NASA website:
Southeast of Austin, Texas, along State Route 71, lies the small town of Garfield. Like many Texas towns, they have their own water tower.
Proudly, emblazoned with the text “Garfield WSC” (water supply company), this water tower is amazing and strange. The actual water container is a steel sphere. There is a pipe at the bottom, which supplies the pressurized contents of the water sphere above. There are three steel pipe legs, with rigid and cable bracing. One of the legs has interesting features: a pipe to supply water to the container and a ladder to provide maintenance access. Girdling the lower part of the water sphere is a walkway with railing.
Garfield residents should be proud of their water tower. It is a true sphere set upon a tripod stand. With no hidden access, no lights or antennas, one can see the naked, utilitarian, functional beauty of this water sphere.
One week ’til Christmas!
Reader Alexandra Morrison Winkler (a.k.a. Alex W) submits this photo of the World’s Tallest Water Sphere taken on 2019-08-22. It has been called “the most New Jersey photo ever!”
Let’s tally up the wonderful New Jersey things in this photo:
Thanks for our reader submission of the day Alex.
Recently the “World’s Tallest Water Sphere” site had a chance to interview the band Splooge and director Peter Ventrella about the movie “One Step Back”, Splooge’s past albums, and new music. We also got the chance to hear their impressions about Union’s wonder of the world, the World’s Tallest Water Sphere.
WTWS: Why did you name your first album “World’s Tallest Watersphere”? What is your affinity to the water tower? Do you have any personal stories?
Lead Singer Tommy Diaz: I thought it was funny that it was called “the worlds tallest” when it wasn’t really that tall.
Guitarist Mike Novy: The largest one is in Saudi Arabia.
Bassist Jeff Phillips: We were being ironic because we questioned the validity of the sign. It seemed like some local propaganda.
Director Peter Ventrella: That was the album that convinced me to do the documentary, not only because the songs are great but because it captures the heart of New Jersey. The dive bars, working Joes, highways and, of course, the water sphere rising above it all.
WTWS: (Note that the “One Step Back” movie poster shown here has a fanciful position for the WTWS and its billboard, somewhere near Newark airport. Recreating the “Abbey Road” album cover on Interstate 78 is not recommended.)
WTWS: I listened to your “World’s Tallest Watersphere” and “Chunky Pop with a Fizz” albums. Can you straighten us out on when the albums and the songs first came out? Also can you clue us in to when the latest “From the Shed” album will be available?
Tommy: “Watersphere” came out in 2000 and “Chunky Pop with a Fizz” was released in 2003 during the filming of the documentary. “From the Shed Part 1” will be on iTunes August 1, 2019. “From the Shed Part 2” has already been recorded but we haven’t figured out when to drop it on the world yet!
Mike: Dan Jeram mixed and recorded both albums. Billy Siegel is mixing the new album. He plays with Dramarama as a keyboardist and also plays the keyboards on “From the Shed” and “The Irish Folk Song”.
Pete: Billy can be seen in the opening and closing chapters of the movie.
WTWS: Who writes the songs for Splooge? How much of the songs are done before playing them in the band setting? How much (such as the lyrics and the bass, guitar, and drum lines) are made in a band collaboration?
Mike: It’s a fluid situation.
Tommy: Every song is a collaboration. I write the lyrics after the rest of the band comes up with a riff or the music.
Jeff: We work on it as a band.
Drummer Drew Koski: Every time we play live we refine the songs. They are ever evolving. That’s what keeps it fun.
Tommy: That’s our cover story. Drew really writes all the lyrics and music himself. (Entire band except Drew laughs)
Pete: One of the things I liked about their music especially were Tommy’s lyrics. They are cryptic yet evocative. At one point during the filming, I thought I had deciphered the meaning to the lyrics on the song ‘Wildebeest’. And when I told Tommy, he said I was completely wrong.
Tommy: The great thing about lyrics is they mean something personal to each individual. So, I never talk about what they mean.
WTWS: You have a beautiful song “Water”. Was the song the inspiration for the album title or was the water tower an inspiration for the song?
Mike: The tower was not the inspiration for the song.
Jeff: We wrote the music first.
Tommy: I was in the studio listening to the music and saw a bottle of water and used the nonsense lyrics “water, water, water” as a place holder. I ended up liking this. The song took on more meaning as we developed it, but I don’t like talking about what it means to me. It’s more important how people interpret it.
WTWS: Have you visited the World’s Tallest Water Sphere site (http://www.worldstallestwatersphere.com)? If so what was your favorite article or aspect about the site?
Jeff: I thought it was amazing that there was a site devoted to this.
Tommy: Your site inspired us to want to play the album “World’s Tallest Watersphere” at the actual water sphere. Maybe we’ll do that one day when we’re 70 and finally hang it up. Like Splooge’s “Let It Be”. I can see it, people stopping their cars along the highway and crowding under the water sphere.
Mike: We’re not hanging it up until at least 85.
Jeff: Well, maybe 80.
Drew: But if we’re 80, we might not be able to get all our gear up to the top of the water sphere to play there.
Tommy: But seriously, we’re psyched someone else noticed this landmark like we did.
WTWS: From the movie, I see you have played many venues in New Jersey while holding down full time jobs. Did New Jersey music scene give you all the gigs could handle while juggling jobs and family? Did you have the desire to visit other US music hot spots like Boston, Nashville, Austin, or Los Angeles?
Tommy: I always had a desire to play Austin and Nashville.
Jeff: I’ve been watching Austin City Limits and have always wanted to play on that. Also, I’ve wanted to play Forty Watt club in Athens, Georgia where REM started.
Mike: Besides Madison Square Garden, I’d like to play a more intimate place like Irving Plaza.
Tommy: I’ve been to Austin and would love to play the Scratch House on 3rd Street.
Pete: Can you see a theme here? What venue do you think would be receptive to Splooge in Austin?
WTWS: Austin would love to see Splooge live! Venues like “the Mohawk”, “Stubbs”, or “Cedar Street” would be perfect. If Splooge played any bar during Austin City Limits festival or South By Southwest, the place would be packed.
WTWS: There are many poignant scenes in the “One Step Back” movie:
the personal struggles and tragedies, loss of family, and tension between making a living at good paying jobs and breaking it in music are engaging. Do the band members feel the last ten years have been more oriented towards work/family or towards music/band? Will “From the Shed” answer these questions?
Pete: I think the Splooge story is ever unfolding. The documentary is just a look at these two points in their lives. Whenever we get together now, I’m tempted to grab my camera and start filming again. But then I realize the first time took 14 years, and I put my camera away.
Tommy: In the last ten years the band has taken on a new importance for me. Now we’re focused on getting our music out to an audience, especially since the movie is out.
Mike: More questions will be raised than answered in “From the Shed”.
Jeff: “From the Shed” shows we’re still evolving as a band.
WTWS: For me the highlight of the movie is the gig in Lahinch, Ireland. The audience starts off extremely hostile. By the end of the night the crowd, the owner, and the band all appear happy. Have you had other shows where you felt it started poorly and then got back on track?
Tommy: There was the one time at a famous southern Jersey music venue where our original bassist got into a brawl with the sound guy and it erupted into a bar fight. We didn’t get back on track that night.
Pete: I think what was significant about the Lahinch gig in the movie was that Splooge were playing in front of a completely foreign crowd who were already antagonistic toward them because they didn’t show up for the Saturday night gig. To get an audience from what I thought was the point of no return to a room full of ardent fans was something you usually only see in Hollywood movies.
Mike: But we all lived it and so we know it really happened.
WTWS: Peter Ventrella, it seems you had all this Splooge footage, and then you did other work, so the Splooge documentary was put on hold. What effect did the 15 year gap have on the movie?
Pete: The film occupied much of my think time outside of work. I kept strategizing how I was going to cut it if I ever got the time to devote to the edit. Certain scenes like the Lahinch bar scene I would watch over and over late at night thinking, “I’ve got to get this out there somehow”. And finally, I found two great editors: Pam Raymer-Lea and Lauren Saffa who, through their deep understanding of what I was going for in the movie, made it a reality.
My personal take is that the gap between the first phase of filming and the last brought to the movie that sense of gravitas and simultaneous emotion of hope and wistfulness that I feel when the movie is over. So, I guess I can’t imagine what the movie would feel like any other way than with those two sections. You see the arc of several lives over a long period of time and it can’t help but make you think about the choices each of them have made. We wouldn’t have had this if we had stopped filming in 2004
WTWS: Thanks for answering our questions. What’s the best way to find out about upcoming Splooge music and shows?
Splooge: The best way to get the latest info on Splooge concerts and events would be to like their Facebook page @theRealSplooge. You can read about and stream the movie at the site “One Step Back Movie” . The new Splooge album “From the Shed” will be available on iTunes on August 1st, 2019.
Our most recent photos of the World’s Tallest Water Sphere come from intrepid photographer Adrienne Browne Dempsey. There are two wonderful photos from her Union tour today (2019-05-15):
This photo is from the west of the World’s Tallest Water Sphere on Burke Parkway. This is a small tributary of the Elizabeth River that flows into the Kawameeh Swamp, then exits the swamp and flows into the Arthur Kill between New jersey and Staten Island.
This photo is from Kawameeh Park, near Kawameeh Middle School. I love how the photo shows nothing but water sphere, trees, and kids playing in the park.