A rusted 990-foot cruise ship docked for almost three decades on the Delaware River was towed away last Wednesday leaving a huge gap on the waterfront skyline. The SS United States was such a part of the South Philadelphia landscape the IKEA store across the street had a sign explaining its history on their restaurant’s window.
I first photographed the ship in 1996 when it moved to Pier 82, after spending a few weeks moored farther south at Packer Avenue Marine Terminal. I was back many times over the years, including once in 1999 when got up above the ship’s two funnels.
For a story, I climbed the ladders inside the mast, up to the crow’s nest with Robert Hudson Westover, the founding chairman of the SS United States Foundation in Washington, D.C. one of the first groups to try to save the ship. The crow’s nest was enclosed and even heated back when the ship was in service. But we were climbing still higher, to the very top where the ship’s radar - a relatively new technology in 1952 - was once mounted.
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Westover was going up to place an American flag there, at the highest point on the ship. I wanted to make a photo of him doing that, so I had to go ahead, out the hatch first, then scrunch over as far as I could - without falling off (and down six stories!) - to get him, the flag, and the hatch in the picture. And one of the ship’s funnels behind him. It was an amazing view and experience. You can see the mast, still there in a photo I made twenty years later.
You can also see the mast in photos I made last November when the SS United States Conservancy hosted a chartered cruise luncheon to give supporters a closeup look at the ocean liner once known as the “Queen of the Seas.”
Three artist friends who have been sketching and painting the ship from the South Philly IKEA parking lot get their first glimpse of the ship’s smoke stacks - from a new vantage point. From left, Kelly Micca (wearing a hand-crafted version of the ship on her head), Louis Lafferty, and Jesse Arbor first met when each were independently creating images of the ship over the past few years.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Passengers on the chartered Spirit of Philadelphia cruise photograph the SS United States at Pier 82 on the Delaware River.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
The stern of the SS United States - the view opposite the one from IKEA.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Kelly Micca, with her headdress version of the ship, takes a selfie as the charter pulled up alongside the once luxurious ocean liner.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Conservancy charter passengers view the starboard side of the SS United States. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
The SS United States in South Philadelphia Thursday, Nov. 14, 2014 as the ship's conservancy hosts an excursion cruise on the day the ocean liner was first scheduled to begin its move to Alabama.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Passengers inside the charter as they pass the SS United States docked on Pier 82.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Susan Gibbs, granddaughter of the ship's designer, William Francis Gibbs, and the SS United States Conservancy's executive director. displays a crayon drawing of the ship’s stacks sent to her by a child, as she speaks during a shipboard presentation.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Harold Goldfarb, who served as the ship's surgeon in 1964, shares his memories along with other former passengers and crew members.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Nicholas Nasibyan (left) and Kennady Johnson of Erie, PA listen to the presentation. Nasibyan is the “big ship lover” of the couple. Though they both watched the movie as kids, he says he “really fell in love with the Titanic and that era. It just inspired me.” Later he learned the United States was comparable in size to the Titanic, so he started following the conservancy, “hoping they could restore it.” He never had the opportunity to come to Philadelphia - until he learned it was moving, and then decided he had to come see it in person. Johnson wasn’t as enamored of the ship, but said “Anything he’s into, I’m into as well. I like to learn.” They left at 4 a.m. and made it just in time. “We changed clothes in the car,” she said.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
The SS United States at Pier 82 is seen across Delaware Avenue from the dining room of the South Philadelphia IKEA store last summer, where it has been since 1996. It is the largest ocean liner constructed entirely in the United States and the fastest to cross the Atlantic, a record it still holds. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Finally, photos by my colleague Tyger Woods of the ship as it left Philadelphia, along with some of mine as spectators watched it pass the Navy Yard headed to the Atlantic Ocean. (And the mast is still there!)
Workers on the Walt Whitman Bridge watch from above as the SS United States passes under in the Delaware River.Read moreTyger Williams / Staff Photographer
A photographer lines up his camera as the SS United States passes by the Navy Yard in South Philadelphia.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Passenger ship aficionados watch at the Navy Yard in South Philadelphia.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
The SS United States is pulled out into the Delaware River and ready to bid its farewell to Philadelphia as people gather to watch it leave.Read moreTyger Williams / Staff Photographer
The SS United States is under tow on the Delaware River.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Many gather as they take photos and watch the SS United States passes under the Walt Whitman Bridge.Read moreTyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Workers on the Walt Whitman Bridge watch from above as the SS United States passes under in the Delaware River.Read moreTyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Workers watch from above as the SS United States passes under the Walt Whitman Bridge.Read moreTyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Many gather at the Freedom Pier as the SS United States passes under the Walt Whitman Bridge.Read moreTyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Passenger ship aficionados take a last look at the SS United States docked at Pier 80 in South Philadelphia before it is towed away to Alabama.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Passenger ship aficionados take a last look at the SS United States docked at Pier 80 in South Philadelphia before it is towed away to Alabama.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Passenger ship aficionados take a last look at the SS United States docked at Pier 80Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Tugs prepare the SS United States at Pier 80 for departure.Read moreAlejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
Tugs prepare the SS United States for departure.Read moreAlejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
The SS United States, now at Pier 80, is seen from Ikea through a rain-covered window on Saturday, February 15, 2025.Read moreElizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The sun returns over the SS United States after a storm passed through South Philadelphia headed to New Jersey June 19, 2019. The retired ocean liner has been docked at Pier 82 on the Delaware River, across from the Ikea store, since 1996.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer
Since 1998 a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in the print editions of The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:
