Above the Hook

The camera

Stream

A camera on a roof above Sandy Hook Bay, running around the clock.

  • Running24 hours a day
  • SeesVerrazzano to Long Beach, Long Island, and everything in between
  • WatchesEvery vessel into New York Harbor
Highlands Harbor Cam — Sandy Hook Bay and the New York skyline, running continuously.

What it is

Everything into New York Harbor comes past this window.

Container ships, tankers, cruise liners, Navy vessels, the ferry, and the party boats going out at four in the morning. The camera sees from the Verrazzano to Long Beach, Long Island, and everything in between, and it does not stop.

What it catches

The Manhattan towers catching first light above a dark bay.
The towers catching the first light, everything else still dark.
An MSC container ship inbound at sunrise, trailing smoke.
Every box on that ship passes this window on its way in.
Midtown windows lit gold at sunrise, a ship crossing beneath.
Lower Manhattan on a clear cold morning, ice moving on the bay.
A clear cold morning, and ice moving on the bay.
A flock of birds crossing in front of the New York skyline.
The sand spit with birds sitting on the water behind it.
The cruise ship Odyssey of the Seas outbound past a snowed-in shore.
Odyssey of the Seas, going out past a shore under snow.
Sandy Hook under snow with Brooklyn on the far side of the bay.
A catamaran anchored off the hook at dusk.
Dusk, and one boat still out.
Lower Manhattan at blue hour, the city still lit.
Blue hour. Sixteen hours after the first frame in this row.

Uptime

24/7

It has been running since the first vessel it logged. When something notable comes past, it moves, captures, and writes it up on its own.

Watch

It is live right now.

The feed, the vessel log, and everything the camera has caught.

Open the stream

The camera is also a production tool. It has supplied establishing shots, weather plates and timelapse to our own films, and it can do the same for yours.

Ask about footage