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After failing the first time around, a small fleet of tugboats successfully freed the historic USS Intrepid from its long time home along the West Side Highway, and dragged the giant vessel to its temporary home in Bayonne, New Jersey Tuesday.
When the ship passed the World Trade Center site, crew members unfurled a huge American flag as firefighters watched from the shore. Onlookers said it was a sight to behold.
"It's just amazing. Coming from Ireland we've never seen something so big. It's amazing," said onlooker Audrey Rogers.
"You kind of get lost for words. You don't always know what to think when you see something like that. It's definitely special," said Jonathan Papadimitrios of the FDNY.
"It brings up a lot of pride and it brings up a lot of nationalism," said Steven Olsen of the FDNY. "You think about all the men who served on that and served our country and protected us."
The president of the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space museum described what it was like when the 36,000-ton carrier started moving in an interview by phone from the ship.
"She didn't move as fast certainly as I would have liked her to go, but she eventually got out into the midstream of the federal channel, and that was all we needed because the mighty Hudson River took her right out into the center channel," said Bill White.
Last month's attempt was cut short after the ship got stuck in the muck and mud that has built up over the past few decades. Since then the Navy has been dredging near the bottom of the ship to free it, with the help of the Army Corps of Engineers.
After a few hours on the water Tuesday, the Intrepid pulled into Bayonne, its home for the next two years. There, the Intrepid will undergo a $60 million overhaul while crews rebuild pier 86.
The vessel should return home by fall of 2008.
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