The prototype space shuttle that arrived in New York City by air earlier this spring was on the move again, this time by sea.

“It brings a tear to your eye,” said Richard Kaplan of Massapequa Park, one of the many spectators gathered near Queens’ Cross Bay Bridge Sunday afternoon.

The Enterprise gave New Yorkers much to admire in late April when it flew around New York City’s most famous sites atop a 747 jet before landing at Kennedy. Its boat ride to the Intrepid Sunday also involved notable sites: cruising across New York Harbor, it passed the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, Coney Island, and went under the Verrazano Bridge before it docked at Port Elizabeth, N.J.

“I would have been here at 2 in the morning if I knew the thing was going to be here,” said Kaplan. “It’s that important.”
The shuttle was placed on a barge Saturday and readied for a slow journey through the harbor to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on Manhattan’s West Side. Sunday, when the tide was just right, it began the water-bound journey.

The Enterprise will stay at Port Elizabeth until Tuesday at 9 a.m., when it will begin the last leg of its journey to the museum. It is expected to pass the Statue of Liberty at 9:50 a.m., the World Trade Center at 10:40 a.m. and then it will travel up the Hudson River to the Intrepid Museum at 11:30 a.m., where it will be lifted by crane onto the flight deck and put into position facing the Hudson River.

The spacecraft exhibit is expected to open to the public in mid-July.

(Source: NBC New York)