Google Barge In Portland Heads To The Scrap Yard

It seems that one of Google's mystery barges will forever remain that. A mystery. According to the Portland Press Herald, one of two Google-owned barges, the one moored on the coast of Maine has been towed to Turner's Island Cargo Terminal where, according to the owner of the terminal, it will be dismantled, scrapped, and sold off to an unknown international barging company.

Perhaps you may have already forgotten about these mystery barges. That's OK. After the initial flurry of interest around it, the media flood eventually died down to a trickle. After all, Google somewhat acknowledged the purpose of the barges, calling them interactive learning spaces for new technology. All that was left, then, was to wait for the actual design of barges, which were rumored to take on a more ichthyic form.

Unfortunately, only one will emerge in the end, at least for now. The Portland barge has been sold off to an unnamed company and is set to depart at an unknown date for an undisclosed location. But before that can happen, they have to remove the 63 shipping containers that make up a four-story building on top of the vessel. No easy task and could take some time, maybe enough time to hear more details from this now mysterious barging entity.

No one is perhaps more disappointed at this development than the city of Portland itself. Spokesperson Jessica Grondin revealed how the barge was indirectly beneficial to the city since it made a rather superficial connection between the city and San Francisco and "high-tech innovation". They are definitely not sad about the $400,000 that it managed to collect in property tax for the barge.

The other barge is still sitting, or rather floating, happily where it is after it was towed to Stockton, California, but that one has enough problems of its own.

SOURCE: Portland Press Herald

VIA: Gizmodo