The region's low point may have come in June 1976, when an oil barge crashed and spilled 300,000 gallons of oil into the river.

A short time later, the bridge tender tried to turn the span to make way for the oil barge, but it would not open.

He was pushing all empty oil barges.

For oil barges, the Sound is a highway of commerce.

Nearby, a tenacious tugboat angled its way around an oil barge stuck in a narrow passage.

She was being pulled behind a big oil barge, itself pulled by a powerful civilian tugboat.

Three years later, a tug maneuvering an oil barge hit the bridge, jamming it in the open position.

Radio to Hong Lung, we are under fire from the oil barges.

Twenty years ago, an average oil barge carried 20,000 barrels.

Later in its career, the lightship moved back to Old Saybrook where it was struck by an oil barge.