The Yards
The Yards is a 2000 American crime film directed by James Gray. It was written by Gray and Matt Reeves, and stars Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron and James Caan.
The setting is the commuter rail yards in New York City, in the boroughs of the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. In the film's plot, bribery, corporate crime and political corruption are commonplace in "the yards," where contractors repair railway cars for the city Transit Authority (TA). Rival companies sabotage each other's work to win bids. The undercutting leads to murder.
Plot
Leo Handler (Mark Wahlberg) rides the subway to his mother's house in Queens, New York, where she throws a surprise party in honor of his parole. His cousin Erica (Charlize Theron) is at the party with her boyfriend Willie Gutierrez (Joaquin Phoenix). Willie takes Leo aside and thanks him for serving time in prison, implying that Leo had taken a fall for their gang of friends.
Leo is eager to find a job to support his mother (Ellen Burstyn), who has a heart condition. Willie suggests working for Erica's stepfather Frank Olchin (James Caan).
The Yards (Washington, D.C.)
The Yards is a 42-acre (17 ha) development on the Anacostia River waterfront in Washington, D.C. The area is at the center of the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District and was originally an annex of the Washington Navy Yard. In 2004, the U.S. General Services Administration awarded the property to Forest City Washington, Inc. for redevelopment into an area with 2,800 new residential units and 2,200,000 sq ft (200,000 m2) of office and retail space. . The development is just west of the Washington Navy Yard and east of Nationals Park. It is served by the Navy Yard – Ballpark station on the Green Line of the Washington Metro.
The Navy Yard neighborhood was Washington's earliest industrial neighborhood, situated at the natural deepwater port along the Anacostia River. One of the earliest buildings was the Sugar House, built in Square 744 at the foot of New Jersey Avenue, SE as a sugar refinery in 1797-98. In 1805, it became the Washington Brewery, which produced beer until it closed in 1836. The brewery site was just west of the Washington City Canal in what is now Parking Lot H/I in the block between Nationals Park and the historic DC Water pumping station.
Yard (sailing)
A yard is a spar on a mast from which sails are set. It may be constructed of timber or steel or from more modern materials like aluminium or carbon fibre. Although some types of fore and aft rigs have yards, the term is usually used to describe the horizontal spars used on square rigged sails. In addition, for some decades after square sails were generally dispensed with, some yards were retained for deploying wireless (radio) aerials and signal flags.
Parts of the yard
Note that these terms refer to stretches of the same spar, not to separate component parts.
Controlling the yard
The yard can rotate around the mast to allow the direction of the vessel to be changed relative to the wind. When running directly downwind the yards are 'squared', pointing perpendicular to the ship's centre line. As the ship is steered closer to the wind the yards are braced round using the braces. When further rotation is obstructed by other bits of rigging (typically the shrouds), the yard is said to be braced "hard round" or "sharp up", as in "sharp up to port". This angle (normally about 60 degrees) limits how close to the wind a square rigged ship can sail.
