Ok over to Queens now. This is a photo of the then new Elevated Line along Queens Boulevard at about Rawson or 33rd street probably about 1920. . Today we now it as the IRT Number 7 route. In 1916, the Dual contracts provide for new expansion of the city's transit facilities by the BMT and the IRT, then private companies. The El connected Queensboro Plaza with Flushing running along Queens Boulevard and and then onto Roosevelt Avenue. Note the long platforms and if you look carefully you can see a barrier about mid platform seperating the IRT from the BMT. The train in the station is probably a second Avenue El Train on its way to Manhattan via the Queensborough Bridge. On the right in the photo there appears to be a trolley service area probably for the cars that ran from Manhattan over the bridge and along Queens Boulevard out to Jamaica. In the distance we can make out Woodside on the hill which was more of a rural community at that time, "out in the sticks: if you will. Real estate expansion is getting uderway which is usually what happenned when the city built new transit facilities like this El. Look, there appears to be a lot of equipment stored on the express track so perhaps the line has not yet reached Willeys Point and Corona Yard is still abuilding,
My, look at how barren and undeveloped the area was back then. I can't imagine Queens like that.
Stuart
