Its the period 1953-55 and New Yorks last elevated, the 3rd Avenue El , is on the way out. Service to South Ferry had been eliminated in 1950 and the spur to City Hall closed in 1953. For these years the 3rd Ave E terminated at the Upper level of the Chatham square station. It was pretty high up being at the second level of the El Complex at this location. Look at the bumper at the end of the track. Do you think it could have stopped a train?
At Canal street, the tracks to the upper level merged with the tracks leading down to the City Hall spur. The inbound track to City Hall spur looks unused for a time.
So Here is an aerial of Manhattan from two decades earlier, about 1931 or so. In the foreground you can see the PRR emerging from the Hudson River tunnels to enter Pennsylvania station. Just to the right, we see the New York Centrals yard at 31st street. This was the uptown station of the original Hudson River railroad chartered in 1850. The Empire State building is new and you can see it near center. The focal piece of the photo is the dirigible " Los Angeles" , a vessel in the United States Navy fleet. The Los Angeles was built by the Zeppelin Company as a war reparation payment to the US. She was the only US Navy Dirigible to survive the two decade period of US Navy rigid air ship operations. Three other vessels were built for the US Navy but were lost in flight. She is about 10 years old here.
Heading East, we are in Brooklyn, East New York to be precise . This is looking west into the Eastern Parkway station. Time is in the 1920s. The train is likely a Broadway Brooklyn Local coming from Atlantic ave and heading down to Canal Street in Manhattan. Further into the distance you can see the Canarsie track ways crossing over the Broadway El. In the foreground we have the leads to the East New York Yard , on the left, from the Fukton Street El and on the right from the Broadway line. Through Broadway trains used the ramps to avoid the crossing with the yard leads.
So now to Queens. Its still before 1950 and we are at Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing Queens. You can see the subway entrance and note the signage and lamps for both the BMT and IRT. This photo was made when the Joint BMT-IRT operations were still in place on the Flushing and Astoria lines.
Heading back west and advancing in time to about where we started, its 1955 and we are at Queensboro Plaza at street level. We have a car of the Queensboro Bridge Railway, turning on the tail track for its trip back to Manhattan over the Bridge. Above is a great view of the complex trackways that once served the trains of the BMT and IRT in providing the joint El service in Queens. This street car line was the last to operate within New York City limits , its last run in 1957. One of the interesting aspects of the route was near the end of the bridge in Manhattan where the cars entered the Underground terminal. There was a grade crossing with two lanes of automobile traffic at a 30 degree angle. Had to be pretty exciting at times.
