Old New York

Williamsburg Bridge

Fulton El with a Forney

The Bluebirds

Sands Street

Well Ben you have done it again. Just great photos from a time many years before. On the Williamsburg Bridge we are over the East river, not quite midspan . Weare looking toward Manhattan and it looks like its a weekday morning with lots of Rush hour traffic stopped on the bridge. Lot of pre-1950 cars there including a Desoto limo style taxi. The truck in the right lane is loaded to the hilt with packages on the tailgate outside the truck box area.(Try and do that today).

The BMT train could be a Broadway local or a Myrtle ave train on the way to Marcy Avenue. The street car is an 8000 series B&QT Peter Witt heading for Essex/Delancy street terminal having stopped at Bedford ave station on the bridge. It might be a Raplh Ave car and it is still in the B&QT colors not the Board of Transportation green and silver.

On the Fulton street El, This is turn of the century stuff. That train is near Franklin Ave and Bedford Ave at the start of Bedford Stuyvesant Neighborhood. This looks to be a real fashionable place to live judging by the business on Fulton street in hhe phoro.

The Bluebirds are on a Fulton Street train heading into Sands street and then on to Park Row in Manhattan after having crossed the Brooklyn Bridge.The catenary structure next to the train is for the trolley power wire for cars that went through Sand Street and over the Brooklyn Bridge to Park Row. This photo is about the same location as the next photo but at later point in time. The track plan has been simplified some what.

In the Last Photo, I believe that is a train that has come from the fifth ave el. It might be a Culver or possibly a West End train operating to /From Park Row. There is a Fulton st train following . Looks like C Types in that train.I think this one might be from the1920's or so. The C Types would have been rather recent at this point.

Ok Crossing the river. The Erie railroad was one of the many lines having a New York Terminal on the New Jersey side of the Hudson. Here we have a shot of a pair of Erie commuter trains arriving at the old Pavonia ave terminal. The PA's are new but the Stillwells have been around for a while.

Folks going to New York City or Downtown Manhattan took the Erie Ferry from Pavonia Avenue to DeBrosses street. Here we see the Erie's Youngstown making the crossing.

The Central of New Jersey had a Ferry at Liberty Street which went accross the Hudson to their terminal in Jersey City. This is the CNJ's Elizabeth 1 over on the Jersey side. It is an older steam powered ferry. The CNJ replaced this boat later on with the Elizabeth II. They were like Cunard Line in this respect with two Elizabeths.

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When traveling across the Hudson, it would be a common site to see RR carfloats crossing the river on the way to/from a freight terminal . Here we have a pair of PRR tugs and  a pair of floats .

It's amusing to look at these old pictures and see all the people in "formal" wear.  Virtually every guy has a business suit, contrast that with what you see nowadays on a train platform.

John...and the ladies have hats and white gloves!

And high heels!  Think about seeing that on the platform nowadays.

LOL  Look at these people getting off the Staten Island Ferry in 1901  Have to get my tophat

Here are a couple more from Staten Island 

This is the Staten Island ferry in the background with the SIRT/B&O yard beneath

This is a track cleaning car that derailed in a snowstorm 1960

Ben Great Photo.

It tells a lot about the times. There are few women in the photo and they seem to be mostly unaccompanied . It must be late spring near summer as there are some straw hats among the derby's and top hats. Check out the policeman in front of the B&O office on the right.

Notice from the signage that you could send a telegram from this location. I think there may have been a post office here as well judging by what looks like a US Mail signage with the Baltimore and Ohio. Did the B&O ever operate passenger  trains to St George from New Jersey? Also on the left there seems to be a waiting room and ticketing for the Royal Blue line which probably was a coastal steamer line. I wonder where it went.

The ferry looks interesting. It seems to have an upper deck although the slip here does not have a movable bridge to allow passenger access . I am wondering if this was the ferry slips immediately west of the ferry terminal which was adjacent to the Elevated transit station for the 2nd ,3rd, 6th and 9th ave els.?

It seem the Royal Blue Line was the early B&O passenger service between NY & Washington.  An interesting read below.  According to this article a few east coast firsts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Blue_(train)

Thanks Chris

Interesting about the Royal Blue Line being in fact the Baltimore and Ohio. So perhaps there was a ferry going over to the CNJ terminal from South Ferry around the turn of the century. I dont recall anything about B&O Passenger trains leaving from St George for the service to Washington, yet the company was selling tickets from this location in the photo.

I'm not sure that the picture is of St. George.  This link from Museum of the City of New York has this and 2 other pictures identified as being Whitehall Street.

http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UP1GGX0672

Also, in looking around I found an NY Times article about a 1903 Royal Blue Lines crash.

Chris

I think we agree. I was thinking the photo was Whitehall street but with the B&O ticket office there , I was surmising that there was a ferry from this point at Whitehall to Jersey City where the trains arrived and departed. The SIRT in Staten Island was a B&O line but I don't think they ever had any long distance passenger trains from there.

I believe that just east of this slip were additional slips and these were in front of the Elevated station.

Gents... What a great way to start my Sunday.... Better the the Sunday paper.

thanks!

This thread is the OGR Forum at its best!

Great Pictures. Thanks for sharing. Its neat to look back at old pictures and see how things used to be..