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NYC URBANISM
Photography Williamsburg Bridge Construction
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Williamsburg Bridge Construction

1900 WB.jpg

Williamsburg Bridge Construction

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Construction of the Williamsburg Bridge towers and approach, circa 1900. Photo taken from the Brooklyn side of the Bridge.

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#MapMondays - TRIBORO RX SUBWAY LINE A bill has been introduced in the state Assembly to study the feasibility of the proposed Triboro RX #subway line, first proposed by the Regional Plan Association @regionalplan in the 90s. The line uses existing abandoned or underutilized rail lines to develop a 24-mile subway line from Co-op City in the Bronx to Bay Ridge #Brooklyn with the possibility of extending to #StatenIsland. The line would have 17 subway connections and 4 commuter lines, drastically improve transportation for the millions of New Yorkers living in transit deserts in the outer boroughs. The RPA's findings further emphasize the need for the #Triboro: -More New Yorkers commute within the outer boroughs than into #Manhattan and the city is gaining more jobs in the outer boroughs. -New York City’s subways were designed to bring people into Manhattan, not to move them between other boroughs, and the buses that serve the boroughs are slow and unreliable. Residents often travel through Manhattan to get to adjacent boroughs, since even this circuitous route is faster than the alternative – infrequent and unreliable buses. -In these boroughs, workers spend an average of 53 minutes traveling to Manhattan, but travel for work to adjacent boroughs is longer. A trip from the Bronx to Queens takes 68 minutes each way for the average worker. A trip from Brooklyn to Queens takes 63 minutes for a typical public transit commuter. -Many borough residents – 59% in the Bronx, 57% in Brooklyn and 36% in Queens – don’t own cars. -Buses are notoriously unreliable, averaging a speed of only 8mph, typically 2-5 mins late, and on time only half the time. What do you think of the Triboro RX line? Is NYC capable of producing a modern rail system in the outer boroughs? Comment below.
Jefferson Market Courthouse (1877) on 6th Ave & 10th street in the heart of Greenwich Village, was the first courthouse to have a night court in the country. It was also the court where Harry K. Thaw, the murderer of Sanford White was arraigned. It was almost demolished in the 50's and is now landmarked, converted to house a branch of the New York Public Library. Tap to purchase a print. Use code SOLSTICE for 25% off.
The Flatiron Building, 1902 Tap to purchase a fine-art print. Use code SOLSTICE for 25% OFF this weekend 🌞 What was the first NYC skyscraper? This question does not have a definitive answer, but if you are measuring height, it was not the 285 foot Flatiron. The Park Row Building across from City Hall was built three years earlier and would be 391 feet. The Tribune building built in 1875 was 260 feet, but it was all masonry and many academics argue a key characteristic of a skyscraper is a steel skeleton. The Tower Building, built in 1888 was the first NYC building to have a steel skeleton but it was only 129 feet. So if we measure height, the Tribune Building would be the first. If we are measuring structure, the Tower Building would be New York's first skyscraper. #skyscraper #skyline #flatironbuilding #tribunebuilding #parkrowbuilding #newyorkcity #newyorkarchitecture #nycarchitecture #construction #tallbuildings #nycskyscraper #realestate #nycrealestate #empirestate #skyscraper #artdeco #nychistory #midtown #downtownnyc #faltiron #flatironbuilding #summersolstice #urbanism #nyhistory
Miss Manhattan – You've probably never heard her name, but she's all over New York City. Audrey Munson, AKA Miss Manhattan was New York's first supermodel – a famous artist’s model of the Gilded Age and Beaux-Arts architecture. Audrey's appearance and captivating poses enamored early-20th-century artists who used her as their model of choice for monuments, bridges, statues, and fountains. By 1915 she had become famous, with over half of the sculptures at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition (World's Fair) modeled after her. Audrey was used in Adolph Alexander Weinman’s gilded “Civic Fame” atop the Manhattan Municipal Building (1913) along with his “Day” and “Night” statues above the entrances of the original Pennsylvania Station (Night is now in the Brooklyn Museum's Sculpture Garden). She graced both sides of the Manhattan Bridge (now in front of the Brooklyn Museum), along with sculptures at Columbia University, the main branch of the New York Public Library, Grand Army Plaza, Central Park, the Brooklyn Museum, theaters, mansions, hotels and much much more. A tour of Beaux-Arts architecture in New York City will no doubt uncover Audrey's neoclassical figure cast in granite, marble, bronze, and copper. The model's Wikipedia page lists over a hundred Sculptures of Munson, many of which are in New York City. Despite her early celebrity status, Munson's personal life was tragic and she died alone, buried in an unmarked grave in 1996 at the age of 104 after spending 65 years in an insane asylum.
Tomorrow is #Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates the June 19, 1865 announcement to fully abolish slavery in the country. Most people don’t associate NYC with slavery, but the city was one of the largest slave holding states in the nation. Today we published our Short History of Slavery in NYC, available now on our website (link in bio). New York City has long been known for its diversity and progressive values – the city of immigrants, birthplace of the Harlem Renaissance – but the city has a barbaric past, from the slave market of Wall Street to draft riots in 1863 where innocent black New Yorkers were attacked ending in a death toll of over a hundred. The sale and keeping of slaves in New York City was common since its founding and it wasn't until 1841 that New York State finally abolished the practice. In 1991 when Federal Plaza was being constructed in Lower Manhattan, an excavation found intact human skeletal remains located 30 feet below Broadway, a six-acre burial ground containing upwards of 15,000 intact skeletal remains of enslaved and free Africans who lived and worked in colonial New York. Now a public monument, the African Burial Ground is a reminder of the city’s history that is often neglected. Visit our website to read the full history of slavery in NYC.
#MapMondays! "New Yorkistan" New Yorker cover from December 10, 2001 by Maira Kalman and Rick Meyerowitz. The cover, which is one of the most popular ever, depicts the city as individual neighborhoods with humorous names, playing on Middle East and Central Asian geography. Meyeriwitz described it as "a "funny mixture of Yiddish, Persian, and New Yorkisms" based on the history or geography of that area of the city. From Wikipedia: According to Kalman, the inspiration for the cover arose in a car on the way to a party. She and Meyerowitz were talking about tribalism. At one point she came up with the idea of "Bronxistan", to which Meyerowitz replied "You know, we've got a map here." Originally, the picture was to be run on the back page of the magazine, but editors liked it so much that it was decided to make it the cover picture. Susan Jarratt describes the cover as "lampooning both New Yorkers' city-bound geographic consciousness and a nationwide ignorance of the geography of Central Asia". Jarratt notes that it was one of the first "humorous interventions" since the events of September 11, 2001. Urschel notes that this timing of the cover's publication was fortunate. Kalman herself commented on the timing, saying that "if [the cover had come] out earlier, many would have been infuriated, and if it [had come] out later, no one would have cared." #MapMonday
Rare photo from 1923 showing Grand Central's two-level train yard below Park Avenue. At the time of the photo, Park Avenue had been covered over, but many of the surrounding lots were still empty, exposing the tracks below. Originally the tracks leading north from 42nd street ran all the way up Park Avenue at street level. Construction of the Grand Central Depot in 1872 lowered the tracks underground from 59th to 96th Street, but increased train traffic and pollution from steam locomotives under Park Ave made conditions undesirable on the street and dangerous for commuters below ground. In 1902, a train missed a signal and crashed into a stopped train waiting to enter the depot, killing 15 people. The following year depot was demolished and in 1913 the new Grand Central Terminal opened. For the new terminal, all the approach tracks south of 59th Street were electrified, ending steam locomotives in Grand Central. Once Park Avenue no longer had train traffic and pollution it quickly turned into prime real estate.
Should helicopters be banned from flying directly over Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn? 🚁 Yesterday a helicopter crash into the roof of a 54-story skyscraper in midtown. The pilot who died, was flying a private helicopter at high speed through low clouds over Midtown after taking off from the 34th Street airstrip. The crash was the second in less than a month, and last year an open-door @flyblade helicopter crashed into the East River, killing five passengers. In 2009 a helicopter taking off from the same west side heliport crashed into a small plane traveling down the Hudson, killing nine. Helicopter services like @FLYNYON offer customers "to customize your flight path and cover all of Manhattan" with destinations including the World Trade Center, Times Square, and the United Nations. Since @FLYNYON takes off from New Jersey, they are regulated by the FAA and NYC is unable to restrict their flight path. Last week @Uber announced they would start offering helicopter flights from Lower Manhattan to JFK, an 8-minute flight that will cost $200 a person. Currently, @FlyBlade already offers this service, in addition to destinations like the Hamptons, which cost around $800 a person and takes 45 mins. 📸 Video clips: Youtube users EricSG and Where is Danny Black, on open-door FLYNYON flights over Lower Manhattan and Midtown.
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