City - New York - Laying the track 1891 - Side by Side
by Mike Savad
Title
City - New York - Laying the track 1891 - Side by Side
Artist
Mike Savad
Medium
Photograph - Colorized Photo
Description
Colorized photo from 1891
Original Title: Construction of cable road
Location: 14 Union Square W (on Broadway ave) NY
What they are doing here is laying cable for new street cars (that only lasted about 20 years before being replaced by trolley's, those are self motorized). They first dig a trench called a vault, place small footings and walls with brick. Place H shaped metal chunks that hold the tracks in place. There are metal chute like pieces that are place in between the rails, this is where the cable goes.
That's what they are doing. I think its interesting that every surface has an ad glued to it. Those things are everywhere. On every surface, for all I know there are still parts for this track in the street right now, and those ad's are still there.
The bridges are balanced on piles of loose lumber, just sort of stacked into a pile. A simple barrel and board set up keeps people from falling into that trench. Who knows what it looks like at night. You could get a whole horse trapped in there.
I don't know much about demolition techniques, but they seem to be taking down a building on the left, one wall at a time. And not starting with the roof. This location however will become the Decker building, something that was built in 1892, a year after this was shot. This view was taken in Union Square, on Broadway ave, facing that center building which is there today, called the McIntyre building.
There was an entire series of these images, it was taken over a span of about a year or so. They dug up many streets to put this track in. And they shot the progress of it all. I liked this one because it showed a good chunk of the city, and it shows the track in different stages of construction.
Uploaded
January 25th, 2019
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