June 17, 2009 @ 9:43 pm
I took a day off today from job hunting to travel northbound along Riverside Park toward the George Washington Bridge. I didn’t have a specific destination, but I knew that I wanted to at least pass by the tunnel underpass that is under the 145th Street bridge. I got there and realized quickly that it wasn’t a place I wanted to venture in alone, so I continued biking until I reached this peculiar section of Riverside Park that I’ve never been to before.
I soon found myself beyond an open gate, standing amidst a pile of sand in front of me. Directly beside this sand pile were the Amtrak train tracks, which I’ve been on before, but never this far north. There was some outstanding graffiti going on in this area which naturally made me want to hop the fence. Luckily, after some snooping around, I found a hole along the fence and climbed in. In front of me was what you see in the image above.
Anyway, I explored the place and took a few photos (which I’ll post soon). But while I was there, I couldn’t help but think about how this was probably prime real estate for the homeless. It’s sheltered, there’s some sunlight, and it’s relatively quiet (Amtrak doesn’t run that often). But obviously, what do I know. It was just a nice place to be I guess. I always imagine these places to be full of stories and history.
March 23, 2009 @ 2:41 pm
Robert Moses is considered one of the most important figures in modern city planning. He is the man responsible for many of New York City’s current infrastructure and roads. His ideas about what a city should be greatly divided people and turned him into a very controversial figure in NYC politics and government.
In the late 1930’s Robert Moses proposed an expressway called the Mid-Manhattan Expressway that would have cut directly across Manhattan, connecting the Midtown Tunnel with the Lincoln Tunnel. The plan never came into fruition because of opposition from people along the proposed expressway route, but it didn’t stop Vanshnookenraggen from reconstructing Moses’ plan in Google Maps. [via]
Vanshnookenraggen also made the Google Maps image below that shows another failed expressway propsed by Robert Moses in the 1960’s. This expressway below was dubbed the Lower Manhattan Expressway and would have cut through Lower Manhattan to connect the Holland Tunnel with the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges.
February 6, 2008 @ 1:24 am
Between the years of 1920 and 1925, about $6 million were invested in building a subway system for the downtown business district of Cincinnati, Ohio. Unfortunately, the proposed 16-mile system of track work was never completed. In its place are 7 miles of completed, but largely unused, tunnels that are still maintained up to this very day by the city.
The 7-mile tunnels run between Cincinnati’s central business district and the northern suburb of Norwood.
Cincinnati Subway has some great photos of the still-existing station platforms. The site also documents in pretty good detail the planned work and the intended future use of the entire system (had it been completed). These types of photos of abandoned or incomplete projects are always a treat!
