Bridges of New York, 1948 & 1949

 [George Washington Bridge and Hudson River, New York City.

Caption on the back reads: One of the main highways between New York and New Jersey. The bridge was completed in 1932 at a cost of over $60,000,000. The main span is 3500 feet long. It enters Manhattan at 178th Street and connects over ramps with beautiful Riverside Drive.]

These postcards of New York City bridges are possibly from 1948 or 1949 given their position with respect to other similar postcards in the collection that were mailed and have '48 and '49 postmarks. I'll post those others once I get them scanned.

 [George Washington Bridge, Palisades in Background, New York City

Caption on the back reads: Spanning the Hudson River at 179th Street, the George Washington Bridge connects the States of New York and New Jersey. It is the longest suspension bridge in the world and cost $60,000,000. It was completed in 1931.]

[Title on the top reads: George Washington Bridge, Fort Tryon Park, Riverside Drive.

Title at the bottom reads: Hudson River and Jersey Palisades, New York City.]

[Brooklyn Bridge at Night, New York City.]

[Triborough Bridge. Looking down East River from over Hellgate, New York City.]

More arches

The arches on the old Yorkville streetcar barn reminded me of a building I saw in New York a few weeks ago. 

It was dusk and the lit arched windows over loading dock doorways were quite evocative. 

I believe this building is New York City Center located at 131 W 55th St. The views in these photos are of the far less iconic loading dock side that backs onto 56th St. 

With this view as raw material, it's not too hard to imagine a scale model of a fictional company the receives parts by boxcar, ships out large finished stage or movie props by flatcar, and maybe has its staff arrive by streetcar - sounds like a E. L. Moore type project in the making. Or, this could be used as the prototype for the back wall for a model of the Yorkville streetcar barn.  Or, maybe one could just build the whole thing as is to maximize the adventure.

Amtrak to New York City

A couple of weeks ago I went to New York City via Amtrak from Albany. That’s the train at Albany station waiting for us to board. The trip was on time, and the staff were friendly and efficient. Overall, quite a pleasant experience, and I’d certainly do it again.

New York: buildings, buildings and more buildings. An urban model builder’s paradise. On this trip I happened to be near the retro-70s-futuristic Solow Building - shown in the photo above - located at 9 West 57th Street. I had never seen it up close before. Amazing. Some rough calculations suggest an N scale model would stand around 1.8 m tall. In HO? I’d need to buy a new, and much taller, house! Clearly, some selective compression would be in order to build something suitable for a model railroad.

New York City’s Penn Station. Busy doesn’t begin to describe it, but again, it seems efficient. We didn’t experience problems or delays. One odd railroad related thing I saw underground as our train approached the platform was a rustic, old flat car parked on a siding whose markings clearly said ‘Rio Grande’. We zoomed past before I was able to snap a picture. It seemed like an out of place time traveller.