Future excursions?

9 Responses to Future excursions?

1. Pingback: What is that thing? and Orchard Beach | infrastructure

2. erinamelia says:

   April 23, 2011 at 9:32 pm

   Golden Gate Bridge? (wink wink nudge nudge)

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   • Emily says:

     April 24, 2011 at 3:19 pm

     Absolutely! I’ve added it :)

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3. Michael Bates says:

   October 18, 2011 at 10:09 am

   The Fort Smith, Arkansas, Trolley Museum runs a Birney streetcar through the historic downtown daily April through October and weekends the rest of the year.

   The Western Railway Museum, south of Fairfield, California, has an extensive collection of electric streetcars, interurbans, and light rail vehicles from different eras and from around the world. Vistors can ride a streetcar and an interurban along a stretch of restored Sacramento Northern track. The bookstore is quite impressive.

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   • Emily says:

     October 19, 2011 at 3:21 pm

     Thanks for the suggestions, Michael! I’d heard about the Western Railway Museum before. Both sound great and I’ve added them to the list (as well starting to sub-organize by state).

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4. Shannon Lee Gilstad says:

   December 8, 2011 at 1:38 pm

   You have probably heard of it, but if you have not, the Polo Grounds Shuttle might be of interest to you. I am about your age, and when I was a teenager my friend and I used to go into the tunnel, and host tours,. It lies right beside the Major Deegan before the Metro-North tracks and you could enter, ultimately ending up outside on this roof of an autobody shop on Jerome Avenue. Can’t see it anymore, but until a few years ago when the new Yankee Stadium was built, you use to be able to see a remnant of the track that crossed Mullaly Park leading to that tunnel.

   After they realized we were playing in it, they sealed it up, but people would come back and smash the cinder blocks down to reenter. It was surprisingly clean inside, but you would find cars that were stolen, dragged down the embankment, and stashed inside the abandoned tunnel. I used to live in that neighborhood near Yankee Stadium but had forgotten about the tunnel. Unfortunately, I don;t believe there is access to it anymore after so many people caught on to what we were doing.

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5. Shannon Lee Gilstad says:

   December 8, 2011 at 2:09 pm

   As you may have noticed, I am a huge Bronx fanatic. I’d recommend:

   *Remnants of Polo Grounds Shuttle. If you are into the architectural side of things, definitely Grand Concourse. It was based on the Champ Elysees in Paris and planned very painstakingly. An added bonus, of course, it the Concourse subway line (B/D) and that many of the streets have some remnants of old trolley tunnels that ran underneath the street.

   *Pugsley Creek/Soundview Parks. You can easily do this in a few hours. Interesting riverside trails, which are pretty in the spring and summer. there is a little jetty that spurts out of the park where you can get a good look at the river. Lots of little bungalows and very narrow, odd-looking streets. It really doesn’t even look like the Bronx and is like a holdover. At the end of Soundview Park you can see the Bronx River, which does have some neat industrial elements to it. There is a great abandoned train station (albeit in very bad condition) from the old New York, Westchester, and Boston Railroad just over the bridge before the Whitlock Avenue stop on the 6 train.

   *Hunt’s Point. It has the notoriety for being a desolate makeshift “redlight district”prior to Mayor Giuliani. On my site I have a few pictures taken (did I add them yet?) of the sunset from Barretto Point Park. There are lots of little industrial gems, including the
   Tiffany Street MTA Facility, which actually has a part of an elevated track built on the premises that trains, such as redbird, are on. It still is pretty seedy and I would not recommend walking around there alone, especially if you have your camera.

   These is a good books to start with:
   *Boulevard of Dreams: Heady Times, Heartbreak, and Hope along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx: There’s is some good info in here if you’re into history and it names some landmarks a bit off the beaten trail.
   *Do Not Give Way To Evil: Photographs of the South Bronx, 1979-1987: This is not necessarily specifically “infrastructure” based, but it really is amazing and mind-blowing if you go to the approximate sites of where these photographs were taken in the 1970s and 80s.
   *South Bronx Rising: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of an American City: This gives a good overall history of the Bronx and offers some interesting insight from various residents who lived here.

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6. jess says:

   February 22, 2012 at 10:26 pm

   I think you might like Treasure Island, out here in SF, too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Island_(California)

   If for no other reason than you can get a pretty great view of the new Bay Bridge East Span being built!

   There are also some really interesting buildings from various expos and Worlds Fair type deals, and the whole place kind of feels like a ghost town sometimes…

   And I have to take you to Fort Point, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Point,_San_Francisco
   It’s an old military fort, which is kind of a museum now but feels very much abandoned most of the time (it was actually closed when we were there a long time ago, but we walked up to it I think!). And it’s right under the GG bridge (you can look up from the top of the fort into the supports of the bridge!).

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   • Emily says:

     February 23, 2012 at 5:01 pm

     @Jess, yes to Treasure Island! I’d actually heard about that and it sounds like my kind of weird place. And I’m down for Fort Point too! One day I’ll visit again. Thanks for the recommendations, I’ve added them above!

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