Internet random walk (Manhattan then Brooklyn stuff)

If it doesnt fit anywhere else but you still want to share, this is the place
Post Reply
Greg
Posts: 8486
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 2:15 pm

Internet random walk (Manhattan then Brooklyn stuff)

Post by Greg »

Damn but the Internet is a deadly time waster. And the things you can find in search engines and on youtube....

I went to the car show on Friday - New York International Auto Show. Took the ferry across from Weehawken. On the ferry, I was reminded of a particular building in Chelsea - it's a landmark/eyesore. It's the Starett-Lehigh Building, and it's famous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starrett-Lehigh_Building

While looking up said building, I came across some historical pages to do with... well here's one:

http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/bo26.html

It's about a rail freight handling yard on the West Side of Manhattan. They built the Starett-Lehigh Building next to it, and that building is present in some of the pictures.

Links from that page led me to the South Brooklyn Railway, which is close to home.

http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/sbr.html

Very close to the old neighborhood in Brighton Beach, and I'm very familiar with all these locations. Turns out the South Brooklyn Railway ties in with the Bay Ridge Branch of the LIRR which features oddly prominently in my memories of NY from several different periods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Ridge_Branch
http://forgotten-ny.com/2009/03/long-da ... rr-branch/

And when I discovered that the interchange between the South Brooklyn Railway and Bay Ridge Branch was at Ave I and MacDonald Ave I had a *holy crap* moment. Looking at the Parkville Interchange section

http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/sbr.html#11

particularly the map.... I knew that area. I used to go to that area quite often. It was where the Ave I flea market was located. I never knew that the interchange between SBR and the BRB was RIGHT THERE.

Then I went and found a page about the damn Ave I flea market (who else remembers those bloody barrels of pickles?), and someone even dug up a TV commercial for it:

http://www.bensonhurstbean.com/2013/02/ ... l-emerges/

Which also happened to lead me to the similar page about the market at Caesar's Bay:

http://www.retrojunk.com/commercial/sho ... bay-bazaar

Great googely moogely, do I remember Caesar's Bay Bazaar.
Maybe we're just jaded, but your villainy is not particularly impressive. -Ennesby

If you know what you're doing, you're not learning anything. -Unknown
Sanity is the process by which you continually adjust your beliefs so they are predictively sound. -esr
Post Reply