![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
old photographs
Mar. 30th, 2008 12:20 pmI'm fascinated by pictures like this one, of the Manhattan Bridge. I can't tell you how long I've stared at it.
The pretty Catherine Ferry building in the foreground, with the Mansard roof with ironwork. The wagons lined up on the cobblestone, ready to board the side-wheeler ferry that will soon arrive. I wonder how soon after the completion of the bridge, that the ferry shut down. The caption says that on the near shore, the only building left standing is the one in the lower left, but it doesn't seem to have very good brickwork. The streetlight on the corner. A lumber yard, and two coal docks with all their scaffolding. The New York Central docks and warehouses, with rail cars, and their boats and barges. Those docks aren't there anymore, only roadways. Then there's the bridge itself with its massive steel and stoneworks. What kind of foundation does that stone sit on? How long did it take them to get that far? How long did it take to erect the steel piers? How did they string the cables between them? I wonder what the men on the cables are doing. It looks like they have steam engines up on the girders. I wonder what they're powering. The cranes, probably. It looks like there are so few people out there working. They've got four crews advancing the girders, from the piers. Maybe more building the road bed behind the structure.
Like I said, fascinating.
The pretty Catherine Ferry building in the foreground, with the Mansard roof with ironwork. The wagons lined up on the cobblestone, ready to board the side-wheeler ferry that will soon arrive. I wonder how soon after the completion of the bridge, that the ferry shut down. The caption says that on the near shore, the only building left standing is the one in the lower left, but it doesn't seem to have very good brickwork. The streetlight on the corner. A lumber yard, and two coal docks with all their scaffolding. The New York Central docks and warehouses, with rail cars, and their boats and barges. Those docks aren't there anymore, only roadways. Then there's the bridge itself with its massive steel and stoneworks. What kind of foundation does that stone sit on? How long did it take them to get that far? How long did it take to erect the steel piers? How did they string the cables between them? I wonder what the men on the cables are doing. It looks like they have steam engines up on the girders. I wonder what they're powering. The cranes, probably. It looks like there are so few people out there working. They've got four crews advancing the girders, from the piers. Maybe more building the road bed behind the structure.
Like I said, fascinating.
