Tracks on Broadway
In April 1996, the City of New York began the process of repaving
Broadway from 110th Street to 125th Street. The first step was to
ream off the upper layers of old pavement, to provide a rough surface
for the new pavement to adhere to, and to keep the future new surface
from being too high for the curbs.
As their counterparts seek weathering in a sedimentary deposit, so may
urban paleontologists find treasure in this sudden wearing away. The
Broadway streetcar tracks, unused for almost 50 years, are now making
a partial appearance before being buried again for decades to come.
And so it was that I found myself standing in traffic lanes and
stepping carefully in the unknown territory of the center malls for a
few days in May, camera in hand.
UPDATE, June 6-11: Broadway has been repaved.
next
Bad Pavement |
Conduit |
Conduit Plan |
Conduit Views |
Insulator Manholes |
Insulator Manhole Covers |
Cleaning and Feeder Manholes |
Paving Stones |
Trackway |
Switches |
1902 |
Cars |
Permanent Exhibit |
Insulator Manholes in 12th Avenue |
Conduit and Hatch
All street photographs by Joseph Brennan
Copyright 1996 by Joseph Brennan. All rights reserved.
