Brooklyn Elevated Lines

Two piectures obtained from Transit Authority files by Jeff Erliltz and one I’ve had for some time, possibly mine:

  1. The rush-hour branch of the Fulton Street line to the Fulton Ferry and its exposed, unprotected platform, that stayed in rush-hour service to relieve congestion on he Brooklyn Bridge, even after the ferry service to Manhattan was discontinued. Jeff did not provide a caption for “2,” but I believe it is where that branch passed under the Fifth Avenue Elevated (Bay Ridge and Culver) connection to the Brooklyn Bridge. 5. Looking south to the intersection of Broadway (Brooklyn) and Myrtle Avenue. The ramp tracks continued in use for the “M” but have been replaced with a rebuilding of the structuer.

Look at those wrought iron railings! What a civilized mode of transport! [:D]

I love the look of those elevated cars! Not quite out of the 19th Century, but not quite into the 20th either. They straddle both centuries beautifully.

And if I understand correctly, with certain modifications they lasted nearly 50 years.

Speaking of which, I just noticed that “Esso” gas station sign down on street level. Is this 1940, or 1950 perhaps?

The sign is metal, and lit by gooseneck (probably incandescent) lamps. The thing that will probably date the scene best is the gas pumps, which have a distinctive style and were probably replaced at some date range by still more ‘modern’ ones. There are gas-pump enthusiasts who make railroad rivet-counting look a bit simplistic, and in some of their discussions we might find enough answers.

I see parts of several vehicles in the picture: one is a fender and wheel across the street from the gas station; another is what appears to be a bus in the street past the curving tracks. I’m not a bus expert, but it looks to me that someone who is might have a comparatively tight ‘possible’ date range given the other clues. There are a couple of ‘car tops’ visible just across the pillar to the right of the Esso sign; I at first thought the severe outline of windows in the ‘bottom’ one was a roofline from the early to mid-Sixties seen on its left side, but I now think it’s a much older (e.g. '30s) vehicle seen from behind, on its right side, with ‘clear vision’ front windows and a high curved roof with small backlight. Can’t stop seeing the upper one as '50s, though… perhaps a pickup cab?

Yeah, dating this photo sure isn’t as easy as dating the one in the older elevated thread David started, you know, the one with the square-rigger in the background?

That was easy!

Elevated Trains, New York City :

Jones, you can leave the fine video here too, but please, please post on the Third Avenue Elevated Thread!

Come to think of it, it was posted possibly about 18 months or two years ago. Still, having an up-to-date posting means more people will see it.

Atlantic Avenue, 1910:

Brooklyn by Edmund, on Flickr

The Detroit Publishing Company.

There’s so much to see here, really multiple scenes in one!

Brooklyn_Newsstand by Edmund, on Flickr

The pretty lady deserves attention. And that lovely hat!

Brooklyn_Polka-dots by Edmund, on Flickr

A media blitz! Wrigleys. Anyone recognize the colonel’s cleaner? [I’m guessing Bon-Ami, his belt buckle features a large “B”]

Brooklyn_Broadsides by Edmund, on Flickr

What appears to be car #117. Just another run for the motorman:

Brooklyn_Car-117 by Edmund, on Flickr

A crop of the newsstand. That’s the August 6, 1910 issue of “The Post” featuring the Businessman Mowing the Lawn.

Brooklyn_Magazines by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/gmpullman/]Edmund[/ur

That young lady’s a cutie all right, and I see she’s got the undivided attention of a young man too!

I don’t recognize that brand of cleanser, but I sure recognize the Wrigley’s gum ad all the way to the left. They were plastered all over the Erie stations on the New Jersey commuter lines at this same time period.

For heaven’s sake, it’s Babbitt’s.

Bon Ami had a newborn chick with the slogan ‘Hasn’t Scratched Yet’…

OK, didn’t mean to get too fussy. Thanks for your input anyway. I was just curious.

From what I recall, Bon Ami had several slogans in use.

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/caption.pl?/img/maps/bmt_1924.gif

Respectfully submitted, Ed

gmpullman
Anyone recognize the colonel’s cleaner? [I’m guessing Bon-Ami, his belt buckle features a large “B”]

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/imgsrv/image?id=njp.32101066805787;seq=445;size=150;rotation=0
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/imgsrv/image?id=njp.32101066805787;seq=446;size=150;rotation=0

Ah, Mike and Vince strike again!

I have to admit I don’t remember Bab-O, or Babbit’s for that matter. Comet? Yes. Ajax? Certainly. Various store brands? Absolutely. I guess Mom didn’t like it.

But it looks like it’s still around!

https://www.cvs.com/shop/dollar-deals-bab-o-fast-action-bleach-stains-away-cleanser-prodid-329728

Flatbush and Atlantic from the originsl glsss-plate negative:

But the earlier posting in my opinion is better wih contrast improved.

The head-house of the entrance to the Brighton Line subway station (not yet opeened in 1919) and the IRT subway station. These co-existed with the elevated station and he use of 1000-seeries arch-roof convertable cars unil Unification, June 1940, when all Culver trains were switched to the 4th Avenue subway. the Bay Ridge trains discontinued, and the demolition of the 5th Avenue Elevated initiated. .

Curve 38th St. to 3rd Avenue, Bay ridge Branch

Possibly already posted on the South Brooklyn thread.

Bab-O is one of those things, like Whink, that are more or less amazing to see marketed to ‘ordinary housewives’ for problem cleaning. It contains not only scouring grit, but a powerful detergent, and a chlorinating agent: the stuff is remarkably well-suited to dealing with coronavirus on surfaces and I’m surprised the campaign hasn’t caught up yet.

I have to confess that I always thought of the name as being a kind of artifact of the '20s flapper culture, like ‘23-skidoo’ or my cousin Elizabeth’s nickname ‘Libbo’ in that era. Kind of the K-mart to Babbitt Soap’s Kresge.

I certainly remember Bab-O better than most. Our Latin master at the Englewood School for Boys in 8th grade was a corpulent individual by the name of Conrad Babrowsky. The nickname we used for him was pretty obvious…

My Latin Master at Columbia Grammar Preparatory was “Doc” B. Been(e?)

An ex-Baptist Minister! I took piano lessons from his wife.

Favoite sayings: “It’s too late to pray when the Devil has got you.”

“The ‘gin’ owner does not care which rout you rook to bring the cotton, just the qualify of the cotton.”

How very different from the rationale of ‘new math’!

The master the following year, Mr. Clark (with his elfin shoes), was fond of saying he didn’t like four-letter words in his classroom. Words like “test”, or “exam”, or “quiz”.

He gave us a hard test one day, which very few passed (regrettably me not among them). So many, in fact, that he said he’d consider it a fluke, and would give us a retest.

Of course what appeared the day of the test was precisely the same questions on the same piece of paper.

Amusingly, there were still ‘those among us’ who did not pass (this time, me not among them) so he gave them a shot at a retest.

Which, of course, was once again the same questions on the same piece of paper. That man understood how to deal with ninth-graders.

We’ve mentioned this before, but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lczHvB3Y9s

Yes, I remember Bab-O; I do not remember that my mother used it, but my grandmother did.

Overmpod. Thanks! I wish I had used that system when I taught architectural acoustics as City College! I’ll keep it mind.