City - NY - Pipe maze 1891
by Mike Savad
Title
City - NY - Pipe maze 1891
Artist
Mike Savad
Medium
Photograph - Colorized Photo
Description
Colorized photo from 1891, Sept 16
Original title: 14 St.
Photographer: Langill, C. C.
Location: Broadway & East 14th St, NY
The Broadway Cable Railroad was a short lived street car system that was built in 1891. It was short lived maybe lasting about 10 years or so, it consisted of a long cable that was always moving. A gripper on the train would grab onto it and they would move at a good 30mph. Only problem was, there were no breaks other than letting go of the cable. So people would tend to fly off when they hit a tight turn. One area became known as dead man's turn.
It ran from Bowling Green at the Southern end of Manhattan, up town to 36th st. But in order to install the cabling system they had to open the street and probably reroute pipes. This is probably what they are doing here, there isn't a lot of information other than they marked the day by taking pictures of street excavations, while the salt of the earth city dwellers posed.
All of this was done by hand, and all the pipes are just balanced on shims, wedges and posts. This is a mix of gas, water, drainage and electrical conduit.
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February 21st, 2020
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