AUTOPSIES RESEARCH GROUP

  • Home
  • Events
  • Autopsies Blog
  • OBITUARIES
  • Projects
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY
  • CONFERENCE CALLS
  • Links
  • People
  • Contact
  • Site map

On the Beaten Track: The New York High Line and Elevated Railway

21/4/2012

2 Comments

 
A recent trip to New York afforded me two avenues for exploring the ‘dead’ spaces of the city’s elevated railways. Built between 1829 and 1934, the elevated railways helped eliminate pedestrian deaths caused by freight trains running at street level. Passenger services ran between sky-high stations, while freight and mail were delivered to second-floor depots in factories.

The steady rise of road vehicles through the mid-twentieth century depleted ‘El’ services. The last passenger coaches ran on the Third Avenue El in 1973, while the final goods train departed on the High Line in 1980.

I explored the history of the elevated railways at both the New York Transit Museum Archives and the High Line Park. The NYTMA housed a wonderful collection of films made between 1930 and 1952. Literal tracking shots in the 1930's films took viewers on a fairground ride through the city. Winding precariously around curved sections of track, the camera offered glimpses of the skyscrapers above and the streets below.

A curiously cinematic perspective was also on offer at the High Line. The park was fully opened to the public in June 2011. The gardens recycle a space once preserved for freight trains; now, pedestrians, rather than passengers, traverse the structure. Much of the old track has been preserved and forms an integral part of the park’s design. The High Line even incorporates an ‘urban theatre’ at the corner of 10th Avenue and 17th Street. Visitors can sit and watch road traffic pass beneath them through screen-like glass panels.

Looking down on the passing vehicles, the elevated railway retains a grandeur that the car cannot emulate. 

Rebecca Harrison

Picture
Interior of a 1920 passenger train on the NY elevated railway
Picture
A section of recycled track on the High Line
Picture
Visitors enjoy the view from the High Line's 'urban theatre'
2 Comments

    autopsies blog

    This is where we share what we’ve seen, heard, experienced
    or thought about dead objects
     for everyone to comment on.

    Tweets by @autopsiesgroup

    Archives

    September 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    October 2011
    August 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009

    Categories

    All
    Architecture
    Archives
    Asbestos
    Benjamin
    Bill Brown
    Books
    Car
    Cinema
    Collection
    Comics
    Computers
    Conferences
    Dickens
    Drawings
    Exhibition
    Film
    Film Noir
    Found Footage
    Godard
    Hair Dryer
    Internet
    Jazz
    Kitsch
    Landlords
    Launderette
    Lead Paint
    Lead Poisoning
    Library
    Longplayer Project
    Lost Film
    Maps
    Medicine
    Memex
    Metro
    Motel
    Museums
    Music
    New Orleans
    Nostalgia
    Object Retrieval
    Object Retrieval Project
    Objects
    Obsolescence
    Patina
    Photography
    Photomaton
    Pica
    Radio
    Routemaster Bus
    Streetcar
    Surveillance
    Theatre
    Things
    Thing Theory
    Toys
    Transport
    Ucl
    Website

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.