Another plug for Shorpy

[PhilH]

This site, which has new images added to daily, never ceases to amaze me. The latest image, which is of the ferry terminal beside Brooklyn Bridge. is full of the most amazing detail - and it's 105 years old! For the best impression of this detail, click on the full size option and use your mouse to roam over the picture. For anyone interested in vintage Americana, this site is a goldmine. Quite a feww railroad pics on there too, have a look at Jack Delano's wartime colour images - in my opinion they are quite simply superb.

 

Shorpy

[Gil Janus]

Yes, Shorpy is a great resource.

 

However, that is not a ferry terminal. That is a pier in use by the New Haven Railroad and it's various steamship companies - they sailed from NYC to various ports in New England - all the way up to Boston. In fact, there were many such companies. Look a little further north in the picture on the Manahattan side and you can see more steamships and piers with city names in New England - The Boston & Providence is one such. The Central Vermont Railway ran steamships from NYC to New London, CT to connect to their railroad.

 

A great book about the NH and it's steamship lines and all of their various competitors is the book:

 

Splendor Sailed The Sound - George H. Foster and Peter C. Weiglin

 

I have a copy (and it's is expensive and out-of-print) and it's absolutely a great read and resource about the NH and it's steamships. The photos are worth the price alone, but the history is something else altogether. The NH was being run by a bunch of guys who managed to own most of the railroads, trolley systems and steamship companies in New England - but it was all built on a house of fake transactions - see The (Rail)Road of Hubris for a brief history lesson and book review.

 

Gil, known as Bill somedays ... B)

[Talltim]

OK, I've just spend all day looking at pics from this site.....