Extra Place

Between the Bowery and 2nd Avenue on 1st Street, a new tiny street juts north for a building or two before it hits dead end. upon first seeing it, I thought it was created by the designers of the new luxury apartment houses. But this story provided delves deep, into before Manhattan was divided by a sensible grid of streets. Extra Street had it's roots traced back that far. I can't help believe that as Manhattan grew safer and more upscale, this little street was fenced off, and privatized. Only now that it is sandwiched in-between big money projects, has it been paved over, and marked as the street it is. Soon stores will move in.

Evolution of Extra Place

Weegee sound bite.

Weegee talks - Old New York hardcore photojournalist.

1905 Coney Island Video

Video clip- Boarding School Girls at Coney Island 1905

All around them, are horses and carriages as they board the equivalent of a bus. And once they arrive, we see a few examples of what a different place Coney Island was back then.

old film

Found this on Youtube, excellent stuff: Harold Lloyd and Babe Ruth.

An excellent example of how many things change, but some things always stay the same. Our impression of the crazy taxi drivers seems to have its roots at the very beginning of the automobile. Back then many city buses were double deckers, and one didn't go so far to be in a place considered the country: The Bronx. It looks as though there were very few, if any, traffic lights. More police to maintain some sense of order at these intersections. Trolleys everywhere, more elevated trains. As the cars were fairly modern, no lines in the roads, free for all, a mere suggestion of staying to the right. and we wonder why the streets are so chaotic, this is the root of it.

Locations -

-Times Square

-Maybe Herald Square

-Then 5th Avenue

-Yankee Stadium of course

Then in the horse bit-

-Bowling Greene

-U.S. Customs House

-One Broadway

-Washington Square Park

-The Woolworth Building in the background of Bowling Greene

-Brooklyn Bridge

-Manhattan Bridge behind it

-And I'm guessing the Lower East Side by the docks, which would be Fulton Street?

Conceptualizing and Realizing Different Transit in America

This full PBS documentary examines the two contrasting cities of Denver and Portland, and then finally examines the city with an infrastructure with a little of both, New York.

Blueprint America: Road to the Future

A very interesting examination of how a city might be effected by its transit plan.