Tuesday, February 27, 2024 – YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE A ARTPIECE WILL APPEAR

By admin

TUESDAY


FEBRUARY 27, 2024

A TRYLON AND PERISPHERE REPLICA ONCE STOOD AT THE LINCOLN TUNNEL

ISSUE # 1190

UNTAPPED NEW YORK

Searching the World’s Fair archives, Untapped New York’s founder Michelle Young came upon a forgotten gem: a mini Trylon and Perisphe replica that once stood at the New Jersey entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel. This information booth structure was meant to be eye-catching and to “induce the out-of-town motorist to stop at the booths before plunging into Manhattan.” The Trylon and Perisphere were the centerpieces of the 1939 World’s Fair and this piece of promotional architecture was one of many replicas that popped up around NYC to promote the fair.

At the Lincon Tunnel, the spherical Perisphere part of the information booth is described as “containing a window counter with space for two clerks” and it measured 11 feet in diameter. The Trylon part stretched 38 feet high and was wrapped in a silver and black pennant which read “New York World’s Fair.” The structures were painted white and the lettering on them was red with blue trim.

The booth was advertised with 27 billboards on the highways which called attention to it and directed motorists toward it. It was manned 24/7 while the fair was in operation. The press release notes that the fair guides inside were “equipped to not only dispense information about the fair but about hotels and rooming, garages, road conditions, and similar subjects.”

The Port Authority built similar information booths at entrances to the Holland Tunnel and George Washington Bridge as well, as the document notes. Another information booth in this shape was built at the center of Times Square, at 46th Street and Broadway, mere steps away from the headquarters of its sponsor, Loews Metro Goldwyn Meyer.

CORRECTION

Good morning.  This is Andy Sparberg.  My message is not a response to today’s photo of the day, but a needed correction to this morning’s issue ISSUE # 1189 about the Wall St. Subway Station.

Specifically, the paragraph about the ticket chopper is incorrect.   I am providing a corrected version below.  Additional needed words are in bold font.

What’s the purpose of the ticket chopper? Before subway tokens were introduced in 1953, riders paid the fare via coins. Until 1921, the worker in the subway booth would hand them a paper ticket, and the rider gave the ticket to another employee at the chopper box, which would shred the ticket, according to the New York Transit Museum.   To save the labor costs of chopper boxes, in 1921 the subways introduced automatic turnstiles, which required the rider to deposit the proper fare before admitting the rider into the station.   Turnstiles required nickels until 1948, dimes from 1948-53, and tokens from 1953 until 2003.

(Turnstile information is from Under the Sidewalks of New York, by Brian Cudahy, pages 88-99.)

TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

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MONDAY  PHOTO OF THE DAY

STATUE OF PROMETHIUS AT ROCKEFELLER CENTER  BEING RE-GUILDED
GLORIA HERMAN, JOYCE GOLD AND HARA REISER GOT IT RIGHT

Text by Judith Berdy

UNTAPPED NEW YORK

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Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries

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