Roosevelt Island Historical Society

Mar

Monday, March 18, 2024 – NOTES FROM THE PAST AND PRESERVATION FOR THE FUTURE

By admin

MONDAY

MARCH 18, 2024
ISSUE # 1206

NOTES FROM

ISLAND HISTORY

&

PRESERVING ISLAND HISTORY

This letter arrived in my mailbox today and tells one more story of our island’s past. Thanks

The Sid Kaplan photo of the trolley station under the Queensboro Bridge brought back vivid memories of my youth in Manhattan and Queens. My father was an oral surgeon and his rounds took him to Welfare Island once a month from the end of his stint in the Army in 1955 through the mid-1960’s. While we never rode the trolley, we accessed the Island from Queens many times via what everyone
called the “Upside Down” building. In that structure, elevators (for
automobiles, trucks and people) connected the middle of the bridge with the land below. Several times, after coming up in the
elevator in our automobile, we waited while the westbound trolley to the “city” stopped to pick up or drop off passengers. I was captivated by this little “train” which traversed the bridge and I begged to take a ride.

My request was not granted — I was probably four — but ever-after I watched for the orange and cream cars and was always delighted to see them.

Then, one day, they stopped. “The electric company”, my Dad
explained, “made a deal with the city to run cables over the bridge – and under the road – where the trolley tracks used to be”.
I was heartbroken. “Why? Why??”, I asked my parents. “Why couldn’t the trolley continue running above the electric cables like all the automobiles?” “Well,Luddy”, said my Mother,
“the trolley is obsolete….”

Obsolete? How could something so wonderful to my innocent eyes go away? Alas, this was the first of so many things in my life to disappear “forever”. Penn Station and the Singer Building in Manhattan met a similar fate to my beloved trolley. Luckily, Grand Central remains and a lot of other trolleys in other cities have been saved, or rebuilt or expanded. How great would it be
if those Queensboro Bridge streetcars – and a modernized “Upside Down” building – still connected our Island to Manhattan and Queens?

If there is a lesson in this, it is that something which today is
“obsolete” may one day be quite valuable – and
useful. But I can tell you – from personal experience – that this
notion is of little comfort to a small boy riding over the bridge, looking in vain for the quaint trolleys of another time,
never to run again.
guy ludwig

westview

Trolley on Queensboro Bridge | hjw3001 | Flickr

Get this image on: Flickr ] Creator: hjw3001 Copyright: Henry Wagner

TREASURES REDISCOVERED

This is an original poster that publicized the exhibit
“Welfare Island: An Interim Report”
which was presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for two weeks October 6 through October 19, 1970

Did you know that there was a scale model of the future island
exhibited at the Met in 1970?

This is just one historical item that is stored in our office/archive in the Octagon

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT TO FUND OUR ARCHIVAL WORK TO MAKE OUR COLLECTIONS MORE AVAILABLE
AND EASY TO USE.
PLEASE USE OUR DONATION LINK BELOW TO MAKE A DONATION FOR OUR ARCHIVES AND AN EXHIBIT OF OUR COLLECTION IN UPCOMING MONTHS.

ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTABLE AND WILL BE ACKNOWLEDGED.

Donation

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TUESDAY, MARCH 19TH AT THE NYPL BRANCH

… WITHOUT YOUR VOICE, WE WILL LOSE THE Q102 — WHICH PROVIDES DIRECT, DAILY SERVICE BETWEEN ROOSEVELT ISLAND & QUEENS PLAZA, CONNECTING TO MANY BUSES & SUBWAYS BEWTEEN MANHATTAN, BROOKLYN & QUEENS — SERVING ROOSEVELT ISLAND FOR OVER 50 YEARS …

CURRENT Q102 BUS ROUTE

SEND YOUR COMMENTS TO THE MTA ON THE LINK BELOW:

https://platform.remix.com/project/d6368ff6/line/f7efc4d4?dir=0&latlng=40.75452,-73.93954,13.157

MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

SEND YOUR RESPONSE TO:
ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM

WEEKEND PHOTO

A “COYOTE” THAT WAS PLACED AT
THE FDR FOUR FREEDOMS PARK A FEW
YEARS AGO, TO SCARE OFF THE CANADA GEESE.
SUCCESS WAS NOT ACHIEVED FOR MUCH TIME

Text by Judith Berdy