EVENTS SPONSORED BY: THE NY PUBIC LIBRARY GALLERY RIVAA ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
FRIDAY-WEEKEND OCTOBER 4-6, 2024 ISSUE #1322
SMALLPOX HOSPITAL IN THE SNOW
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8TH @ 7 P.M.
Roosevelt Island: Art, Memory, and Community | Panel Discussion
Tuesday, October 8th @ 7 PM, RIVAA Gallery
Join us for a discussion in conjunction with the current photographic exhibition, Roosevelt Island: The Vision Revisited. RIVAA will bring together three distinguished panelists, who through their talent and remarkable efforts, have contributed to the beauty and quality of our built environment on Roosevelt Island.
– Amanda Matthews is a sculptor and creator of The Girl Puzzle, a tribute to groundbreaking investigative journalist Nellie Bly. Through her reporting, Nelly Bly changed how mental illness was treated in this country.
– Gina Pollara, Executive Director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park from 2006-2013, oversaw the construction of the memorial designed by architect Louis I. Kahn to commemorate the 32nd President of the United States.
– Susan Rosenthal, President and CEO of Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) from 2016-2020, conceived the idea of a monument to Nelly Bly.
– Chris Vail, exhibiting photographer of Roosevelt Island: The Vision Revisited will moderate.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13TH, 6:30 PM. GALLERY RIVAA
Chris Vail is a documentary and news photographer.
Some of the work displayed on this site is part fo a project on regional Mexican music. It started as a photo essay for the LA Times on music in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The research for that assignment opened up a rich world of traditional music where the different genres of Mexican son vary by geographic location and historical influences.
Chris currently lives on Roosevelt Island in New York City.
FROM A SUBSCRIBER
The eagles of the original Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan have had a celebrated history – particularly since the beginning of the historic building’s demolition. On the initial day of Penn’s ‘deconstruction’ in 1964, the eagles were the first things removed from the structure. Several were ceremonially lowered from their perches above Seventh Avenue and dutifully photographed for the newspapers and TV.
This media event was intended to symbolize the “magnificent” progress the new Madison Square Garden Center would mean to New York but instead – sitting on the pavement and looking a bit angry – they immediately became emblematic of all the city was to lose with Penn Station’s demolition.
Photographs of those earthbound eagles from that fateful day appeared again and again over the next twenty years. When Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan opened his first hearing on moving Penn Station to what is now Moynihan Train Hall, he sat between two pictures: one of the ruined fourteen story ticket lobby and the other of one of those eagles.
Some remarkable photojournalism work was done documenting the demolition of Penn Station – but I have always believed those stone eagles, shorn of the building for which they were made, did as much (or more) to galvanize support for replacing the facility than any other single thing. That’s a proud accomplishment for a proud bird.
guy ludwig laudisi October, 2024 Westview
CREDITS
CHRIS VAIL PHOTOGRAPHY
JUDITH BERDY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
The Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. is home to many species of birds, including a special eagle from New York City. You will find it perched outside the birdhouse. This stone monument is a remnant of the original Penn Station, designed by McKim, Mead, and White. It was one of 22 eagles that lined the cornice of the colossal train station. When the station was demolished in 1963, the eagles were scattered throughout the country.
Pennsylvania Central Railroad donated the eagle to the zoo after encouragement from Smithsonian Secretary Dillon Ripley. According to a sign located next to the statue, the eagle arrived in D.C. in 1965. It temporarily moved to Montreal for the Expo 67, where it was on display in the U.S. Pavilion. You can see it from above in this photo!
The eagle at the zoo is made of Tennessee pink marble and was designed by German-born sculptor Adolph Weinman. You may think it resembles the eagle on the Walking Liberty Half Dollar, also designed by Weinman. In addition to the stone eagles, Weinman crafted four pairs of allegorical figures titled “Day and Night” for Penn Station. One of those pairs, along with a pair of eagles, serves as the centerpiece of a fountain in Kansas City.
A PIGEON ON THE HIGHLINE
Rendering Courtesy of Iván Argote
A giant pigeon will soon be keeping watch over 10th Avenue. Iván Argote’s sculpture Dinosaur lands on the High Line this October as the next High Line Plinth commission. Perched atop the intersection of 10th Ave and 30th Street, Dinosaur is a colossal, hyper-realistic sculpture of a pigeon, cast in aluminum and hand-painted. “The name Dinosaur makes reference to the sculpture’s scale and to the pigeon’s ancestors who millions of years ago dominated the globe, as we humans do today,” said Argote in a press release. “The name also serves as a reference to the dinosaur’s extinction. Like them, one day we won’t be around anymore, but perhaps a remnant of humanity will live on—as pigeons do—in the dark corners and gaps of future worlds. I feel this sculpture could generate an uncanny feeling of attraction, seduction, and fear among the inhabitants of New York.” Dinosaur will be in view through Spring 2026.
ROSIE
ROSIE J-WALKS AND NOW WE HAVE SIGNS FOR DRIVERS TO BE WARNED OF HER VENTURES AROUND THE ISLAND.
Roosevelt Island: Art, Memory, and Community | Panel Discussion
Tuesday, October 8th @ 7 PM, RIVAA Gallery
Join us for a discussion in conjunction with the current photographic exhibition, Roosevelt Island: The Vision Revisited. RIVAA will bring together three distinguished panelists, who through their talent and remarkable efforts, have contributed to the beauty and quality of our built environment on Roosevelt Island.
– Amanda Matthews is a sculptor and creator of The Girl Puzzle, a tribute to groundbreaking investigative journalist Nellie Bly. Through her reporting, Nelly Bly changed how mental illness was treated in this country.
– Gina Pollara, Executive Director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park from 2006-2013, oversaw the construction of the memorial designed by architect Louis I. Kahn to commemorate the 32nd President of the United States.
– Susan Rosenthal, President and CEO of Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) from 2016-2020, conceived the idea of a monument to Nelly Bly.
– Chris Vail, exhibiting photographer of Roosevelt Island: The Vision Revisited will moderate.
CREDITS
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
JUDITH BERDY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
By most accounts, the Lincoln Tunnel is the world’s busiest vehicular tunnel (the type used by cars and trucks). It actually consists of three levels in a tube, and accommodates about 43 million vehicles per year, or about 120,000 per day.
It was opened in 1937, ten years after the Holland Tunnel (about three miles south) began handling traffic, and a Northern New York man was instrumental to the success of both tunnel systems.
Charles Watson Murdock, a native of Crown Point, New York, worked closely with some of the best engineers in American history, playing a key role in solving a problem unique to tunnels for vehicles with gasoline-powered engines.
Charles was born on February 11, 1889, to Andrew and Mary Murdock. After entering the Sherman Collegiate Institute (a prep school in Moriah), he attended Middlebury College in Vermont, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree, and then RPI in Troy, graduating in 1912 as a civil engineer. Following a stint with the New York Telephone Company, he accepted a position with the Public Service Commission, 1st District, New York City in 1913.
During the next several years, a pressing problem developed in Murdock’s field of work. The automobile had taken hold in America, and with the proliferation of cars in New York City, gridlock became routine. There were far too many vehicles on the road, clogging thoroughfares with major traffic jams, particularly at bridges.
Ferries helped, but the wait was long. The solution of adding more bridges and more ferries carried several additional problems. After studying the issues, experts decided that tunnels were the best option.
Plenty of tunnels had been dug in the past to accommodate trains, water pipelines, and subway systems. The advent of the automobile introduced new problems in anything but the shortest of tunnels. The gasoline engine emitted poisonous gases, primarily carbon monoxide. The problem vexing engineers was how to discharge those deadly gases from tunnels to make the air safe.
No method had yet been devised to fill long tunnels (like the planned 1.6-mile Holland) with safe and breathable air. Slow traffic, stalled cars, and accidents could keep citizens within a tunnel for lengthy periods. All the while, every vehicle would be pumping poisonous gas into an enclosed space, with deadly results.
From among several options, the method proposed by Clifford Holland was chosen. On his team of engineers was Charles Murdock, who was then employed by the New York State Bridge and Tunnel Commission and the New Jersey Interstate Bridge and Tunnel Commission. (Clifford Holland died just two days before the two tunnels from east and west were joined. The project was renamed in his honor.)
Several dozen structures requiring innovative and exceptional engineering skills have been called “the Eighth Wonder of the World.” Among them is the Holland Tunnel, “the world’s first mechanically ventilated underwater vehicular tunnel.” That long-winded description is very important — the Holland’s machine-powered air-handling system became the standard blueprint for automobile tunnels the world over for the next seven decades.
Charles Murdock was deeply involved in its design, development, and implementation. In 1921, he conducted subway ventilation tests at the University of Illinois. Further work— highly detailed, exhaustive experimentation—was done in a test tunnel created in an old mine near Bruceton, Pennsylvania, duplicating the Holland site. The data from those testing facilities formed a basis for the creation of the Holland Tunnel’s ventilation system.
In the process, the engineering team also developed and used the first reliable automated carbon monoxide detector (with kudos from miners and canaries alike, no doubt).
The giant tubes that formed the highway tunnels were separated into three horizontal layers. The middle layer handled traffic; the bottom layer conducted fresh air throughout the tunnel; and the top layer pulled the poisonous gases upward for removal.
The system was driven by four 10-story ventilation towers, two on each side of the river. Together they housed 84 fans of 8 feet in diameter—half provided fresh air, which flowed through slits in the tunnel floor, and the other half expelled “dirty” air and gases skyward. The system provided a complete change in the tunnel’s air every 90 seconds.
Should it ever fail, thousands of lives were at risk. For that reason, extreme safety measures were built into the system. Power to the fans was supplied from six independent sources, three on each side of the river, and each capable of powering the entire tunnel on its own.
Due to Murdock’s great expertise, he was later chosen to oversee the installation of the ventilation system on the Lincoln Tunnel. Fifty-six fans performed the air-handling duties, and twenty men covered three shifts around the clock, monitoring the carbon monoxide instruments. Motorists commented that the air they breathed in the Lincoln Tunnel was far cleaner than what they breathed daily in the city.
In 1938, the year after the Lincoln Tunnel opened, Murdock’s presentation, “Ventilating the Lincoln Vehicular Tunnel” was made before the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers, setting the standard for similar tunnels around the world.
By 1947, ten years after the Lincoln Tunnel opened, Murdock’s work was praised as a modern wonder. It had operated perfectly for a full decade — none of the backup systems were called into use during that time.
Though he was known principally for his work on the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels from the 1920s through the 1960s, Murdock’s skills were called upon for many other large projects. He was a consulting mechanical engineer on the addition of second tunnels to four sites on the Pennsylvania Turnpike — the Allegheny, Blue Mountain, Kittatinny, and Tascarora tunnels.
Among jobs in other states, Murdock consulted on the East River Mountain Tunnel in West Virginia; Big Walker Mountain Tunnel in Virginia; and the Baltimore Tunnel (Outer Tunnel) in Maryland. He also worked on the Riverfront & Elysian Fields Expressway in Louisiana, and Route I-695’s Connector D in Boston.
Charles Murdock remained with the Port Authority of New York for more than 25 years. The Crown Point native is linked to some of the most important engineering work of the twentieth century. He died in Volusia, Florida in 1970 at the age of 81.
Roosevelt Island: Art, Memory, and Community | Panel Discussion
Tuesday, October 8th @ 7 PM, RIVAA Gallery
Join us for a discussion in conjunction with the current photographic exhibition, Roosevelt Island: The Vision Revisited. RIVAA will bring together three distinguished panelists, who through their talent and remarkable efforts, have contributed to the beauty and quality of our built environment on Roosevelt Island.
– Amanda Matthews is a sculptor and creator of The Girl Puzzle, a tribute to groundbreaking investigative journalist Nellie Bly. Through her reporting, Nelly Bly changed how mental illness was treated in this country.
– Gina Pollara, Executive Director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park from 2006-2013, oversaw the construction of the memorial designed by architect Louis I. Kahn to commemorate the 32nd President of the United States.
– Susan Rosenthal, President and CEO of Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) from 2016-2020, conceived the idea of a monument to Nelly Bly.
– Chris Vail, exhibiting photographer of Roosevelt Island: The Vision Revisited will moderate.
CREDITS
NEW YORK ALMANACK Illustrations, from above: Lincoln Tunnel under construction, 1936; Charles Watson Murdock; the three layers in the Lincoln Tunnel tube; and a Lincoln Tunnel ventilation tower in Manhattan.JUDITH BERDY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
When photographer and urban explorer Joseph Anastasio stumbled upon an abandoned passenger car sitting dormant in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, it was like an apocalyptic scene from the latest season of The Last of Us. The derelict car was a forgotten prototype from the Brooklyn-Queens Connector – commonly known as the BQX – a $2.7 billion light-rail project that never saw the light of day. Check out more of Anastasio’s photos below and find out what happened to this failed transit project Untapped New York has been following since 2016.
Photo by Joseph Anastasio
Origins of the BQX
The BQX was conceived before the DeBlasio administration. The original idea can be traced back to the late-urban planner Alex Garvin who became known for the “Ground Zero: The Rebuilding of a City.” But Christopher Torres, the former deputy director of the Friends of the BQX, credits an article written by New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman for the vision behind the BQX.
In 2014, Kimmelman published an op-ed suggesting the city return to its roots and adopt a streetcar system independent from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). He invokes the term “desire lines” to describe emerging neighborhoods along the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront that were largely underserved by the existing subway lines. Hoping to bring Kimmelman’s idea to fruition, Friends of the BQX proposed an 11-mile streetcar line that would run along the East River From Astoria, Queens to Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Image courtesy of NYCEDC (2017)
In 2017, Friends of the BQX hosted a press conference at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The organization unveiled a prototype of the BQX, a 46 by 9-foot passenger car designed by Alstom SM. The French rail transit designer previously worked in other major cities like Miami and Toronto. The prototype looked quite futuristic. It had a sleek exterior, open gangways, and bright red seats.
When Anastasio, author of Brooklyn Navy Yard: Beyond the Wall, found the abandoned prototype back in March, he “was surprised at how abandoned it felt: with panels falling off and quite a bit of liter inside the two cars.” It appears that the seats were removed as well. “Overall I was surprised at how narrow it was,” he continued, “The seats were laid out funny. It just felt oddly uncomfortable.” You can see before and after photos below.
By the time of the prototype unveiling, the project was beginning to hit its stride. Friends of the BQX had assembled a formidable board of directors, including representation from developers, city agencies, and business improvement districts—a who’s-who of Brooklyn and Queens power brokers. Through canvassing, cold-calling, and engagement workshops, the non-profit also gathered over fifty thousand signatures from residents supporting the project, many of whom resided in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) facilities.
Why the BQX Was Never Built
While the inspiration for the BQX preceded DeBlasio, the project was both a beneficiary and a victim of his administration. Before the pandemic, New York was trying to capitalize on the tech boom taking over cities like San Francisco. When Long Island City emerged as the leading candidate to host Amazon’s new headquarters, it was clear the subway was no longer sufficient, especially in the outer boroughs where young professionals were beginning to settle. In comes the BQX. The project was to be funded through deferred financing, essentially that means it would have been funded retroactively using the property taxes it would generate. This has become standard real estate practice in New York, paving the way for unprecedented real estate projects like Hudson Yards.
It’s nothing new for transit proposals to be co-opted by politicians hoping to give their constituents something tangible to rally behind. But with Governor Hochul’s controversial decision to hastily suspend congestion pricing–leading to $16.5 billion in budget cuts at the expense of subway extensions–depoliticizing public transit has never been more relevant. As a community-led project, the BQX claimed to do just that, bring ingenuity and efficiency to an antiquated transit system. “For the first time in over 100 years,” Torres said, “transit was back in the hands of the city.” The Friends of the BQX hoped to build off the success of previous grassroots organizations that mobilized public works initiatives, namely the Friends of the High Line.
But it wasn’t clear whether the BQX would fill the transit void on the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront. Opponents of the plan argued that sections of the initial route were redundant with the MTA’s existing G line. Torres rejects the notion that the project was mutually exclusive from existing subway lines however, “The BQX was part of a holistic plan, one that included bolstering the MTA.” As a result, the route was constantly being tweaked and pivoted away from residential neighborhoods like Sunset Park to more commercial markets like Downtown Brooklyn. As consulting fees mounted, the project’s $2.4 billion price tag grew. When Amazon withdrew from its Long Island City project, the $40 billion the BQX had promised to generate in tax revenue seemed suddenly out of reach. Covid’s impact on the city’s budget was the nail in the coffin.
OUR SUBWAY STATION IS GETTING A LONG NEEDED CLEANUP:
ROOF PAINTED WALLS PAINTED RED INTERIOR TRIM PAINTED OUTDOOR VENTS CHANGED OUTDOOR DRAINS CLEANED WINDOWS CLEANED- DE GRAFFITTED AND POLISHED BOOTH SCRUBBED AND VENTS CLEANED UPPER LEVEL BENCHES VARNISHED BROKEN METALWORK REMOVED LOWER LEVEL AND MORE
BROKEN METAL WORK REMOVED AND A REALLY CLEAN UPPER LEVEL. IT EVEN SMELLS CLEAN!!!
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
JUDITH BERDY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
