Robert Moses Photo Collective

EvilGentleman: 19th Mar 2007 - 05:12 GMT

The dam under which I used to fish as a boy in Cornwall, Ontario was called the Moses-Saunders Power Dam. The New York State end of the dam is in Robert Moses State Park. That sure takes me back, thinking of lying in the sun on the banks of the St. Lawrence, looking at the dam to see the Star-Spangled Banner and the Maple Leaf flying side-by-side, yet each in their respective nations, while waiting for a fish to bite. Jeez, I'm too young to be sounding like jack, what's happening to me?

joey: 19th Mar 2007 - 05:19 GMT

maybe you're waning. we're all waning in the u. s. a. could have been a song by the clash

EvilGentleman: 19th Mar 2007 - 05:54 GMT

Well joey, since you are my elder, I shall respect your opinion :p

CartLegger: 19th Mar 2007 - 08:44 GMT

Why stop at NYC? Moses travelled far and wide in his journeys. So snap away, oh Canadian brethren.

little ukraine: 19th Mar 2007 - 16:05 GMT

this is an AMAZING idea, i will gladly contribute to this. i may have stuff already, i'll dig through my old photos tonight.

CartLegger: 27th Mar 2007 - 02:58 GMT

Would it help if I gave ya'll a map to go by?
Robert Moses NYC Map @ "Robert Moses and The Modern City"
http://www.learn.columbia.edu/moses/

little ukraine: 27th Mar 2007 - 03:15 GMT

Ah, I grew up on Long Island, I know the places, I just haven't had an opportunity yet. I haven't forgotten about this thread.

iman: 5th Apr 2007 - 16:15 GMT

little ukraine, man i grew up on long island too man! what town(s) did you live in?

Tyfoid Kid: 5th Apr 2007 - 16:37 GMT

This is very cool. I'm just reading that book about Robert Moses - The Power Broker http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Broker
This guy had a hand in all kinds of things and he got very rich for someone who was never elected to office.

little ukraine: 5th Apr 2007 - 17:04 GMT

Tyfoid Kid - I had a chance to read the power broker last summer (appropriately enough, while commuting on the long island rail road). it's a really incredible book, i can't say enough about how much i enjoyed it. it reads as well as a book on the political history of new york as it does on the biography of a legendary figure as it does as a manual on the follies of traditional urban planning, and so on...
iman - nice! I grew up in Patchogue - if you search this site, there are a handful of Patchogue and Long Island posts from me and a poster named ghost of grandin. where are you from?

iman: 5th Apr 2007 - 17:39 GMT

man i grew up in sound beach, selden, centereach, rocky point and middle island.

iman: 5th Apr 2007 - 17:47 GMT

hey l.u., i'm goin there over the summer. i'll be sure to go around patchogue, and maybe find some more interesting things in other towns too.

CartLegger: 9th Apr 2007 - 22:50 GMT

Straight into the belly of the beast. I did this for you, Citynoise!
The sign may have said "no photos, strictly enforced, but I went in ninja style and with a quick roll on the lawn got these photos of the once center of Moses' power--located on Randall's Island.

No, I don't know what they do there now. When you are breaking the law, there is no time to stop and ask lawful questions!

little ukraine: 10th Apr 2007 - 14:45 GMT

nice! well done. i'm hosting to post some of the robert moses causeway soon.

Brad: 10th Apr 2007 - 15:13 GMT

Took this picture on the forbidden Triborough Bridge last month on vacation. The white signs on the right are "No Photography" signs. I didn't realize what they said until we rode past them, we also were supposed to be walking our bikes over the bridge at the time, oh well, nobody else was on it. I must say, Randall's Island is one creepy place at midnight, I couldn't have been happier to get back on the bridge to Queens, yikes!

Tyfoid Kid: 10th Apr 2007 - 17:45 GMT

Is all the "No photography" because of the NYC elevated Terror Threat Level BS??
Cartlegger - I was trying to get a look at stuff on Randell Island using Google Earth and MS virtual earth but this shot is perfect. I need to get out east some day, visit the cousin who lives in the Bronx.

CartLegger: 10th Apr 2007 - 20:36 GMT

maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&z=13&om=1&msid=118060197583294432954.00000111d398383e96592&msa=0

You can find all of it here, on my own Google Map.

Brad: 10th Apr 2007 - 20:55 GMT

The "threat level" is the only excuse I can think of for not allowing pictures to be taken. If I'm not mistaken, pictures of/in the city's tunnels are also forbidden, or to quote the cop at the Queens-Midtown Tunnel back in 2004: "No you can't get through here on your bike and you can't take pictures, you do, you get a summons"...blah blah blah. Not sure why the other major bridges are ok, like the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queensboro Bridges or the GWB.

Brad: 10th Apr 2007 - 21:00 GMT

Another thing I forgot. Since this is a Roberts Moses post, it would be interesting to see some before and after pictures of areas that his projects went through. I remember seeing a picture of what I believed was the area of part of the Cross Bronx Expressway before and after, looks like it ripped right through what was a pretty nice Bronx neighborhood before it was built. I think this was on the New York City dvd set (by PBS).

CartLegger: 10th Apr 2007 - 21:24 GMT

Word: I'll try to get some of those from "Robert Moses and the Making of the Modern City".
But so much of that stuff is lost, lost forever, another world only safe on the lips and in the minds of the old.

CartLegger: 10th Apr 2007 - 22:45 GMT

Asser Levy Pool on 23rd (or was it 25th?) and FDR drive. Definitely the brighter side of Moses.

little ukraine: 8th May 2007 - 03:21 GMT

a trip to dc gave me the opportunity to snap some robert moses photos..

here is long island's southern state parkway. note the landscaping of the median:

a typical robert moses overpass is detailed with a natural stone pattern designed to blend in with the surrounding environment:

the verrazano barrows bridge, a beast of a structure:

CartLegger: 8th May 2007 - 03:47 GMT

Little Ukraine: Great update! Keep it coming, citynoise snappers!

little ukraine: 8th May 2007 - 14:23 GMT

oops, that's verrazano narrows, not barrows

Brad: 9th Jul 2007 - 04:07 GMT

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Brooklyn bound.

March 11, 2007

little ukraine: 23rd Jul 2007 - 19:13 GMT

little ukraine: 23rd Jul 2007 - 19:19 GMT

oops, posted too early..
pictured above are Astoria Park, the Triborough Bridge spanning Hell Gate, and a marker at the entrance of the Charybdis Playground (where's Scylla? Presumably Ward's Island) next to the Astoria Pool, pictured below:

and one more of the triborough...

lesson number one from Mr. Moses: want the public to love you unconditionally? build them massive parks.

CartLegger: 23rd Jul 2007 - 19:27 GMT

nice, pics, Li'l U. Moses' tentacles were certainly at times warm and fuzzy.

little ukraine: 24th Jul 2007 - 14:27 GMT

the cantilevered section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway:

and for good measure, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade above it, and the view of Lower Manhattan offered there:

CartLegger: 24th Jul 2007 - 14:57 GMT

and just to think, Moses had to be lobbied and picketed into creating this wonderful vertical highway. If not for the people of Brooklyn Heights, there would no view and a ditch through the neighborhood.

little ukraine: 24th Jul 2007 - 15:15 GMT

those in Sunset Park weren't as lucky. also, not coincidentally, they weren't as wealthy. third avenue? who needs it! "not worth saving." just about two miles south of the beautiful strip of road seen here we get Moses at his worst (doing what he did best).

little ukraine: 27th Jul 2007 - 14:50 GMT

speaking of Sunset Park...

Here is Third Avenue, once a vibrant street full of shopping and dining (New Yorkers, think Steinway Street, Fulton Street, Roosevelt Avenue). The Gowanus Express, the southern leg of the BQE, arrived in 1941.

The west side of the street abounds with enormous warehouses that stretch all the way to Second Avenue, adjacent to the waterfront that was vital to the neighborhood's economy prior to WWII. You can still see in the roadbed the rails and spurs leading into each of the warehouses along the street. Second Avenue, with its boatyards and heavy industry, was proposed as an alternative for the Gowanus, but Moses wouldn't have it.

Peter: 27th Jul 2007 - 15:10 GMT

here are some good ones from the promenade, too...

procyon: 5th Aug 2007 - 00:23 GMT

Nova: 11th Oct 2007 - 03:50 GMT

Hope somebody can help - trying to find out the height of the bridges on Southern State Pkwy - that is, the clearance? Does anyone know, or have a photo showing one of those signs? Thanks in advance!

little ukraine: 11th Oct 2007 - 04:00 GMT

oh gosh... it's not very high. maybe you could try to scale it from those pictures... how tall is a truck, 13' 6" i think? so maybe clearance on the southern state is around 11 feet? purely a guess