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Author
Series
People's Place booklet volume no. 3
Language
English
Formats
Description
Accessible in style, Plain Buggies presents the most complete work on the transportation modes of the "plain people" published to date. Includes details on prices, styles, laws, stories. Why do 100,000 persons in North America refuse to drive cars for religious reasons? What are the main styles among the 90-some variations of their vehicles? What does a horse's face tell you about its personality? What about accidents, the law, and harassment? How...
Author
Series
Pub. Date
2020
Language
English
Formats
Description
Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was once served by 120 miles of trolley lines. During the decades spanning the 1890s to 1950s, a variety of trolley cars glided through Bucks County's towns and countryside, beginning with Langhorne's quaint open streetcars and culminating with streamlined interurbans streaking across open fields from Sellersville to Quakertown at 80 miles per hour. The trolleys were powered by electricity, with the line stretching north...
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Language
English
Description
Washington's first streetcars trundled down Pennsylvania Avenue during the Civil War. By the end of the century, streetcar lines crisscrossed the city, expanding it into the suburbs and defining where Washingtonians lived, worked and played. One of the most beloved routes was the scenic Cabin John line to the amusement park in Glen Echo, Maryland. From the quaint early days of small horse-drawn cars to the modern "streamliners" of the twentieth century,...
Author
Language
English
Description
Know where to get off with the mass transit rider's guide to the Washington area's most notable historic sites-includes photos!
Whether you're a local or a visitor, you can explore every museum, monument, mural, and more in this guide-each within walking distance of a Metro station. The Metro system covers more than 115 miles with ninety-one stations, allowing millions each year to easily access some of the area's most beautiful, celebrated locations.
Don't...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The story of the spectacular and much-lamented train terminal whose destruction inspired a new passion for historic preservation. Includes photos.
In early twentieth-century New York, few could have imagined a train terminal as grand as Pennsylvania Station. Yet, executives at the Pennsylvania Railroad secretly bought up land in Manhattan's infamous Tenderloin District to build one of the world's most spectacular monuments.
Sandhogs would battle...
Author
Language
English
Description
Last Subway is the fascinating and dramatic story behind New York City's struggle to build a new subway line under Second Avenue and improve transit services all across the city. With his extraordinary access to powerful players and internal documents, Philip Mark Plotch reveals why the city's subway system, once the best in the world, is now too often unreliable, overcrowded, and uncomfortable. He explains how a series of uninformed and self-serving...
Author
Language
English
Description
Western Pennsylvania's infrastructure is renowned for traversing valleys, mountains, rivers and everything in between. Early surveying in the region delineated state and local boundaries that allowed for the mapping of canals, railroads and roadways. Engineers developed bridges, ground transportation systems and airports that linked Pittsburgh to the world. Frequently overflowing rivers transformed into reliable navigation passageways. Drinking water...
Author
Language
English
Description
A fascinating journey into the past-and under the ground-that offers "an insightful look at the what-might-have-beens of urban mass transit" (The New York Times).
From the day it broke ground by City Hall in 1900, it took about four and half years to build New York's first subway line to West 145th Street in Harlem. Things rarely went that quickly ever again.
The Routes Not Taken explores the often-dramatic stories behind unbuilt or unfinished...
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Series
Language
English
Description
On Christmas Eve 1917, an overcrowded, out-of-control streetcar exited the Mount Washington tunnel, crashing into pedestrians. Twenty-three were killed and more than eighty injured in the worst transit incident in Pittsburgh history. The crash scene on Carson Street was chaotic as physicians turned the railway offices into a makeshift hospital and bystanders frantically sought to remove the injured and strewn bodies from the wreckage. Most of the...
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Series
Language
English
Description
Considered the "Best Ride in New York City," the Staten Island Ferry has been immortalized over the years in art, literature, film, and music. In the 19th century, cross-bay ferry riders complained of dangerous and unreliable private service. On October 25, 1905, the newly incorporated City of New York assumed ownership of the service, and the Borough class-the Brooklyn, Bronx, Richmond, Queens, and Manhattan ferryboats-was introduced. These were...
Author
Language
English
Description
What sets Staten Island apart from the rest of New York City? The island's identity has in part been defined in opposition to the city, its physical and cultural differences, and the perception of neglect by city government. It has long been whiter, wealthier, less populated, and more politically conservative. And despite many attempts over the years, Staten Island is not connected by the subway to any of the other four boroughs.
Kenneth M. Gold...
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Series
Language
English
Description
The Jersey Shore lighthouse that stands in Sea Girt has been a guiding beacon for seafarers since the end of the nineteenth century. A revolutionary lens, designed by Frenchman Augustin-Jean Fresnel, captured the flickering flame of a burning wick and projected a unique flash that could be seen for fifteen miles. The genius of Fresnel's design, on full display at the lighthouse, impresses as much now as it did in the days of sail. Many colorful characters...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The waters of Manhasset Bay have long been an incubator for innovation and prosperity. While early baymen sought their livelihood through clam digging and fishing, a new industry by way of sand mining forever changed the bucolic hilltops that overlooked the bay. While the sand mining industry brought prosperity and notoriety, the industry's use of heavy machinery and hydraulic pumps leveled the peninsula, once known for its lush grazing pastures....
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Series
Language
English
Description
The Long Island Rail Road is the oldest railroad in the country still operating under its original name. It is the busiest railroad in North America, with 90 million annual riders on 735 trains covering 11 different branches. The Babylon Branch, which serves 15 stations from Valley Stream to Babylon, carries 18 million annual riders over its 20-mile right-of-way. The branch has been totally electrified since 1925 and has not had any street crossings...
Author
Series
Pub. Date
2016
Language
English
Formats
Description
The Pittsburgh Division had its earliest beginnings in 1837, but what would be known as the main line was not completed until 1871. At its height, the Pittsburgh Division consisted of five distinct main lines and 14 branch lines, and the division had trackage rights over the Western Maryland and Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroads. Images of Modern America: The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's Pittsburgh Division looks at five of these lines: the B&O Main...
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Series
Language
English
Description
Saratoga Springs is special. Its reputation goes back to 1767 when Native Americans brought Sir William Johnson to the area for the healing powers of the High Rock Spring. From this humble beginning, the popularity of Saratoga Springs and its many mineral water springs grew from the 19th century to the mid-20th century. Railroads played a key role in that growth. The first train entered Saratoga Springs in 1832. Regularly scheduled passenger trains...
18) Terror Over Elizabeth, New Jersey: Three Plane Crashes in 58 Days and the Fight for Newark Airport
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
With safety protocols in their infancy and the jet engine still in development, early commercial flight above American cities was too often deadly. Between December 1951 and January 1952, three separate plane crashes barreled down onto Elizabeth, New Jersey. Many dozens perished as the crashes destroyed entire city blocks and wreaked havoc throughout various neighborhoods. Frightened residents turned to the nearby Newark Airport for blame as a groundswell...
Author
Series
Pub. Date
2021
Language
English
Formats
Description
The construction of Pennsylvania Station (1904-1910) was a monumental undertaking equally for the voluminous earth displaced, incredible innovation, and brilliant French-influenced classical architecture, but it also was a quintessential archetype of the Gilded Age. The station reshaped the economic and social fabric of New York by dislodging scores of families and local businesses. It had been built for prestige and grandeur rather than sustainability...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Beginning in the mid-1800s, steamboats carried people between New York City and the Albany area on the Hudson River. Romantic images lull us into believing it was a quiet means of travel, but a crowded river, faulty equipment and the bravado of the captains resulted in at least one major catastrophe every year. Night boats collided and sank, carelessness caused boiler explosions, races put passengers at risk and fires would quickly swallow the wooden...
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