I Ride The Harlem Line

Category: Featured

Featured / Observations / Photos

Trainspotting in Flight

Beyond a few short jaunts on Metro-North weekly, and an occasional Amtrak train to Philadelphia, I haven’t been on trains very frequently this year. I have, on the other hand, been to LaGuardia Airport too many times. Plenty of people seem to have little love for that airport, but I don’t really mind it. Though the newly built sections and renovations are actually quite attractive, my favorite part about the airport tends to be the views you get while in the air. Subway tiles and mosaics at the new LaGuardia Airport. Many New York landmarks are reproduced in tile, including...

Featured / History / Observations / Photos

Grand Central Stargazing: Secret Signatures on the Ceiling

In its century-plus of existence, over a billion travelers have traversed the hallowed halls of Grand Central Terminal. But how many of that intrepid number, as they gazed up at the magnificence of the constellations overhead, knew that the ceiling held a secret? I’m not talking about how the constellations are “backward”—doesn’t everybody know that? Nor am I referring to the fact that the ceiling today is not the original fresco from when the Terminal opened its doors. No, I’m talking about the secret signatures that span the mural, encircling stars and hiding inside the appendages of the towering beasts...

Featured / History / Photos

A Parkway, a Station, and a Hotel. White Plains: Part 2

In Part I of our history of White Plains, we took a look at the arrival of the New York and Harlem Railroad, and how its vital link to New York City kicked off White Plains’ growth from a sleepy little village into one of Westchester’s notable cities. Along that journey a monumental train station rose and fell, man asserted its dominance over nature, and several swaths of civilization were wiped from the map, all in the name of progress. The transformation of the area around the train station in the early twentieth century was quick, and massive. The railroad’s...

Featured / History / Train Stories

The Railroad’s Raucous Arrival. White Plains: Part 1

Amid loud booms of celebratory artillery fire and the rousing tunes of a brass band, hundreds of onlookers jockeyed for a spot alongside gleaming rails, cheering and popping champagne corks. The crowd’s cries rose to a crescendo as the mighty iron horse cantered round the last curve and roared into full view, steam billowing behind her. The day was Saturday, October 26th, 1844, and at long last—thirteen years for the rails, nearly three hours for the train—the New York and Harlem Railroad had reached White Plains. The new station to which the train had arrived was a simple wooden affair,...

Featured / History / Observations

A Colorful Life at the Depot – Prints & Illustrations from Grand Central Depot

Before photographs were commonplace, engravings were often used to illustrate magazines, newspapers, and timetables. An artist would create their image on a plate—usually copper or zinc—and the plate could be copied again and again. Engraving is a little bit of a misnomer, referring to just one technique of Intaglio printmaking. There were several ways to create an illustration on a plate, including using wax and an acid to “bite” linework into the plate, a technique called etching (something I enjoyed while in art school, although I was quite terrible at it). Once an artist completed a plate, ink was applied...

Featured / History / Photos

The New York & Harlem Railroad Turns 190—Images From the Early Years

Today we are wishing the New York and Harlem Railroad—New York City’s first railroad—a very happy 190th birthday. On this day in 1831, the railroad was chartered to build from 23rd Street to the Harlem River. Ground was broken later on that year on October 11, in a rocky section of Murray Hill, around 32nd and Fourth Avenue. After a ceremonial rock boring, railroad president John Mason blasted a whistle thirteen times and delivered a rousing speech, celebrated with cheering from the crowd, and drinks of sparkling champagne. Although so long ago, in some respects we today are in a...