Blog Posts by Subject: Transportation

An author telephoned Ask NYPL, the ready reference division of The New York Public Library, stating that she needed the "real facts" as to a cross country railroad trip from Seattle to Groton, Massachusetts in 1912. Indeed, this was the final information she would need to complete her novel. What would be the duration of each "leg" of such a trip? Which railroads would be taken? And what would be the cost of such a trip?

Did you know that Grand Central Station (also known as Grand Central Terminal) recently turned 100?

Opened in 1871 on 42nd Street between Park and Lexington avenues, the station was renovated and reopened in February 1913. Grand Central is one of the largest train connecters to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) 4, 5, 6, 7 and S lines that run in four boroughs; and connections to Metro-North Railway going to Westchester, Putnam and Duchess counties.

Brooklyn Workforce Innovations (BWI) helps jobless and working poor New Yorkers establish careers in sectors that offer good wages and opportunities for advancement.

BWI’s mission is to empower low- and moderate–income people by creating living-wage employment and access to career paths. BWI seeks to develop programs that counter prevailing market inequalities (especially those based on race or gender) and contribute to a broader movement for economic justice.

Want to work but need a license?

Brooklyn Workforce Innovations helps jobless and working poor New Yorkers establish careers in sectors that offer good wages and opportunities for advancement.

Currently BWI offers free job training programs in four industries: commercial driving, telecommunications cable installation, TV and film production, and skilled woodworking.

• Landlord-Tenant Disputes: Heat and Hot Water, Eviction, Foreclosure
• Complaints with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTA)
• Consumer Fraud and "Rip Offs"
• Discrimination based on Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation

Most New Yorkers, when asked to name NYC landmarks, will conjure up the familiar array of iconographic symbols that make up our city: the Statue Liberty, the Empire State Building, Times Square, the Ground Zero Memorial, etc. — but having grown up in Washington Heights, I can’t help but place the George Washington Bridge among the great monuments of Gotham pride. Ever since its completion in 1931, this stunning suspension bridge has remained a sight that never gets old, one which seems so in harmony with its surroundings, and whose effortless beauty belies a remarkable feat of engineering.

This May is a month of celebration here at NYPL. A 100 year birthday for the Library’s landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, and here at SIBL, we mark 15 years of operation. As appropriate for 100 years, NYPL will focus on many of its incredible research collections in the new exhibition Celebrating 100 Years, which will open May 14. On a smaller scale, this might be a good opportunity to mention SIBL's extensive collection of trade and professional journals.

"I hope you are not here because you like to read." It was the opening salvo for my interview with the admissions director at the University of Maryland's Graduate School of Library & Information Services. I don't remember what, or if, I countered. It was 1967.

Long before Forrest Ackerman coined the term Sci-Fi man had imagined escaping the confines of this planet and exploring the vast unknown regions of outer space. 

Space tourism is a burgeoning field but with a cost of about $20 million for a window seat it is a trip that most of us will never make.

My suggestion is to settle on the next best thing: a visit to your local library!

The Staten Island Ferry today remains a lifeline to Staten Island, as it is still heavily traveled by Staten Islanders for work and pleasure. The area of St. George grew up around the ferry. St. George was more or less a rural outpost until the ferry started landing at its present location in the the late 1800s. Other ferry services from Staten Island existed in other locations, but only one remains, the Staten Island Ferry, which docks just a hop-skip-and-a jump from the St. George Library Center.

The United Nations' Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division estimated that by the end of 2008, for the first time in human history, the Earth's population was more than half concentrated into urban areas. 

A subway map of New York City appears to be completely utilitarian and to the untrained eye even pedestrian. In the eyes of another it is a document rife with information. What can be found in the subway maps of New York City is management lineage, a design statement, design history, history of the city, history of business, social history, aesthetics and intention. The adage of “read between the lines” reveals much when looking at a subway map.

For symbols of the freedom of the road, you can't beat the wind in your hair, piles of crinkly state road maps at your side, and a whole continent of asphalt spilling out underneath your wheels. The devil-may-care excitement that goes with exploring the American continent has lured many a traveler since the invention of the automobile.

But would one ever call taking a road trip a feminist activity? I don’t mean Thelma and Louise on a tear in a Ford Thunderbird, shooting criminals and running from the law. That’s Hollywood. I mean real, adventuresome women out to investigate what there is to see in these United States.

Robert A Caro’s tome The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York is a thick, unwieldy book at 1344 pages. It sits on my shelf with yellowed pages. I bought it shortly after I moved to New York City 30 years ago. I enjoy history and learned after I moved here that Robert Moses was an important piece of the NYC history puzzle. The book upon first reading was lost to me. I had no real understanding of New York City at that point and Robert Moses’ story was simply too complex and out of context for me. When I think about the enormity of Caro’s book I think of the enormity of the personage of Robert Moses himself. I have started The Power Broker a couple of 

Journey through Time
with the Picture CollectionEnter the doors of the Schwarzman Building from Fifth Avenue this week and you will find yourself, as usual at this time of year, in a jolly space with a giant Christmas tree adorned with all the trimmings of the season. But that's not the only marvel to behold.

What could be more American than the road trip narrative? From Jack Kerouac to Tom Robbins, Americans have penned accounts both real and fictional about the joys and singular boredom of the open road. The rolling hills and prairies, the breeze wafting in through the window, and the seemingly endless dots of small towns, roadside restaurants and gas stations all stem from a particularly American phenomenon: the Interstate Highway System.

According to Stokes Iconography of Manhattan Island, on October 8, 1908 a city ordinance was passed changing the name of Blackwell’s Island Bridge to Queensboro Bridge.

Further research into Stokes Iconography provides more history about the Queensboro Bridge.

The city began proceedings to acquire the land on April 25, 1900. On November 15 the common council passed “an ordinance to provide for the construction of a new bridge over the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens.” On February 23, 1901 the plan for the construction was approved. “The bridge is to be constructed on the cantilever principle, is to be 150