Day 794


Day 794

Close quarters

March 3rd, 2014



Looking down from the elevated Culver Line (F train) at the densely populated grounds of Washington Cemetery

Day 794

Port of the day

March 3rd, 2014


Day 794

Blasts from the past

March 3rd, 2014



Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Backfat, at an ice cream distributor on McDonald Avenue




...when you can have your "shabbath knifes" sharpened while getting your payos cut.

Day 794

Parakeet nest

March 3rd, 2014



It's been a while since we've seen one of these.

Day 794

Portholes of the day

March 3rd, 2014


Day 794




This unique trash can backstop looks to have been relocated from a subway entrance or storage yard somewhere in the city to the sidewalk outside this print shop in the Borough Park/Dyker Heights borderlands.

There are two nearby subway lines: the West End Line (D train), which is elevated, and the Sea Beach Line (N train), which runs in an open cut with station houses at its entrances. Lampposts and railings like these, however, are generally only found at simple sidewalk entrances to underground stations, so it would seem they must have come from somewhere more exotic.

(Did you know? The design of a station's lampposts and railings can tell you a little about its history.)

(And if you've ever wondered why some subway globe lamps are green and others are red, don't worry: there's a logical system behind it all. Sort of.)

Day 794

Office dwellers

March 3rd, 2014



Signs taped to the windows of this office seem to indicate that the space is shared by a funeral home and a general contractor. I'd have to imagine this desk sits on the contracting side of things.

Day 794




This massive structure contains two churches, one stacked atop the other. The lower church opened in 1909; the upper one wasn't completed until 1928.

Day 794

Self-storage fortress

March 3rd, 2014



A former National Guard arsenal. Here's a shot of this impregnable citadel nearing completion in 1926.

Day 794

Portal of the day

March 3rd, 2014



An entrance to the erstwhile arsenal seen in the previous photo

Day 794




The Brooklyn Army Terminal, designed by Cass Gilbert, the architect of the Woolworth Building, was completed in 1919. The larger of its two main buildings features this stunning, formerly skylight-enclosed atrium. (Here's a beautiful shot of the atrium taken in 1949 by Andreas Feininger.) The reddish bridge-looking thing spanning the opening between the two sides of the building is part of an old traveling overhead crane that was used to load and unload the trains that once pulled in here; the staggered balcony arrangement provided the crane unobstructed vertical access to each floor. (Compare to the Hasidic Sukkot balconies we've seen previously.)

Currently redeveloped for commercial and light industrial use, the Brooklyn Army Terminal (formerly known as the Brooklyn Army Base) was supposedly the country's largest military supply base during World War II. I've read several claims that it was the point of departure for some 80% of American troops and supplies during the war, but I don't think that's true. The highest estimate of the number of WWII soldiers shipped out from here that I've seen is 3.2 million, and, as best I can tell, some 7.3 million soldiers in total were deployed overseas during the war. (The corresponding numbers for supplies are 37 million measurement tons and 127 million measurement tons.) So 80% seems like a highly exaggerated figure, but it's still pretty amazing to think that almost half of the US soldiers sent overseas during the war may have passed through this facility.

But let's do away with the uncertainties. There is one undisputed, and quite well documented, fact that I can share with you on the subject of troop deployments from the Brooklyn Army Base: On a late September day in 1958, a Private Elvis Aron (or was it Aaron? OK, that part's kind of disputed) Presley arrived here by train en route to an Army installation in Friedberg, Germany, where he would serve for the next 17 months before returning to civilian life.

Day 794

Retired rail cars

March 3rd, 2014



They appear to have been sitting here in Building B since at least 1999, boasting a sporty silver-with-blue-stripes paint job for much of that time. According to the Daily News, one of the cars "was going to be turned into a restaurant that never actually opened." That's an interesting hook — a restaurant so exclusive, it's never open.

Day 794

AFRICA ODD COUNTRIES

March 3rd, 2014



So reads some text painted on the column across the way (closer look). According a historical exhibit in the lobby here at Building B, these are Army Post Office destinations. Other destination names I spotted on columns in the atrium: the Balkans, Greece, Portugal, the Azores, and India.

Day 794

Kiss & Sail

March 3rd, 2014



Ferry service at the Brooklyn Army Terminal's 58th Street pier

Day 794

The Star of Palm Beach

March 3rd, 2014



Booze cruiser with silly fake paddlewheel

Day 794

Serpentine!

March 3rd, 2014



Shore Road Drive in Bay Ridge

Day 794

Runestone “replica”

March 3rd, 2014



Leif Ericson Park is named in honor of the large Scandinavian population that once existed here in Bay Ridge. Within the park stands this "replica of a rune stone found in Tune, Norway", featuring a plaque that depicts a heroic-looking character at sea and reads "Leiv Eiriksson — Discovered America Year 1000". This monument was dedicated by Crown Prince Olav (later King Olav V) of Norway during a visit to the US in 1939.

Day 794

Antenna King

March 3rd, 2014



From the pages of The New Yorker:

. . . the Antenna King showed up with his wife, Rosanne Langan, the Antenna Queen. He is tall and gregarious, with a shock of silver hair and the stiff knees that come from climbing up to thousands of New York City roofs. As he began to hold forth, the Queen nodded silently, with an air that suggested that she had heard the King’s broadcasts on many occasions and understands that the signal is still strong. "The story of the Antenna King is an interesting story of how a man started a business and good fortune came along," the Antenna King said. . . .

Day 794

Two guys on a wall

March 3rd, 2014


Day 794

Keepin’ things level

March 3rd, 2014


Day 794

Beneath the BQE

March 3rd, 2014



Under construction, as always

Day 794

Globe Wholesale

March 3rd, 2014


Day 794

Refrigerator Horse!

March 3rd, 2014


Day 794

THE MEAT CLUB

March 3rd, 2014



But do they have meat plans?

Day 794

Sliding tile puzzle

March 3rd, 2014


Day 794

Could be woise

March 3rd, 2014


Day 794

Another in the series

March 3rd, 2014



of unique school crossing signs

Day 794

Hamodia

March 3rd, 2014



As "The Newspaper of Torah Jewry", Hamodia's slogan is:

A newspaper upstanding enough to bring home [e.g., photos of womenor even their shoes, apparently — are forbidden] and outstanding enough to bring anywhere