Saturday, June 4, 2011

From my past




This is the number 1 train pulling out of the northernmost station in NYC at 231st street in the Bronx. At the end of its run, it will turn around at South Ferry. My grandmother used to take me on this train when I was very little and we lived in Manhattan. We'd go to visit her brother on Staten Island. Later, we moved to Staten Island; later still, I went to the College of Mount St. Vincent in the Bronx, and this was the train I'd take when I'd go home for visits. John & I were there this weekend for his 40th reunion at Manhattan College, just across from this terminus.
365/2011

10 comments:

  1. Great shot. I used to work at the very bottom of Manhattan, so I am very familiar with the South Ferry end of the 1 train (and that bizarre station), but have never taken it that far north into the Bronx.

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  2. Gisele--You know those platforms that slide out so you can get over the gap at the South Ferry station? They didn't used to have them. When I was three years old, my grandmother swung me onto the train, but then the door closed on her ankle. She was still outside the train and she fell into the gap. Fortunately, someone saw this before the train started to move and pulled the red cord, and someone else hauled her out of the hole. She fractured her ankle. A week later, someone else was more seriously injured--which is what prompted the City to install the platforms.

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  3. Great image Bobbie. The cars all appear to be very new, with no graffiti on them whatsoever.

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  4. You have a long history with that train! Thanks for sharing a piece of your history.

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  5. Hi Bobbie,
    That's a beautiful train, all shinny and new looking. Thanks for sharing your memory. Have a great day!

    Sherrie

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  6. it's wonderful story you are telling, I do like it, and I like the picture - it's a great shot -, gives me some impressions of how it might be there in NYC

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  7. This is perhaps my favorite image of yours, Bobbie. Love the shine of the train, the grittiness of the scene, the elevation of the train that adds so much interest, and what can I say about the subject matter itself? Thanks for the interesting narrative, too.

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  8. How frightening for you as a child to have experienced the accident with your grandmother. Your photo of the shiny elevated train is fascinating.

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  9. What a nostalgic journey this train must take you on...so full of memories! I like how you have photographed it and processed it...seems so appropriate.

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  10. Very cool processing! Love when an image can take you to yesteryear!

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