It was 1978 and I was 12 at the time. Being a kid from Chinatown, I rode my bicycle everywhere in lower Manhattan. That day, it was my friends and I "discovered" the West Side Highway. We were riding around the Twin Towers area and someone saw a person walking down one of the exit ramps so we rode our bicycles up. When we got to the top, it was like we found paradise. We saw people walking, roller blading, and other bikers. That was great for us kids as we can now ride fast without the fear of getting hit by cars. We always returned to this part of it where we rode up to 20th street where the road was closed. For some reason, we never got out and went to the northern side. Maybe it was because we didn't want to venture too far from our home. Great memories!
By the late 1970s, the highway was closed to traffic, but people were able to walk up the ramps and get great views of the Hudson. The surface of the highway became canvases for many artists. I remember walking on giant abstract murals painted on the concrete. The elevated highway was a great spot from which to see fireworks and boats on July 4th. People at the time seemed unconcerned with whether the highway was safe, as we jammed ourselves up there to get good views.
As kids, we used to play on that when it was abandoned. It was like a playground for adolescent New York kids, not just vagrants and squatters. It was a great time to come of age and witness the transformation of the city. We really had one foot in the past, and the future at the same time. Thanks for the video.
I remember playing on the abandoned sections above 57th that were west of the existing/remaining pieces. This was as a kid in the early "80's. The steel work and ornate early 20th century design made a impression on me even then. Thanks for the great pictures and background information. I've never seen pictures of that trestle Bridge near canal. Another gem Ryan.
As a kid in the late 70s early 80s we always played at the 72nd St. exit ramp before it was completely demolish in the 90s. It was also great playing there because it was near Riverside Park and also a great place to practice graffiti as a young teenager.
I liked riding on the West Side Highway as a kid. Being elevated, it gave me a better view of the ships docked to the west and I was able to peep into windows of apartments as we sped by to the east. But most importantly, we avoided the dystopian streets of the west side of Manhattan at that time. And I viewed riding over potholes, dips, curves, etc. similar to riding a rollercoaster. It was a cool ride on our way the George Washington Bridge.
I too remember looking at the buildings, apartments, warehouses and ships as my father drove on the West Side Hwy. I always wondered what was behind those windows.
I remember my grandma and me seeing freight cars going through tunnels over in Hell's kitchen. For us it was a connection to the Bronx when moved in the late 50's.
As a 74yo native New Yorker I remember that death highway well, As a kid I remember driving it with my dad and it was neat. Great views and there was a adjasant building along side that seemed to have a real tractor truck on top. But as an adult driving in the 70's it was horriffic. The lanes were too narrow, hairpin curves, potholes everywhere and those super narrow left lane exits. I was glad to see it come down.
I remember that rooftop truck with its forced perspective to make it look bigger! The "Miller Highway" was our route from Brooklyn to the George Washington Bridge and up to the Catskill resorts north of NYC. Each turn in the highway revealed the GW Bridge closer and closer to us until we finally reached it.
I think you're right about that; not long before it was removed the billboard & truck were repainted & turned into a sign for a public storage warehouse@@svjarahian
@@edwardmiessner6502If I had to guess all these years later, I'd say it was somewhere between 36th & 42nd Streets, probably closer to 42nd. Of course the building it was on, along with just about everything along that stretch is long gone.
My fathers wholesale poultry business was right under the west side highway on the corner of 131st street and 12th ave. I could remember going into work with my dad and looking up at the highway over head. This was back in the early 60's. I can remember walking over to the Hudson River which was about a block or so away and seeing Palisades Amusement park on the other side of the Hudson.
I remember riding the West Side Highway in the car on our way from Westchester to the Battery Tunnel to visit relatives in Brooklyn. The exciting part was seeing the big ocean liners lined up at all the piers. This was in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Your post reflects almost exactly what I had intended to write. We, too, had a family member in Brooklyn, so viewing the ships (SS United States, Queen Mary, etc.) was a huge thrill as we drove down from the Poughkeepsie area as children.
We know why it collapsed, I was there back then, the city never bothered to maintain it, salted runoff water in winter added to the severe corrosion of the cast iron and steel. A substantiala heavy structure built in the 1920s and 1930s was basically destroyed in less than 50 years. I own several of the round city seal cast iron artifacts from it, I had quite a few more of them back then, along with two of the 500 pound pieces that were above the much larger cast iron street/pier number designation signs, and a booklet from the opening ceremony.
I remember riding West Side Hwy with my Dad in the early 1960s. The views of the NJ shoreline were amazing with the Crisco and Colgate signs. Many of the piers on he NYC side were already derelict at that point, having burned and collapsed, leaving twisted, rusted steel eyesores. I remember a really tight zig-zag in the road before we exited aroud 14th St. One major, important thing to correct, NYCRR is the New York CENTRAL Railroad, not the New York City Railroad
Views of NJ? I ride the Westside highway everday, and no looks at NJ except outsiders wonder what that is and probably why there is nothing over there.
NYC was always known for being very neglectful of its infrastructure. I remember the rust holes in the steel girders of bridges being shown on the news during the 80's. So it's no surprise that highway was left to rot until it collapsed.
I remember! I was a bridge maintenance engineer for the Massachusetts State Highway Department in Boston and I had the luck to work with one of the painting contractors who were also painting one of those NY bridges. When the contractor's super told me of his company's crew blasting holes through the steel beams right when subway trains were passing by, I was amazed, shocked and appalled. Amazed that the steel beams held under the weight of the trains, shocked that the subways weren't suspended for the duration of the painting job, and appalled that the city had let the bridge go to rot for so long.
yeah they just added new fancy subway cars with screens and 1 less seat per row and the stations look terrible and havent been changed in a century and a half
@@2aj.The outside stations have been getting a face lift for 20 yrs now ..in most places where they closed elevators for decades their now built new ones . They also renovated a lot of the stations in lower Manhattan..
Thanks Ryan, this is very interesting and you provided great historical footage. Would you be able to do a video on the elevators that used to take vehicles from the Queensboro Bridge to Roosevelt Island?
A section still exists with 2 original street lamps. It's on the southbound side at approx. 72nd street. I wish the city would restore the lamps to working condition but the people running things now weren't even born when the great elevated highway existed and don't care about preserving this small unnoticed section...I miss old new york city.
18:18 That visual of the north tower beams in the windows of the building at 135 West St are crazy! Tower 1 is over 500 feet away and this is 15 stories up. The thought of metal beams flying that far so high up is insane
The West side highway today, aka 12th ave, still has exit signs posted for 34th and 23rd st. I always found it odd that they had "highway style" big green exit signs telling me that 34th st or 23rd st was coming up. Even though there are traffic lights every single block just like every other avenue in Manhattan.
I was born in '71. I remember riding the West Side El' from lower Manhattan to the Riverdale Pkwy w/ my Grandmother [RIP] to the BX. I remember the Bridge at 14th street I believe & sometimes seeing the Highline Frieght trains just eye view from the The Highway 🛣... I was sad when the whole structure was demolished & the Highline abandoned. #Memories
Yes, I remember the highway as a kid in the 1960s. We occasionally went for summer vacation to Europe by ocean liner. I remember the taxi would take us along the highway to the passenger terminal.
I remember it all too well. Being a confident & good driver, even I was "white-knuckled" on this monstrosity! Narrow lanes, poor road conditions, and other car's speeding & rudeness were common place. Great episode - Thank you! 👍👍👍
Driving on the highway required daredevil skills, admittedly if your going fast. The steel walls were not like todays smooth guardrails. There were steel elements sticking out towards you as seen in the video. Almost all turns were sudden changes, not curved. The technique was to yank on the steering wheel about a car length beforehand. I long admired those lamp posts. They were true works of art deco. I really expected the city could have saved a few or at least put a few up for auction.
I remember riding bikes with my cousin on the West Side Highway while it was closed to cars and open to pedestrians and bikes. We rode down to Greenwich Village from his place. It was lovely to ride through the wreckage.
I recall this roadway! When I was a kid, we had family living in Bayonne, NJ, so we would take the WSD and I loved it. Seeing the ocean liners, cobblestone segments that immense billboard with a truck atop (Yale?) Approaching the Holland Tunnel was daunting because what was going on was a bit scary. Today, it’s amazing and some of the old piers are still visible.
It wasn't the New York City RR, but the NY Central RR, and the West Side Highway had some of the most unbelievable car crashes as cars got faster and more of them on the outdated road.
The elevated track footage shown was actually the famous “dead man’s curve” of the 9th Avenue Elevated Line at 110th Street as it made it’s way through Harlem and up 8th Avenue to the Polo Grounds where the New York (now San Francisco Giants) baseball club once played
I liked driving on it, seeing the ocean liners docked along the river. It was nice to have traffic above the street level when I lived near the roadway in Greenwich Village in the sixties and seventies. After the collapse in late 1973, the deserted highway became a jogging and bicycling path for locals. These days, the replacing highway is a noisy traffic mess making access to the waterfront park difficult. Pedestrians wait endlessly for lights to give them the right and safety clearance to get to the riverside.
Another obsolete feature of the highway, which I find interesting to note, is that the older sections were originally paved using stone blocks as the driving surface, instead of asphalt or concrete.
I remember the high west side high way as a child in the 1969s my father would drive threw it all the time. It was night ride and see the city lights as we drove back home from places like Coney Island, and many more but as a child I wasn’t aware of the hardships of others and business as a kid who would. I do remember the speed limits of ( if I remember it was 90 speed limits then before the big change to 55. But I was a child who just love the ride on it.
I remember our family used to drive down the “Westside Highway” on the way to the Holland Tunnel to visit grandma in Newark! Long ago in a galaxy far far away……
Another memory. 🤔 Driving on the west side highway, where some parts of the blacktop were worn away exposing cobble stone blocks. (bright idea on a highway) Driving in the rain you have to remember where they are, or you'll be fishtailing. Especially when I rode my motorcycle. 😲 That's how I became a great driver LOL Make more videos on Brooklyn and NYC. I have lots of memories.
As a kid in he late 70s early 80s, I remember the section from maybe from past the 79th street Boat Basin exit to the ramp around 56th street where traffic was brought down to ground level, and it was mostly all cobblestone. Going north, the elevated portion could still be entered from a point more south of that, though I can't recall exactly. There were many sections still up where cars drove under.
Great stuff! I've been trying to find out more about this highway since I saw pictures of the newly built WTC with the raised highway alongside. It's difficult to find many pictures about it.
I rode the highway many times as a kid in the 60s and 70s. I remember the Yale truck. What I loved the most were the old piers, like the ocean liner piers, and the railroad piers, like the Lackawanna, the Lehigh Valley, and the "Pennsylvania Railroad Freight Station Desbrosses Street."
The West side highway is very similar to the Pulaski skyway. Both road systems were built around the same time. If you want to get a feel for what it's like, drive on the Pulaski skyway. It's in New Jersey and it carries u.s. route 1 / 9
Except Pulaski Skyway is pretty much straight as an arrow. Glad it’s been preserved. Also the BQE elevated section south of Brooklyn Heights, reminds me of the West Side Highway as well.
Thank you Ryan! I have a suggestion for you... Roller Skating in Chicago. The Hub Roller Rink (later, The Axel) Speed skating, competition, figure & dance skating. The Elm Roller Rink Dance Clubs & Competitions Tony Talhman - the organ player. The organ at The Elm Roller Rink Let that cook on the back burner for a little while... Love your videos, you are a wonderful presenter! Thank you! DD in PC.
Thank you for making this video i have always tried to learn more about west side highway!! really nice. And the editing of this video is really good also!
Very enjoyable video and great photos! I do remember driving on the West Side as a little kid and remember when the truck fell through it. Thanks for creating this.
I remember driving on parts of the highway probably west 57th st that the surface used cobble stones . The city needs to maintain the fdr drive and the other roads so history doesn’t repeat itself .
This was a good video. People talked about this road years ago. It's largely forgotten that this road even existed now. What doesn't make a lot of sense to me is that the city could have restricted truck travel on the highway and made the highway for cars only. This would have prevented the road from collapsing. Ironically the road collapse and closure happened right in the middle of the 1973 - 74 oil embargo, when people had trouble getting gas for their vehicles.
After my Nana moved to Teaneck my father's preferred route when we went to her house was through the Battery Tunnel, up the West Side Highway and over the GW Bridge. The trip gave us regular views of the WTC being built. One day we asked what would happen if the towers caught fire. My dad was something of a kidder and he said the buildings would be on hinges so they could be dipped into the Hudson. Was the first thing we thought of on 9/11.
You should do a video on Chicago's elevated rail lines. That was absolutely necessary in Chicago since it was rail hub of the nation. And it was a truly amazing feat of engineering. Virtually ALL RR rights of way were elevated above public grade beginning in the early 20th century. If the RRs had opposed it, it probably would not have been accomplished but the RRs knew something had to be done to separate public crossings with their rights of way.
I remember this highway as a kid. The modern look of the elevated FDR made the West Side Highway look so obsolete. On this highway the roadway was not paved but had small cobblestones which were reddish in color. Then there were S shaped curves that made motorists slow down to about 25 mph.
During the time before demolition, the elevated highway was "open" to bikes, "at your own risk". This was a whole lot of fun but I think some bikers perished falling through one of the many holes in the roadway
I used to take the W side from the Battery up to the GW bridge to go to Palisades Park. Cobblestones in part. Left lane entrances and exits. What were they thinking? I was there when it collapsed as I was working nights downtown. Thanks.
Im 65 and remember as a child riding 😢with my dad on the west side highway💭💭in the sixties..those roadways were pretty beat up by then..thanks for the memories 💭💭💭
Almost no one thinks about maintenance and repairs (or just general operational costs) on any of these public projects. Heck, even private projects, they just don’t think about how maintenance and repair costs.
Actually, the West Side Elevated Highway between 60th and 72nd street still exists, now incorporated as a southern extension of the Henry Hudson Parkway
#IT'SHISTORY: Thank you, thank you, thank you! Some time ago, I once left a suggestion for this very topic... and you really did your homework on this piece of NYC history. Always love the thoroughness with which you explain each subject. Being a native New Yorker, learning about lost pieces of architecture has been a fascinating experience for me. If it hasn't been tackled yet, I do have a great piece of New Jersey history you might want to devote a video to. If you're familiar with Atlantic City, then you'll recall a recent renovation involving the famous Boardwalk Hall. It contains the world's largest pipe organ! Now that's some history I think many would like to hear about...❤
I believe the steam-powered passenger train pictured running through the street at 1:49 into the video is actually Syracuse, NY - several hundread miles from New York City. Trains ran at-grade down the middle of Washington Street in downtown Syracuse until a major grade separation project was undertaken by the New York Central Railroad in the 1930s (a project which was destroyed, incidentally, by the construction of Interstate-690 through the heart of Syracuse in the early 1960s). Passenger trains stopped operating on Manhattan's surface streets DECADES before any plans were introduced to build the West Side Elevated (Miller) Highway. The tracks on the West Side (which were eventually elevated, independent of the highway) were freight only.
I remember riding in the west side elevated highway, observing the docks and waterfront, and the famous Yale tractor- trailer truck on top of one of the buildings by the top of the highway
You neglected to mention the Westward debacle, a billion dollar, 8 lane, sunken expressway going only from the Lincoln tunnel to the Brooklyn battery tunnel that was opposed by everyone in the 1980s.
At 19:26 you describe the last section of the original WSH. You show a still of underneath, but the is Riverside Drive overpass of 125th St. viaduct, which long predated WSH, and still exists.
My parents were separated in the 60's. I lived in Flatbush and my Dad lived near Lincoln Center. A taxi from there back to Flatbush was incredibly fast, first going down the elevated highway and then directly through the Brooklyn Battery tunnel. I bet the same trip would take double the time these days. As we zipped along, we also got a great view of the top cruise ships of the time from a high vantage point.
Fun Fact!: The Village People filmed parts of the video for their hit song Y.M.C.A. in the shadow of the old West Side Express Highway, both on the old derelict Christopher Street Pier and on West Street about a block south of the New York Ramrod which was a popular leather and western themed gay men's bar.
remember the time they had a mass shooting in front of the Ram Rods my truck driving days from N J to Brooklyn think it was early 80s when that happened
I remember riding that elevated highway on my Honda 350 circa 1972. Those concrete potholes were no joke. So was the debris of hubcaps, bumpers and other vehicle parts that fell off when they hit them.
I have lived in Manhattan for 20+ years and have been witness to the transformation of the west side from Battery Park City up to the Highline. Hudson River Park is now one of the best parts of the city - many family friendly areas, bike and runner paths, great views of the hudson from multiple public piers, 2 water parks or the kids, essentially no crime or drug activity (during the day at least, weekends get a lot of partiers). Yeah theres a busy street there but you hardly notice. Glad the monstrosity described here has been removed and forgotton ❤.
I remember driving on the highway when I was a kid. We would count off the piers as we went up, usually from the Battery Tunnel up to the Lincoln Tunnel. My dad had a bar at Clarkson & West St too, and we mostly saw the street level traffic and the piers from there. By the time I was a teen, my driving friends would take it and we'd all be commenting on how tight the turns are and how crazy the left entrances were. After it collapsed I did take the opportunity to ride my bike on it one time too. What surprised me then was that they didn't close it off completely. I've been biking on the West Side Greenway since it opened and noticed changes over the years, from the original stop signs put at cyclist's head level at every corner as if cyclists were a problem on a bikeway, to what appeared to be a widening of the bikeway where easily done by removing some decorative brick paving. There was a rumor that the guitarist John McGlaughlin of the Mahavishnu Orchestra was killed when it collapsed. I never knew how that originated.
I remember riding on the West Side Highway when I was a kid in the early 60's and later on the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle in the 80's. It almost seemed to me that the Alaskan Way Viaduct was the West Side highway upside down. The West Side Highway going south fed into the Battery tunnel which led to the bridges and viaducts of the Gowanas expressway in Brooklyn. The Alaskan Way Viaduct led to a tunnel in the North wich led to bridges and viaducts that became Aurora avenue.
To be fair the Seattle viaduct was kind of redundant since the i5 is right in downtown Seattle a few blocks over. Where as manhattan NY needs more freeways, Seattle is a smaller metro and doesn’t need more than the i5 tbh
@@LucasFernandez-fk8se yeah… only no. Now its an order of magnitude worse to get to downtown or north of the city from the southwest portions of Seattle. Or expensive through a tunnel that will leak and cuase problems likely before a retrofit viaduct would have.
The elevated section of the highway was extended South at some point all the way to the World Trade center. That section of the highway was still standing and in use up until the 1980s.
I grew up riding on the west side highway from the early sixties, then driving on it as a teenager in the early seventies. The highway was crumbling and falling apart from day one, it was never maintained. Looking back now as an adult you can easily see that the elevated highway should have never been built in the first place. West street should’ve just been reconfigured to what it is presently at street level, it works very well. I also remember Mayor Ed Koch proposing West way in the 1980’s, a super highway to replace the West Side Highway. Thank God it never got built!
I'm really surprised your video didn't mention "Westway," a proposed 1970s mega-construction project to replace the old highway with a buried one and build an enormous real estate development along its length. All the NYC bigshots were for it, but Greenwich Village neighborhood activists ultimately succeeded in preventing it from being built. The surface boulevard and the beautiful parkland along the river were a victory for the people of NYC over the forces of greed!
i used that highway back in the 60s it was a great way to cut driving time,,there were many plans to rebuild it ,, but some west side residents chaired by an old women argue against it because the traffic will pollute the water and the fish ,they won and now they have their view but also smog from bumper to bumper traffic stuck in traffic lights ,,
As a Native NYer, l remember the West Side Highway, and the abandoned warehouses as an EYESORE. It looks Beautiful today with West Street; and the parks along the water.
I don't have memories of New York roads, but I do have memories of rural New England trollies, horse drawn and electric. They existed for only about 3 decades before automobiles destroyed this casual and calm form of public transportation. Not that I used them, but my grandmother did. It started with a three-mile horse powered ride, followed by a trolly to a train station, and then to the ends of the earth (or at least America). Such a loss.
Ahh yes, the Miller Highway. The Morrison Street Fieze is one of only ones still preserved and displayed. There were some of the eagle things (hawk? I forgot) in the storage area prior to Canal Street but they were dumped around the time 12th avenue was demolished.
@7:00 Using the left lane for off ramps is a particular quirk of highway planning back in those days. There is still one famous elevated ornate steel highway that’s in service today that uses middle lane off ramps. The Pulaski Skyline in New Jersey has a similar design to the old elevated west side highway l, with ornate turn of the century lamp posts and guard rails. The skyway was also decaying rapidly, on the verge of collapse, but the state decided to preserve it, by closing the Pulaski completely to traffic for a few years and undertaking a full restoration. It was A great decision on their part. The skyway looks absolutely beautiful after it reopened a few years ago. Taking a drive through the Pulaski can give you idea of what it was like to drive through the old west side when it was first built in its prime.
@8:00 Another great corresponding point about the fall of the old W. Side Highway and the survival of the Pulaski Skyway is that planners and politicians had the foresight to ban trucks from using the highway shortly after its opening. What they did was construct at parallel highway on the ground for trucks to use. Had this not been the case, the Pulaski would have met a similar fate.
@8:00 Another great corresponding point about the fall of the old W. Side Highway and the survival of the Pulaski Skyway is that planners and politicians had the foresight to ban trucks from using the highway shortly after its opening. What they did was construct at parallel highway on the ground for trucks to use. Had this not been the case, the Pulaski would have met a similar fate.
Riding in a car on that highway just before it’s closing was a horror. Cracked cement sent the car bouncing and rocking. It didn’t feel safe. The area is beautiful now.
It was 1978 and I was 12 at the time. Being a kid from Chinatown, I rode my bicycle everywhere in lower Manhattan. That day, it was my friends and I "discovered" the West Side Highway. We were riding around the Twin Towers area and someone saw a person walking down one of the exit ramps so we rode our bicycles up. When we got to the top, it was like we found paradise. We saw people walking, roller blading, and other bikers. That was great for us kids as we can now ride fast without the fear of getting hit by cars. We always returned to this part of it where we rode up to 20th street where the road was closed. For some reason, we never got out and went to the northern side. Maybe it was because we didn't want to venture too far from our home. Great memories!
very cool. I was in Queens so never got the chance.
Foreshadowing its later incorporation into a park it would seem 🤔
By the late 1970s, the highway was closed to traffic, but people were able to walk up the ramps and get great views of the Hudson. The surface of the highway became canvases for many artists. I remember walking on giant abstract murals painted on the concrete. The elevated highway was a great spot from which to see fireworks and boats on July 4th. People at the time seemed unconcerned with whether the highway was safe, as we jammed ourselves up there to get good views.
I remember looking down from the World Trade Center at the West Side Highway which was covered in artwork, pedestrians and joggers. Quite a sight.
As kids, we used to play on that when it was abandoned. It was like a playground for adolescent New York kids, not just vagrants and squatters. It was a great time to come of age and witness the transformation of the city. We really had one foot in the past, and the future at the same time. Thanks for the video.
I remember playing on the abandoned sections above 57th that were west of the existing/remaining pieces. This was as a kid in the early "80's. The steel work and ornate early 20th century design made a impression on me even then. Thanks for the great pictures and background information. I've never seen pictures of that trestle Bridge near canal.
Another gem Ryan.
As a kid in the late 70s early 80s we always played at the 72nd St. exit ramp before it was completely demolish in the 90s. It was also great playing there because it was near Riverside Park and also a great place to practice graffiti as a young teenager.
In a mere 30 years it started to degrade. Shotty construction. Poor materials. Not everything build back in the day was better
Asbestos
Facts
I liked riding on the West Side Highway as a kid. Being elevated, it gave me a better view of the ships docked to the west and I was able to peep into windows of apartments as we sped by to the east. But most importantly, we avoided the dystopian streets of the west side of Manhattan at that time. And I viewed riding over potholes, dips, curves, etc. similar to riding a rollercoaster. It was a cool ride on our way the George Washington Bridge.
its wild how the freeway itself created the dystopia you were avoiding, kind of like how cities destroyed themselves trying to be car centric.
SS Normandie burned and sank on those piers in 1942. 1000s of cars could see it from West Side Highway.
I too remember looking at the buildings, apartments, warehouses and ships as my father drove on the West Side Hwy. I always wondered what was behind those windows.
I remember going with my parents like yesterday even though it collapsed 50 years ago. I enjoyed the scenic ride!
I remember my grandma and me seeing freight cars going through tunnels over in Hell's kitchen. For us it was a connection to the Bronx when moved in the late 50's.
As a 74yo native New Yorker I remember that death highway well, As a kid I remember driving it with my dad and it was neat. Great views and there was a adjasant building along side that seemed to have a real tractor truck on top. But as an adult driving in the 70's it was horriffic. The lanes were too narrow, hairpin curves, potholes everywhere and those super narrow left lane exits. I was glad to see it come down.
I remember that rooftop truck with its forced perspective to make it look bigger! The "Miller Highway" was our route from Brooklyn to the George Washington Bridge and up to the Catskill resorts north of NYC. Each turn in the highway revealed the GW Bridge closer and closer to us until we finally reached it.
As I recall the tractor trailer was Yale Trucking Co.
I think you're right about that; not long before it was removed the billboard & truck were repainted & turned into a sign for a public storage warehouse@@svjarahian
Where was the building with the truck on top?
@@edwardmiessner6502If I had to guess all these years later, I'd say it was somewhere between 36th & 42nd Streets, probably closer to 42nd. Of course the building it was on, along with just about everything along that stretch is long gone.
My fathers wholesale poultry business was right under the west side highway on the corner of 131st street and 12th ave. I could remember going into work with my dad and looking up at the highway over head. This was back in the early 60's. I can remember walking over to the Hudson River which was about a block or so away and seeing Palisades Amusement park on the other side of the Hudson.
I remember riding the West Side Highway in the car on our way from Westchester to the Battery Tunnel to visit relatives in Brooklyn. The exciting part was seeing the big ocean liners lined up at all the piers. This was in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Your post reflects almost exactly what I had intended to write. We, too, had a family member in Brooklyn, so viewing the ships (SS United States, Queen Mary, etc.) was a huge thrill as we drove down from the Poughkeepsie area as children.
We know why it collapsed, I was there back then, the city never bothered to maintain it, salted runoff water in winter added to the severe corrosion of the cast iron and steel. A substantiala heavy structure built in the 1920s and 1930s was basically destroyed in less than 50 years.
I own several of the round city seal cast iron artifacts from it, I had quite a few more of them back then, along with two of the 500 pound pieces that were above the much larger cast iron street/pier number designation signs, and a booklet from the opening ceremony.
so cool wanted to get one of those round plaques i drove truck under it back in the day watched them take it down a piece at a time good memories
I remember riding West Side Hwy with my Dad in the early 1960s. The views of the NJ shoreline were amazing with the Crisco and Colgate signs. Many of the piers on he NYC side were already derelict at that point, having burned and collapsed, leaving twisted, rusted steel eyesores. I remember a really tight zig-zag in the road before we exited aroud 14th St.
One major, important thing to correct, NYCRR is the New York CENTRAL Railroad, not the New York City Railroad
Views of NJ? I ride the Westside highway everday, and no looks at NJ except outsiders wonder what that is and probably why there is nothing over there.
@@Thebrothaisback it was the early
1960’s and I was a 6 year old kid. The highway was elevated and it was easier to see NJ. Now prob not as much.
NYC was always known for being very neglectful of its infrastructure. I remember the rust holes in the steel girders of bridges being shown on the news during the 80's. So it's no surprise that highway was left to rot until it collapsed.
I remember! I was a bridge maintenance engineer for the Massachusetts State Highway Department in Boston and I had the luck to work with one of the painting contractors who were also painting one of those NY bridges. When the contractor's super told me of his company's crew blasting holes through the steel beams right when subway trains were passing by, I was amazed, shocked and appalled. Amazed that the steel beams held under the weight of the trains, shocked that the subways weren't suspended for the duration of the painting job, and appalled that the city had let the bridge go to rot for so long.
NYC could look really spectacular if they only painted the bridges...
yeah they just added new fancy subway cars with screens and 1 less seat per row and the stations look terrible and havent been changed in a century and a half
@@2aj.The outside stations have been getting a face lift for 20 yrs now ..in most places where they closed elevators for decades their now built new ones . They also renovated a lot of the stations in lower Manhattan..
yeah thats lower manhattan everywhere else is neglected@@vibezlogistics7453
Thanks Ryan, this is very interesting and you provided great historical footage.
Would you be able to do a video on the elevators that used to take vehicles from the Queensboro Bridge to Roosevelt Island?
Yes, the upside-down building on the Queensboro Bridge on Welfare Island.
A section still exists with 2 original street lamps. It's on the southbound side at approx. 72nd street. I wish the city would restore the lamps to working condition but the people running things now weren't even born when the great elevated highway existed and don't care about preserving this small unnoticed section...I miss old new york city.
Learned something new, thanks!
Look up Miller Highway Remnant - it's a historical landmark .
Well I think it's good we're moving away from being car centric
18:18 That visual of the north tower beams in the windows of the building at 135 West St are crazy! Tower 1 is over 500 feet away and this is 15 stories up. The thought of metal beams flying that far so high up is insane
Always a pleasure Ryan. Thank you for your diligence. God bless you. 😊
Thank you for the support!
Super interesting! I live on the west side, and love biking down the Hudson River bike path.. I had no idea the West Side Highway was ever elevated!
The West side highway today, aka 12th ave, still has exit signs posted for 34th and 23rd st. I always found it odd that they had "highway style" big green exit signs telling me that 34th st or 23rd st was coming up. Even though there are traffic lights every single block just like every other avenue in Manhattan.
West St, and further up the Saw Mill Pkwy, are the only places I've seen surface junctions have exit numbers
Linden Blvd used to have exit green signs in Brooklyn. Not sure if they have been removed.@@archfapper211
I was born in 1976 but I saw parts of this abandoned until 1985. My parents used to take me to an abandoned pier to look at NJ.
I was born in '71. I remember riding the West Side El' from lower Manhattan to the Riverdale Pkwy w/ my Grandmother [RIP] to the BX. I remember the Bridge at 14th street I believe & sometimes seeing the Highline Frieght trains just eye view from the The Highway 🛣...
I was sad when the whole structure was demolished & the Highline abandoned.
#Memories
Yes, I remember the highway as a kid in the 1960s. We occasionally went for summer vacation to Europe by ocean liner. I remember the taxi would take us along the highway to the passenger terminal.
I remember it all too well. Being a confident & good driver, even I was "white-knuckled" on this monstrosity! Narrow lanes, poor road conditions, and other car's speeding & rudeness were common place. Great episode - Thank you! 👍👍👍
Driving on the highway required daredevil skills, admittedly if your going fast. The steel walls were not like todays smooth guardrails. There were steel elements sticking out towards you as seen in the video.
Almost all turns were sudden changes, not curved. The technique was to yank on the steering wheel about a car length beforehand.
I long admired those lamp posts. They were true works of art deco. I really expected the city could have saved a few or at least put a few up for auction.
I remember riding bikes with my cousin on the West Side Highway while it was closed to cars and open to pedestrians and bikes. We rode down to Greenwich Village from his place. It was lovely to ride through the wreckage.
Love the Polish maps of NY you used. Nowy Jork
I recall this roadway! When I was a kid, we had family living in Bayonne, NJ, so we would take the WSD and I loved it.
Seeing the ocean liners, cobblestone segments that immense billboard with a truck atop (Yale?)
Approaching the Holland Tunnel was daunting because what was going on was a bit scary.
Today, it’s amazing and some of the old piers are still visible.
Looking forward to this approach to the BQE
It wasn't the New York City RR, but the NY Central RR, and the West Side Highway had some of the most unbelievable car crashes as cars got faster and more of them on the outdated road.
The elevated track footage shown was actually the famous “dead man’s curve” of the 9th Avenue Elevated Line at 110th Street as it made it’s way through Harlem and up 8th Avenue to the Polo Grounds where the New York (now San Francisco Giants) baseball club once played
I liked driving on it, seeing the ocean liners docked along the river. It was nice to have traffic above the street level when I lived near the roadway in Greenwich Village in the sixties and seventies. After the collapse in late 1973, the deserted highway became a jogging and bicycling path for locals. These days, the replacing highway is a noisy traffic mess making access to the waterfront park difficult. Pedestrians wait endlessly for lights to give them the right and safety clearance to get to the riverside.
I recall walking underneath it to get to the piers and how dangerous it was at grounds level
I wonder how many outside scenes in the old TV series The Naked City were shot there.
Another obsolete feature of the highway, which I find interesting to note, is that the older sections were originally paved using stone blocks as the driving surface, instead of asphalt or concrete.
I mean most the streets in New York are cobblestone, they just put concrete or asphalt on top of it. It’s a good base material
I remember the high west side high way as a child in the 1969s my father would drive threw it all the time. It was night ride and see the city lights as we drove back home from places like Coney Island, and many more but as a child I wasn’t aware of the hardships of others and business as a kid who would. I do remember the speed limits of ( if I remember it was 90 speed limits then before the big change to 55. But I was a child who just love the ride on it.
I remember our family used to drive down the “Westside Highway” on the way to the Holland Tunnel to visit grandma in Newark! Long ago in a galaxy far far away……
Another memory. 🤔 Driving on the west side highway, where some parts of the blacktop were worn away exposing cobble stone blocks. (bright idea on a highway) Driving in the rain you have to remember where they are, or you'll be fishtailing. Especially when I rode my motorcycle. 😲 That's how I became a great driver LOL
Make more videos on Brooklyn and NYC. I have lots of memories.
The ice In between the cobbler stones were treacherous
Everything in New York built of cobble stones it’s a strong base material they just have to keep the concrete/asphalt on top repaired
As a kid in he late 70s early 80s, I remember the section from maybe from past the 79th street Boat Basin exit to the ramp around 56th street where traffic was brought down to ground level, and it was mostly all cobblestone. Going north, the elevated portion could still be entered from a point more south of that, though I can't recall exactly. There were many sections still up where cars drove under.
Great stuff! I've been trying to find out more about this highway since I saw pictures of the newly built WTC with the raised highway alongside.
It's difficult to find many pictures about it.
I lived in the Bronx and always used the West Side Hwy to go to Manhattan. I enjoyed the twisty turns near the south end!.
I rode the highway many times as a kid in the 60s and 70s. I remember the Yale truck. What I loved the most were the old piers, like the ocean liner piers, and the railroad piers, like the Lackawanna, the Lehigh Valley, and the "Pennsylvania Railroad Freight Station Desbrosses Street."
The West side highway is very similar to the Pulaski skyway. Both road systems were built around the same time.
If you want to get a feel for what it's like, drive on the Pulaski skyway.
It's in New Jersey and it carries u.s. route 1 / 9
Except Pulaski Skyway is pretty much straight as an arrow. Glad it’s been preserved. Also the BQE elevated section south of Brooklyn Heights, reminds me of the West Side Highway as well.
Pulaski was never as narrow, curvy and fun/scary- but it gives the feel!
Thank you Ryan!
I have a suggestion for you...
Roller Skating in Chicago.
The Hub Roller Rink (later, The Axel)
Speed skating, competition, figure & dance skating.
The Elm Roller Rink
Dance Clubs & Competitions
Tony Talhman - the organ player.
The organ at The Elm Roller Rink
Let that cook on the back burner for a little while...
Love your videos, you are a wonderful presenter! Thank you!
DD in PC.
Thank you for making this video i have always tried to learn more about west side highway!! really nice. And the editing of this video is really good also!
Always fascinating; always well researched and documented!! You keep bringing unique stories!!👍
Very enjoyable video and great photos! I do remember driving on the West Side as a little kid and remember when the truck fell through it. Thanks for creating this.
I remember driving on parts of the highway probably west 57th st that the surface used cobble stones . The city needs to maintain the fdr drive and the other roads so history doesn’t repeat itself .
This was a good video. People talked about this road years ago. It's largely forgotten that this road even existed now. What doesn't make a lot of sense to me is that the city could have restricted truck travel on the highway and made the highway for cars only. This would have prevented the road from collapsing. Ironically the road collapse and closure happened right in the middle of the 1973 - 74 oil embargo, when people had trouble getting gas for their vehicles.
Great doc!
If I'm not mistaken, some of the parking structure ramps for the cruise terminal are original WSH structures as well :)
After my Nana moved to Teaneck my father's preferred route when we went to her house was through the Battery Tunnel, up the West Side Highway and over the GW Bridge. The trip gave us regular views of the WTC being built. One day we asked what would happen if the towers caught fire. My dad was something of a kidder and he said the buildings would be on hinges so they could be dipped into the Hudson. Was the first thing we thought of on 9/11.
You should do a video on Chicago's elevated rail lines. That was absolutely necessary in Chicago since it was rail hub of the nation. And it was a truly amazing feat of engineering. Virtually ALL RR rights of way were elevated above public grade beginning in the early 20th century. If the RRs had opposed it, it probably would not have been accomplished but the RRs knew something had to be done to separate public crossings with their rights of way.
Make sure to include all the elevated lines that are now gone.
I remember this highway as a kid. The modern look of the elevated FDR made the West Side Highway look so obsolete. On this highway the roadway was not paved but had small cobblestones which were reddish in color. Then there were S shaped curves that made motorists slow down to about 25 mph.
The silent film we see was the 9th Avenue El that was made in 1899 when it still had steam locomotives pulling the trains.
During the time before demolition, the elevated highway was "open" to bikes, "at your own risk". This was a whole lot of fun but I think some bikers perished falling through one of the many holes in the roadway
There is a video online of a kid running across the last section of the elevated west side highway worth the watch !
I used to take the W side from the Battery up to the GW bridge to go to Palisades Park. Cobblestones in part. Left lane entrances and exits. What were they thinking?
I was there when it collapsed as I was working nights downtown.
Thanks.
A piece of the ramp connecting the Battery Park Underpass still exist as a flower bed
Im 65 and remember as a child riding 😢with my dad on the west side highway💭💭in the sixties..those roadways were pretty beat up by then..thanks for the memories 💭💭💭
Almost no one thinks about maintenance and repairs (or just general operational costs) on any of these public projects. Heck, even private projects, they just don’t think about how maintenance and repair costs.
Actually, the West Side Elevated Highway between 60th and 72nd street still exists, now incorporated as a southern extension of the Henry Hudson Parkway
#IT'SHISTORY: Thank you, thank you, thank you! Some time ago, I once left a suggestion for this very topic... and you really did your homework on this piece of NYC history.
Always love the thoroughness with which you explain each subject. Being a native New Yorker, learning about lost pieces of architecture has been a fascinating experience for me.
If it hasn't been tackled yet, I do have a great piece of New Jersey history you might want to devote a video to. If you're familiar with Atlantic City, then you'll recall a recent renovation involving the famous Boardwalk Hall. It contains the world's largest pipe organ! Now that's some history I think many would like to hear about...❤
My primary memory was how bumpy it was. I don't think I ever drove on it myself, having relocated to Boston.
Was the heavy cobblestones !
@@sw5114 The elevated wouldn't have been though plenty or streets were.
I grew up on Barrow St in Greenwich Village (born in '73), and we would ride our bike up there, set off fireworks, and/or watch fireworks.
I believe the steam-powered passenger train pictured running through the street at 1:49 into the video is actually Syracuse, NY - several hundread miles from New York City. Trains ran at-grade down the middle of Washington Street in downtown Syracuse until a major grade separation project was undertaken by the New York Central Railroad in the 1930s (a project which was destroyed, incidentally, by the construction of Interstate-690 through the heart of Syracuse in the early 1960s). Passenger trains stopped operating on Manhattan's surface streets DECADES before any plans were introduced to build the West Side Elevated (Miller) Highway. The tracks on the West Side (which were eventually elevated, independent of the highway) were freight only.
Having lived there for five years, definitely Syracuse.
I thought so as well. Such a famous part of Syracuse history looked familiar to me.
I remember riding in the west side elevated highway, observing the docks and waterfront, and the famous Yale tractor- trailer truck on top of one of the buildings by the top of the highway
I use to walk that highway as a kid when it was closed down...😊
You neglected to mention the Westward debacle, a billion dollar, 8 lane, sunken expressway going only from the Lincoln tunnel to the Brooklyn battery tunnel that was opposed by everyone in the 1980s.
Make that westway.
I bike through that area almost every day and I would seriously never know or ever imagine there had ever been an elevated highway there
The ship SS Normandie burned and sunk off of West Side Highway. 1000s of cars could see it burning in 1942.
At 19:26 you describe the last section of the original WSH. You show a still of underneath, but the is Riverside Drive overpass of 125th St. viaduct, which long predated WSH, and still exists.
My parents were separated in the 60's. I lived in Flatbush and my Dad lived near Lincoln Center. A taxi from there back to Flatbush was incredibly fast, first going down the elevated highway and then directly through the Brooklyn Battery tunnel. I bet the same trip would take double the time these days.
As we zipped along, we also got a great view of the top cruise ships of the time from a high vantage point.
I love your segments You and your team NICE JOB!
Thanks 🙏 for the video. It brought back memories. I went to Food and Maritime high school which had a ship docked at pier 42.
Fun Fact!: The Village People filmed parts of the video for their hit song Y.M.C.A. in the shadow of the old West Side Express Highway, both on the old derelict Christopher Street Pier and on West Street about a block south of the New York Ramrod which was a popular leather and western themed gay men's bar.
remember the time they had a mass shooting in front of the Ram Rods my truck driving days from N J to Brooklyn think it was early 80s when that happened
I remember riding that elevated highway on my Honda 350 circa 1972. Those concrete potholes were no joke. So was the debris of hubcaps, bumpers and other vehicle parts that fell off when they hit them.
5:44 New York Central , not New York City Railroad
You missed the fact that 3 original hwy lamps still exist on that portion of the road at 72 st.
I'll love to hear more information regarding the west way underground highway from Henry parkway to battery tunnel.
I have lived in Manhattan for 20+ years and have been witness to the transformation of the west side from Battery Park City up to the Highline. Hudson River Park is now one of the best parts of the city - many family friendly areas, bike and runner paths, great views of the hudson from multiple public piers, 2 water parks or the kids, essentially no crime or drug activity (during the day at least, weekends get a lot of partiers). Yeah theres a busy street there but you hardly notice. Glad the monstrosity described here has been removed and forgotton ❤.
I remember driving on the highway when I was a kid. We would count off the piers as we went up, usually from the Battery Tunnel up to the Lincoln Tunnel. My dad had a bar at Clarkson & West St too, and we mostly saw the street level traffic and the piers from there. By the time I was a teen, my driving friends would take it and we'd all be commenting on how tight the turns are and how crazy the left entrances were. After it collapsed I did take the opportunity to ride my bike on it one time too. What surprised me then was that they didn't close it off completely.
I've been biking on the West Side Greenway since it opened and noticed changes over the years, from the original stop signs put at cyclist's head level at every corner as if cyclists were a problem on a bikeway, to what appeared to be a widening of the bikeway where easily done by removing some decorative brick paving.
There was a rumor that the guitarist John McGlaughlin of the Mahavishnu Orchestra was killed when it collapsed. I never knew how that originated.
The picture used at ~1:51 is Washington Street in Syracuse, NY in front of Syracuse city hall.
The old Seattle waterfront viaduct was removed the same way piece by piece, fortunately before it collapsed.
I remember riding on the West Side Highway when I was a kid in the early 60's and later on the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle in the 80's. It almost seemed to me that the Alaskan Way Viaduct was the West Side highway upside down. The West Side Highway going south fed into the Battery tunnel which led to the bridges and viaducts of the Gowanas expressway in Brooklyn. The Alaskan Way Viaduct led to a tunnel in the North wich led to bridges and viaducts that became Aurora avenue.
To be fair the Seattle viaduct was kind of redundant since the i5 is right in downtown Seattle a few blocks over. Where as manhattan NY needs more freeways, Seattle is a smaller metro and doesn’t need more than the i5 tbh
@@LucasFernandez-fk8se yeah… only no. Now its an order of magnitude worse to get to downtown or north of the city from the southwest portions of Seattle. Or expensive through a tunnel that will leak and cuase problems likely before a retrofit viaduct would have.
The elevated section of the highway was extended South at some point all the way to the World Trade center. That section of the highway was still standing and in use up until the 1980s.
I grew up riding on the west side highway from the early sixties, then driving on it as a teenager in the early seventies. The highway was crumbling and falling apart from day one, it was never maintained. Looking back now as an adult you can easily see that the elevated highway should have never been built in the first place. West street should’ve just been reconfigured to what it is presently at street level, it works very well. I also remember Mayor Ed Koch proposing West way in the 1980’s, a super highway to replace the West Side Highway. Thank God it never got built!
wow, those who drive on it today will be very enlightened by this detailed and well researched video. Thank you.
Great job, I remember this well. Well done. Thanks
Hi Ryan, love your videos. I had a idea for New York’s lost piers and another on 5 points
I'm really surprised your video didn't mention "Westway," a proposed 1970s mega-construction project to replace the old highway with a buried one and build an enormous real estate development along its length. All the NYC bigshots were for it, but Greenwich Village neighborhood activists ultimately succeeded in preventing it from being built. The surface boulevard and the beautiful parkland along the river were a victory for the people of NYC over the forces of greed!
Very interesting documentary about west side highway I remember riding with my father on that highway to the GWB to New Jersey
See, I told you this would make a great episode!😉
i used that highway back in the 60s it was a great way to cut driving time,,there were many plans to rebuild it ,, but some west side residents chaired by an old women argue against it because the traffic will pollute the water and the fish ,they won and now they have their view but also smog from bumper to bumper traffic stuck in traffic lights ,,
As a Native NYer, l remember the West Side Highway, and the abandoned warehouses as an EYESORE. It looks Beautiful today with West Street; and the parks along the water.
Those pretty parks along the Hudson came at a price. NYC was a manufacturing hub along with it's shipping lanes.
@@mohamad-ms2pb Yes, also Long Island City WAS a manufacturing city; especially along the waterfront.
@@nycstarport8542 Yes, and the same for the water fronts of Brooklyn from Newton Creek down to the top of Bay Ridge where the Belt Parkway begins.
I don't have memories of New York roads, but I do have memories of rural New England trollies, horse drawn and electric. They existed for only about 3 decades before automobiles destroyed this casual and calm form of public transportation. Not that I used them, but my grandmother did. It started with a three-mile horse powered ride, followed by a trolly to a train station, and then to the ends of the earth (or at least America). Such a loss.
@7:04 "Nowy Jork"? Is that the old name of New York? LOL
The FDR, on the east side, also has some left side entrance ramps. I'm terrified every time I use one.
Excellent 👌
Ahh yes, the Miller Highway. The Morrison Street Fieze is one of only ones still preserved and displayed. There were some of the eagle things (hawk? I forgot) in the storage area prior to Canal Street but they were dumped around the time 12th avenue was demolished.
You should do a video on the Embarcadero freeway in San Francisco. Also how about some west coast history videos?
We have this in Sydney at Circular Quay. It's called the Cahill Expressway. It's hideous.
@7:00 Using the left lane for off ramps is a particular quirk of highway planning back in those days. There is still one famous elevated ornate steel highway that’s in service today that uses middle lane off ramps. The Pulaski Skyline in New Jersey has a similar design to the old elevated west side highway l, with ornate turn of the century lamp posts and guard rails.
The skyway was also decaying rapidly, on the verge of collapse, but the state decided to preserve it, by closing the Pulaski completely to traffic for a few years and undertaking a full restoration.
It was A great decision on their part. The skyway looks absolutely beautiful after it reopened a few years ago. Taking a drive through the Pulaski can give you idea of what it was like to drive through the old west side when it was first built in its prime.
@8:00 Another great corresponding point about the fall of the old W. Side Highway and the survival of the Pulaski Skyway is that planners and politicians had the foresight to ban trucks from using the highway shortly after its opening. What they did was construct at parallel highway on the ground for trucks to use. Had this not been the case, the Pulaski would have met a similar fate.
@8:00 Another great corresponding point about the fall of the old W. Side Highway and the survival of the Pulaski Skyway is that planners and politicians had the foresight to ban trucks from using the highway shortly after its opening. What they did was construct at parallel highway on the ground for trucks to use. Had this not been the case, the Pulaski would have met a similar fate.
Riding in a car on that highway just before it’s closing was a horror. Cracked cement sent the car bouncing and rocking. It didn’t feel safe. The area is beautiful now.
Most of NYC today especially Manhattan has huge aging infrastructure issues with bricks falling on pedestrians.