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Elevated Line, 5th Ave Brooklyn El, Circa Mid 1930's, a Motorman's View
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- Опубликовано: 2 июн 2023
- Edward J Quigley, my father, was an amature photogapher. He was born in 1911 and lived his childhood years on 12th Street & 5th Ave. in Brooklyn, NY. The Elevated line in this film ran past his block. He died when I was 5, so I didn't know him or much about him. He did leave negatives and movies that I have scanned. I learned from his archive that, like most boys, he liked trains, planes & automibiles. (and fire engines) This film is one of his 8MM B&W home movies. It shows the 5th Ave Brooklyn El line from the Motorman's perspective. I estimate that it was taken in the mid 1930's.
The Fifth Avenue El line ran from around the Brooklyn Navy Yard, up Flatbush Avenue to Atlantic Avenue where it turned onto Fifth Avenue and then down to 36th or 39th St. to third Avenue.
In part, this film was shot thru dirty windows on several the trains. I thought originally that I was seeing fog in the streets. The film is dirty as well. This 8 MM film is close to a century old and spent most of that time in a damp basement and garage. This particular film is 200 feet long (a typical roll of 8MM home movie film was 50 feet yielding 3 minutes of play time. The stock film sold and loaded into the camera was 25 feet and had two sides. It was split in two during processing by Kodak, thus the final total of 50 feet per roll.) Once one side of the film was exposed, the camera had to be opened and the film flipped, thus exposing parts of the film to light. The camera was very low tech with very little in the way of exposure settings and a fixed focus . So, the quality of my scan is poor because I didn't have much to work with to begin with. I did slow and stop the action in a few spots so you could see what was originally a brief, quick take. I am just delighted that the film didn't break during the scan as many other films I scanned have, multiple times. Then I would have to utilize my poor splicing skills.
Thanks goes to the folks New York's Railroads Subways & Trolleys Past & Present on Facebook for encouraging me to posts this here.
I hope you enjoy it. I thank you and my father thanks you.
Bob Quigley
![Harlem, New York 1930s in color, [60fps, Remastered] w/sound design added](/img/1.gif)
Incredible video of what was !
One of the best things I have seen in a long time. Thank you, Bob!
Wow! What a treasure. I always appreciate those who had the foresight to record the beauty in the ordinary. A piece of transportation infrastructure that you would think would be a permanent fixture now exists for posterity because your father knew and appreciated its beauty and usefulness. I hope you find more of these to share with us.
This is great footage. I'd never seen footage of the 5th avenue Brooklyn El before. Thank you for posting it!
Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this treasure indeed. And also Thank You to your father for taking the time and expense to "lock In" Brooklyn History 🙂
I never knew there had been a 5th Ave El. I grew up on 42 St. Right off 5th Ave. I only knew there had been a 5th Ave. Trolley. Wow!
Thank you for saving this footage. We’ll done!
The atmosphere in this video is amazing, many of the apartment buildings are still there…beautiful to watch…thank you.
I am so grateful to both you and your father!! Thanks so much! If I may be so bold, I have several observations 1) it's interesting how in the downtown Brooklyn area, this line was equipped with signals that look pretty much like the ones we have today, but farther down the line, there are semaphores at interlockings, but no other signals. Also, the trip through the 38 St yard was cool- and it shows that these trains used the ramps that today only serve as yard leads (near 9th Ave). therefore, this validates what I've heard that the ramps that are unused today, were either never used, or only used for a short time.
Wonderful video showing not only the elevated rail line , but street scenes as well . The shops , firefighters in action , cars on the street , this is a piece of New York history . Very well done .
Thank you kindly.
@@bobq3753 You deserve it - make more of these videos yourself , they would be a big hit . New York , Chicago , Boston would be perfect choices for this type of video . Maybe 3/4 above ground and a little below ground . It would be nice to see the subway pulling into Grand Central Station at 8 a.m.
Thank you so much for taking the time to preserve and upload this footage. So little documentation of the old Brooklyn Els exist, so the fact that we get to see this is amazing. Kudos to your father for having the presence of mind to record this decades before "railfanning" in its modern form came to be.
Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you for the time and thought to put this up enjoyed it so much
I am glad you enjoyed it.
Incredible...thanks for this. We were a stone's throw from the Myrtle Ave El on Clinton...
Thank you for uploading this amazing and nostalgic footage 👏🏽👏🏽
Wow, and thanks for posting this gem!
2:00 definitely dates this post 1936 as the loop tracks seen here are already abandoned.
OK, thanks s- so that's what the cut off segment was!! The whole elevated system was so complicated in the downtown Brooklyn area!
The only thing I recognized was Greenwood cemetery.
At 3:29 you can see the 4th Avenue portal, which is currently used by the D line.
Another film to add to the limited archives of the old Els. Hoping one day we can see many of these videos rerendered using upscaling, colorization and AI to stabilize the images. It's not going to produce a perfectly clear image, but most that I've seen have at least sharpened the images a bit and improved some features that were kind of obscured by the poor quality of the film.
Fascinating. My fantasy is to travel back through time to NYC during key times in the early to mid 20th Century. In other words, before my time. Film and photos are a poor substitute for time travel, but it's all we have. I believe time travel will one day be achieved albeit by virtual reality recreation.
Wait til you see the local Long Island newspaper The Montauk Pulse and its stories of the Montauk Project, Phoenix Project and the Philadelphia Experiment of 1943 by Preston Nichols.
I am old enough to remember the trip my late father took us to Downtown Brooklyn via the Myrtle Ave El from Bushwick, Brooklyn where he worked to the Bridge and Jay Street Terminal 4 blocks away from the Brooklyn Bridge in 1968! 😊
If time travel is ever developed wouldn't we see evidence of this or would it be an invisible time machine? To see how they played football in 1890 or basketball in 1920, to ride on the actual passenger train to 28th Street or take the steam ship from Canarsie to Hammels. Or just go back and clean the windows he shoots through!! (lol) Hear Sarah Bernhardt at Castle Clinton! Or Bach's first concerts. Or figure out what the Picts were doing on the other side of Hadrian's Wall.
This film is our time machine. Don't ever add those corny fake sounds, it's better silent.
This footage was taken of course many years before I was born.
Despite the camera quality, I really like this video of a now demolished piece of infrastructure. Also sorry to hear about losing your dad at an early age
That's very kind of you Percival
I’ve only seen still photos of the 5th & 3rd Ave Brooklyn Els. Was your Dad the Motorman or just a friend who got to ride on the front open platform?
I can only surmise that he shot a lot of the film thru the dirty windows in the lead cars on several trains. He wasn't a motorman. He would have been in his twenties at the time. Your question about a friend giving him access leads me to think about another film he took in front of his house on 12th St. The subject was what looks like a TWU picket/protest. I will have to dig that one out and post it.
Fantastic! I'm glad someone took and preserved footage of Brooklyn's 5th Ave El. After all these years, I've never seen such comprehensive scenes of the line. I assume from the 11:55 time what we are seeing is the El leaving the 36th st station and heading toward the Culver line?? Was all this footage from 2 different sources? Some is clear and sharp and some is unfortunately poorer quality. It would be nice if the whole thing can be computerized and made clear.
You are very perceptive. I see the same thing in the quality of the film. There are actually four separate rolls of 8 mm film spliced together to make a 200 foot film. Each of the four rolls of film had to be loaded and each of those films had to be flipped midway. Each time the camera was opened. There was a possibility that the film could be exposed to light. In addition, my theory is that he shot a lot of the film through dirty train windows and on different days. I agree that a section of the film shows a part of the Culver line which are used as a kid when I was dating a girl in the 9th Avenue area.
@@bobq3753 Thanks for your response, Bob. Couldn't some kind of computer program be used to fix the differences in exposure of the different reels? I'm sure there's a possibility for doing that these days. I perceive you and I are about the same age; in our 70s. Perhaps one of your kids....or grandkids....could take on the project. How nice it would be to see the whole thing in focus and sharp clarity!
At 1:19 is that the Fulton Ferry merging with line and also there seems to be two stubs right in the middle. Where did that connect to?
This is the junction of the 5th Ave el with the Myrtle Ave el at Hudson St. Those stubs are what remained of the original line, which crossed the line here at grade and continued to a terminal station at York St, underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. This part was removed in 1904 when everything was consolidated at Sands Street.
0:52 Capri?
Thanks for this great footage. Question: My late father grew up at Fifth Avenue and 62nd St. in Brooklyn. Can anyone say/guess which subway/el lines would he have taken to high school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan?
If he grew up in the 40's to 50's, chances are he used the new R line on 4th and 59th St.
Yes. The R train at 59 st. Transfer at Pacific St/ Atlantic Ave station to the 4 or 5 Lexington Ave IRT would have gotten your father to the Upper East Side.
Also, the el here turns onto 3rd Ave south of 36th St...so the 4th Ave subway was closer.
@@anthonyaiello479 However at that time, the BMT lines were not lettered and the IRT lines were not numbered.
@@randyo573
Having grown up in Brooklyn I'm well aware of that fact. The nearest train to me was the N train however back than it was called the Sea Beach line. We also had the West End line nearby. Which is now the D train but in the past was the B train. I just used the modern numbers and letters to give people a better idea of the route.
Bob,
I've seen digital restoration of old films that were either 8mm or 16mm. Did you ever think of a digital restoration of this film ?
It wouldn't make it perfect but would clean it up a bit.
Yes, that is a possibility. I am planning, as a winter project, to re-scan that film after I hand clean it.
I know Brian Quigley from a certain anonymous social fellowship. Any relation?
This needs detailing as to the various sites shown. A lot is unexplained.
I’m not sure what explanation you are looking for. This elevated line ran from approximately the Brooklyn Navy Yard up Flatbush Ave to Atlantic Avenue and then on to 5 th Avenue down to round 36 or 39th St. where it turned down to third Avenue and ran for a few more stations. Some of the stations along fifth Avenue included ninth Street, 16th St., 36 street and others. My father lived on 12th St. I suppose when he heard that they were going to tear the line down, he decided to make this movie.
@@bobq3753 In the film, a few times it concentrates on stuff outside the line. Other rail stuff, both lines and tunnel entrances, structures, etc. The filmer obviously thought these were of interest but unexplained/detailed, they go unremarked on and unknown to us. I could rewatch and note when each occurs if you want...
@@paulluchter137 please do. I will review your remarks and so will anybody else watching this film. Maybe together we can fill in the gaps for you. But keep in mind the fourth sentence of my introduction to this film.
@@bobq3753 I am working on it. 12/19/1886 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, I found this reference to the Prospect Height Assembly Rooms 1882 as seen at 9:48 of film
(Nothing at all to do with rail, but I think maybe the El was up by this date)
www.luckyshow.org/betabel2/Prospect%20Height%20Assmbly%20Rooms.jpg
1:19 Another two Els coming together? I am not as great at these old Brooklyn Els. Was this the Kings County RR originally?
2:10 Abandned section, someone called it a loop. A loop to what? What was it?
2:20 Another Els connecting together.
2:25 What is that overhead structure? A station? With the jerkinghead roof, or it looks like one.
3:12 Below to the right is a railroad of some sort, going under a large road with an interesting diner up on the corner, then maybe into a tunnel at 3:32
3:50 ANother line enters from the right going into 36th Street. Was this the Culver, or maybe the West End on the western end heading towards what was once the Bay Ridge ferry terminal?
4:32 What is the church he pauses to show, just after the cemetery (I don't think Greenwood Cemetery is so far north)
Was Merkel's a pork store?
11:41 to 13:32 to 14:06 What is all these track interconnections. Is this where it went to 3rd Avenue? But there seems more here...
OK, a bit incoherent. I don't know if any other film of this El exists, this one may be unique...