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23/11/2025

Between 1944 and 1954, the Brooklyn Bridge underwent extensive reconstruction to increase its capacity for vehicular traffic. Previously a major transit artery, the bridge had carried several modes of rapid transit since it opened in 1883, including cable cars, elevated rail lines, and trolleys. Trolleys were the last to go in 1950.

This photograph from 1951 shows the bridge during reconstruction. This work included the removal of all elevated rails, trolley tracks, and trusses separating the inner elevated tracks from roads. As a result, the roadways were widened from two to three lanes.

🚲 No further reconfigurations of the bridge occurred until 2021, when a protected bike lane was constructed, on the Manhattan bound side of the bridge. The bike lane replaced one lane of traffic, returning that side of the bridge to two car lanes for the first time in 68 years.

29/04/2025

12/04/2024

12/04/2024

It’s the first Friday of the month, which means it’s time for another image from our Subway Construction Photograph Collection! This month, we present a cyanotype photograph from 1901 that shows Lafayette Street below Astor Place during the construction of the first subway line in .

The IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit Company) built and operated the city’s the first subway line, which opened in 1904. The line was constructed using the “cut and cover” method, which consists of digging trenches along city streets, laying tunnels and tracks, and then covering them back up, returning the streets to regular use. In this photograph, Lafayette St is undergoing such cut and cover construction. The tunnels being built in the photo still remain today and carry the 6 train between Bleecker Street and Astor Place stations.

123 years later, the street looks very similar. At left, Colonnade Row, built in the 1830s, still stands, as well as the buildings further north of it on Lafayette St. At right, the Astor Library building is now home to The Public Theater, and has been since 1965. One building that is conspicuously absent from present day is the Germania Theatre, which is visible straight ahead at the corner of 8th St and Lafayette St. It closed in 1903 and was replaced by the well-known Wanamaker Building, which housed Wanamaker’s Department Store. That building still stands today; its current ground-floor tenant is Wegmans.

Digitization of this and 9,000+ other images was made possible by a Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. View more on our website at nytransitmuseum.catalogaccess.com.

07/04/2023

https://www.facebook.com/nytransitmuseum/photos/a.190236633842/10159763604783843

This photo from the MTA Bridges and Tunnels Special Archive shows the construction of a tower of the Triborough Bridge (now the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge) on November 26, 1934.

From its founding in 1933, through the Robert Moses era and the integration into the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the story of Metropolitan Transportation Authority - MTA Bridges and Tunnels reflects the story of New York itself. On April 6th at 6pm EST, join archivists Mary Hedge and Nellie Hankins for a digital program looking at the MTA Bridges and Tunnels Special Archive.

RSVP now at nytransitmuseum.org/bridges-and-tunnels.

11/01/2019

It's now the We Company. But the co-working giant's self-image is hard to square with its current reality.