Photo similarities

[brathke at juno.com]

Don't forget the 520-page heavyweight book, "Pittsburgh", by Stefan
Lorant.  It is full of photos of trolley, railroad and incline scenes. 
Originally published in 1964, I believe that a smaller page size edition
may still be available in bookstores.

And, I have a contemporary (1970s?) post card of a copyrighted photo in
the Archives of Industrial Society at the University of Pittsburgh.  The
photo is dated 1930, and appears to have been taken from the top of the
Gulf or Koppers Building which was then under construction.  The view is
toward the east, is quite sharp, and shows some interesting items:

- The entire intersection of Liberty and 11th is shown, with the PRR
Station in the background and the old sharp-curved Ft. Wayne cutting
across 11th St.

- The photo shows a railroad tower on the northeast corner of the
intersection of Liberty and 11th.  This tower is higher than bridge track
level, and so  it's setting on a large masonry base that's at street
level - this is the dark "building" visible to the right in the photo
<http://davesrailpix.railfan.net/pitts/htm/jfp071.htm> recently linked on
this e-mail list.  The aerial photo also shows the Atlantic gas station
on the northwest corner of the intersection.

- Several outbound trolleys on Liberty Ave. are lined up at the waiting
canopy at the PRR station.  In the 40's I remember that there were tracks
on BOTH sides of the canopy platform - one track was the L:iberty Avenue
trolley track, and the other was a siding with a bumper post.  I never
saw any equipment on this siding, so I'm not sure if it was for trolleys
or the railroad.  If it was a railroad siding, it may have been a remnant
of the old (pre-1900) PRR station which was at street level.  I also
recall that there was a snack bar at the end of the platform near the
stairs that led up to the PRR station.  And of course, there was that
large sign above the platform that listed all the trolley routes that
stopped there; this sign was similar to the one under the Smithfield St.
Bridge canopy at the P&LE station.  Isn't one of these signs now at PTM?

- A trolley (an interurban?) is on Grant St. where the Post Office
Building is now located.

- The OLD Greyhound Bus station (torn down in 1960 for construction of
the Federal Building) hasn't been built yet, and that area in the "V" at
Grant and Liberty is still a parking lot in 1930.  However, a Greyhound
station IS in the photo...it appears to be just a driveway and some small
buildings off of the south side of Liberty Ave. near 10th St.

- There are many parking lots in the photo, and these are obviously sites
of demolished buildings.  I point this out because we tend to think that
downtown redevelopment in the late 20th Century resulted in all those
vacant and parking lots downtown.  It's probably been happening since
1758.

There's a lot of history in this little 4X6" post card!

Bob 8/5

--------------------------------------------

On Sat, 5 Aug 2000 01:22:55 -0400 (EDT) Derrick J Brashear
<shadow at dementia.org> writes:
> On Fri, 4 Aug 2000, Jim Holland wrote:
> 
> > 	Would be interested in a book about PRR which details the 
> Pgh. area
> > about 1940--1950 as to layout around Pgh. general photos of the 
> area,
> > and equipment photos as to locos, steam and diesel, and esp the
> > passenger trains.  Any recommendations would be welcome.
> 
> Closest I know of is "Rails to Pittsburgh" by uh... Feibelman maybe?
> Good luck finding a copy. It covers more than just PRR though. But 
> the
> "Pennsy Diesel Years", "Pennsy Steam Years", and "Color Guide to 
> Freight
> and Passenger Equipment" cover more especially in terms of pictures 
> but
> are more volumes than you probably care to buy.
> 
> -D
> 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Never put off until tomorrow what you can avoid altogether.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

________________________________________________________________
YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET!
Juno now offers FREE Internet Access!
Try it today - there's no risk!  For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.