Streets of New York

Before the automobile completely displaced the horse and wagon as the primary means of transportation in New York, horse stables and barns were scattered throughout the city.  They were used to house, feed and care for these hard working animals.  Most owners recognized the horses as an asset and cared for them properly, but there were some owners who mistreated the animals, beating them and providing the minimal care to reduce their costs.  New York City and associations, such as the ASPCA, were formed to find these violators through roaming inspectors, with mixed results.  The more concerned owners provided their horses with a loose fishnet-type of garment that draped over the horse’s body and helped control the annoying flies that tormented the horses during summer weather.    

When I was at an early school age, one of my uncles, who had been in the cavalry during World War I, was employed to make deliveries with a horse-driven enclosed wagon.  More often than not, on his way to the barn after work, he would stop to pick me up for the ride. Something I enjoyed and looked forward to every day.  I would climb into the back of the empty wagon and off we would go with local boys trying to hang on to the rear for a ride.  I have no way of knowing, of course, but I’m convinced that the horse knew he was going home and that food and rest awaited him.  We arrived at the barn; my uncle released the horse from the wagon, and the horse immediately raced up the ramp to the upper floor where he knew food and his stall was located.  The wagon was physically backed into a parking spot, and we walked home.  Simple as this event sounds, it was one of the more memorable incidents of my young life.

Simple Horse Trough

Elaborate Horse Trough

The city recognized the needs of the horse population and scattered throughout the city a number of stone or concrete horse troughs that had running water.  Many of these troughs were ornate with water running from the mouths of heads fashioned to resemble old Greek and Roman statues.  They were always located at the curb, or where a hard working horse could get a refreshing drink.  Before their work was done, most horses received a mid-day meal of oats, or some similar food, served to them in a canvas bag that enclosed their mouth and was hung from their head.  As the horse was finishing his meal, he would toss his head to get at the remaining food in the bottom of the sack.  They knew where the food was and were determined to get it. 

During this mid-day meal, the horse and wagon was parked at the curb.  Knowledgeable pedestrians avoided walking past any horse parked at the curb.  Horses were known to unleash an unexpected fire hose torrent of urine.  Woe to the person who was passing at the moment!

Most residents of the tenement flats either were immigrants or once removed.  When they emigrated to the United States, they brought their customs and knowledge to the new world with them.  Horses lived most of their lives working in the streets of New York and, as you might expect, did what came naturally as they worked.  If they had to go, they went.  Horses commonly defecated whether standing or moving and the busy streets of the city were littered with their droppings.  Most of the women immigrants had gardens or window boxes where they raised a variety of plants.  It was not unusual for several women to descend to the street to salvage the manure while it was fresh and still usable and before it became trampled in traffic or picked up by the street cleaners.  Sometimes comical situations would develop when more than one woman would compete in an attempt to retrieve an especially desirable horse dump.  The current public craze for eating “natural” foods would fit neatly into this period  

Immigrants and Pushcarts

 As with people, horses lived, worked and died, often while working.  During the summer heat or the winter cold, horses would die in the streets.  Some from abuse and others from overwork, but usually they died from old age.  A dead horse on a city street during the pre-war period was as much of a crowd gatherer as an automobile accident is today.

Part Four: Trolley Cars

Trolley cars were not new to the cities, having been installed during the 19^th century.  Prior to World War I the trolley and the horse and wagon were both active forms of transportation with the automobile beginning to make inroads.  Gradually the trolley became the main form of personal transportation before being replaced by the automobile and bus.  

The first trolley cars were horse-drawn and traveled on rails.  Later they were replaced by electric driven cars, but were still on rails.  Variations exist, such as the San Francisco cars where the cars move by clutching a moving cable buried in the street, but the basic car was the electric driven system.  

 City curbs were reserved for parking and to accept deliveries, so the trolley tracks were installed in the middle of the streets, side-by-side for traffic moving in opposite directions, and separating the flow of opposing traffic.  Passengers were required to walk into the streets through traffic to await patiently the arrival of the trolley car.  If they survived the all too possible accident, they boarded the trolley and were on their way.  The dangers of trolley travel were recognized and varieties of protective means for boarding were devised.  In some cases, a simple vertical sign mounted on a section of pipe and anchored in a large block of concrete was placed in the street adjacent to the tracks.  In the more busy locations, different forms of islands were used, from larger areas protected by signs to small islands with curbs.

The pre-war trolley was a simple machine.  All followed a similar basic design differing only in the needs or esthetic values of the individual city.  It was fabricated mostly from wood with some metals, had electric drivers, and could transport 50-80 passengers on hard, solid wood seats with movable seat backs that would permit passengers to face forward or rear.  The sides were constructed to permit the installation of glass windows during the cold weather or coarse web screens in the warm weather.  When summer screens were installed, long pull-down shades were provided on the inside of the screens for protection from the sun and rain.  With the screen-shade combination, the thought was there, but the shades were rarely adequate.  What usually happened during a rain was the flapping shades permitted the rain to soak the wood seats on one side of the car, forcing passengers to sit on the seats of the other half or stand.  During prolonged rains, both sets of seats would become soaked as the trolley turned for the return trip.  There were some lines were the trolley didn’t turn, but simply reversed direction, and passengers benefited.   Heat was provided by a baseboard heating system that ran the length of both sides of the car at the base of the windows. It was adequate, when it worked.  When the rains stopped, permitting the shades to be raised, cooler air would enter the humid car, but so would the splashes of passing cars and wagons.  When two trolleys passed each other after a rain, the smart passengers moved from their seats to avoid the water that would splash in from the side and the roof of the passing trolley.

Generally, the pre-war electric trolley had a central aisle with seats on both sides, had two or more doors, and was operated from either end.  When the trolley reached the end of the line, if it didn’t turn around,

the motorman transferred his controls to the opposite end.  As he walked down the aisle he would flip all of the seat backs to have them face front.  Power was received from a long wand-like device with a small skid or wheel at the end that made contact with an overhead power line.  There were other power arrangements, but the one I describe was the most common.  The construction of some cars was such that there was just enough room for a youngster to hold on and hitch a ride without paying the nickel fare.  When the car reached their destination, they would move the wand so that the power was cut off and the car would stop. The vary patient motorman, who probably experienced this event several times a day, would resignedly walk to the outside end of the car, taking his control with him, and reconnect the wand to the power line.  It was a very dangerous practice, but all the kids did it at one time or another, some quite often. 

All trolleys had what was referred to as a “dead-man’s control.”  In operation, the motorman would step on a floor-mounted lever before feeding power to the motor.  If he removed his foot from the lever, intentionally or by accident, the car would not move, or if moving, come to an abrupt stop.

Since the trolleys had steel wheels rolling on steel tracks, traction could become a problem on hills or during wet and icy weather.  Each trolley was equipped with a bin filled with dry sand at either end.  When traction became difficult, the motorman had a control that opened the bottom of the bin and permitted a small quantity of sand to drop on the tracks, improving traction.  It was possible to use the sand for either moving or braking.

During the 40s, many communities started to replace their trolleys with buses, which the bus manufacturers alleged were more efficient.  What they didn’t tell the cities was that the buses were expensive, huge pollution spewing monsters of the environment.  Realizing that they were sold a bill-of-goods, many communities are now looking into replacing their buses with a new form of trolley called “light rail.”  Some states, including New Jersey, have already started the replacement and are considering additional changes.

When New York City changed to bus service, the old trolley cars were stored for scrap or for use in building artificial reefs offshore for fish breeding grounds.  Wartime delays and other reasons found the trolleys still in storage when war ended.  Many were rebuilt, including a large number from the Southern Boulevard route in The Bronx, and shipped to Austria as part of the Marshall Plan.  Other cars were shipped to a number of other European locations for reuse.  

Part Five: The Third Avenue El

How could we leave out the 3^rd Avenue El?  Everyone knows of the elaborate subway system that New York City started in the 19^th century with private funds.  Some of these underground railway systems operate above ground in the outlying boroughs and a few were entirely above ground.  I use the past tense because I believe buses have replaced all of the completely elevated railways of the city.  I have chosen to write about the 3^rd Ave. El because it was a large part of my life before the war and during my working years when I both lived and worked in New York.  I’m sure that there are comparable stories to tell about the other elevateds, but that is not my purpose.

 The 3^rd Ave. El ran from up-town in The Bronx (around 242^nd Street) to South Ferry and the Bowery area in Manhattan – all elevated.  The ancient elevated cars were all wood with open-end platforms on either end of each car.  Entrance was gained through cage-type iron gates, manually operated by a conductor between each of the cars.  Each car was identical with a central aisle separating four double-seated seats on each side in the center of the car arranged across the car’s width, and other seats running the length of the car from each end to the sets of center seats.  Floors were made from raised strips of wood and all seats were covered with a shiny wicker-like material.  A major feature of the El was the 149^th Street transfer point that permitted the El rider to transfer to the subway without additional charge.  The transfer permitted the El rider, who was not interested in the 3^rd Ave. route to Manhattan, to use one of the subways, the Lexington Avenue Line. Try as I may, I was unable to find a photo of the gate cars used above 149th street, but did locate a photo of the cars used for both above and underground service before the El below 149th street was torn down.

One motorman at the front of the first car operated the train, with a conductor between each of the five cars.

When the motorman brought the train to a stop in a station, each of the conductors would manually open the gates on both ends of two adjacent cars.  Passengers would depart or board.  The conductor of the last car would signal to the next car forward that his gates were closed.  This was accomplished by pulling a cord that rang a bell.  Each conductor would repeat this reporting of closed gates until the last conductor would signal the motorman.  Only then would the motorman move the train.

There were occasions when the rear car conductors would signal their gates were safely closed, but a delay in closing the gates of the more forward cars prevented the train from moving.  During the spring and summer, many passengers would stand on the end platforms to take advantage of the nice weather.  This often caused congestion and prevented the conductors from closing the gates.  While the conductors cleared the car platforms and closed the gates, additional passengers arriving would find the train in the station with the gates closed or closing and be barred from boarding.  Sometimes tempers flared.  Once all the gates were closed and the conductors had rung their bells, the motorman moved the train out of the station. These incidents rarely caused serious delays.  Almost always during the rush hours passengers could look up the track and see another train approaching the station.

Station platforms were constructed for both local and express stops.  The local stations were frequent and narrow platforms and trains were loaded from one side only.  The express stops were large platforms that permitted passengers to board either the express or the local trains.  All platforms had overhead protection from the weather; some had additional protection on the sides.  Most had storage facilities for track equipment and tools.

I cannot adequately describe the pleasure of riding the El in both summer and winter.  Instead of seeing nothing but the dark dirty walls of a subway tunnel, I often found myself staring out of the window from one of the center car cross seats instead of reading as I had planned.  It was always a reasonably pleasant trip, and I miss it.

During the city’s efforts to cleanup and improve New York, the El was dismantled below 149^th Street, retaining the transfer point.  Years later, the remaining El in The Bronx was removed.  Buses replaced this old timer.       

Part Six: Street Cleaning

What an exciting subject, street cleaning!  But, bear with me: If all you know of street cleaning is what you see today and what was in recent times, there is much that you do not know of one of the more mundane activities of the city. 

During the 20s and 30s, the streets were swept clean by street cleaners using brooms and shovels.  Prewar street cleaning and garbage collection was vastly different then what we see today.  New York City had an army of workers in its sanitation service.

The typical street cleaner had a little cart consisting of a small platform, 2’x2’, mounted close to the pavement on four wheels.  The front two wheels were small and able to pivot; the rear wheels were much larger, about 2’ in diameter, and fixed.  There was an approximately 4’ vertical member attached to the rear of the platform rising in the same plane as the axle of the rear wheels to which were attached a pair of handles for controlling the cart.  Behind the vertical member, a square container, having about the same height as the vertical member, was mounted.  A removable garbage can, about the size of today’s garbage cans, was carried on the cart platform. The street cleaner walked behind the container when moving the cart.  The deep container was used to carry the sweeper’s tools.

Street Sweeper

Tools were simple.  The sweeper had one large, heavy stiff fibered street broom for sweeping the streets.  This broom was made for heavy duty.  A second broom, usually of the type we see today, was made from softer broom-corn and had a wood handle.  It was used mostly with a shovel for pick-ups.  There were two shovels: The first had a very wide ~3’ blade about 1’ deep and was used to move large amounts of trash or snow; the other was a typical shovel usually found in coal yards for moving coal, and was used as a utility shovel.  The sweeper may have had other tools, but all sweepers had the basic shovels and brooms.  It was not unusual for a sweeper to carry a supply of rags for general use.

Each sweeper had an assigned route.  He swept the streets manually and picked up the sweepings, trash and horse droppings, placing the pick-ups in the removable container until it was reasonably full.  Scattered about the city were collection points where the sweeper left his full containers and took an empty replacement.  Obviously, there was a limit on the number of street blocks that a sweeper could manage, so there were many sweepers.  Also, there were parts of the city that required daily cleanings while others didn’t.  This had an effect on the number of sweepers needed in each of the boroughs.

 

Garbage Barges

Early garbage collection trucks were long and open with relatively shallow bodies.  Garbage was collected at the curb and lifted into the trucks where one or two men would dump the contents and shovel it to the front.  A heavy canvas cover was rolled from the top of the cab to cover the filled part of the truck.  It had to be backbreaking work and not very healthy.  As the war years approached, these trucks were replaced with more efficient and safer vehicles.

 

Row of Snow Plows for City Streets

Snow removal has changed little over the years.  Snowplows collect and pile the snow and cargo trucks move it to the rivers where it is dumped.  Some areas use the sewer system to rid the streets of snow.  Hundreds of part-time laborers are hired to shovel the snow into open sewer manholes.  The major problem with this method is it is labor intensive and more expensive.  Plows for clearing the highways are much larger.     

Prepared from mental recollections and some assistance from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Ultimate Reference Suite, 2004 CD; and Old Trolley Cars edited by K.P. Fletcher and John Rossman.  Photos are from the Internet.

This essay was prepared in August of 2004 with the intention of adding additional sections before printing and adding to the essay volumes.  The added sections never materialized and it was decided to close the text as it existed in 2004 and add a supplement should enough new material develop to warrant one. 

September 2007/December 2014

LFC