Temporary lampposts, used when a regular lamp has fallen over, been crashed into, or is under repair for whatever reason, consist of simple wooden conical bases in which the electric works are contained, and a simple pipe to hold the luminaire. Temporary posts of this type have neen used for nearly a century.
My favorite examples of the genre can be seen along 2nd Avenue in the Upper East Side, which has been ripped up by construction of the previously mythical Second Avenue Subway. They’ve been festooned with street signs, traffic control signs and one way signs.
Possibly the most enduring form of the genre have been these “temporary” lamps on the Park Avenue Grand Central Terminal viaduct, which have been here since the late 1980s.
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