I really shouldn’t reveal where it is (and neither should you), lest the Department of Transportation make quick work of it, but this is one of the very few porcelain/enamel and metal 1950s-era signs remaining in NYC.
These signs were the first to use the Highway Gothic font, which is currently being phased out in favor of Clearview. They competed for primacy with the older Humpback signs, until all were wiped out by the vinyl street sign incursion in 1964.
(Update: the porcelain sign has been removed, and the lane isn’t identified by a street sign these days.)
10/31/13