In the 1950s what was then called the Department of Traffic developed special posts used on pedestrian walkways over parkways and expressways. Several clutches of them survive in town: I can name the 33rd Avenue and 39th Avenue pedestrian walkways over the Clearview Expressway in Bayside, as well as a couple over the Long Island Expressway and FDR Drive in Manhattan, as well as the Gowanus Expressway at Summit Street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
Most have been outfitted with sodium vapor “bucket” lamps, the only pendant lamp developed in use in NYC between about 1975 and 1990, while a very few still have the Westinghouse AK-10 “cuplights” that they were originally built to support. This one at 33rd Avenue is kept very busy supporting a DONT WALK signal and a pair of traffic signs.
At over 60 years old, they’re getting to be living relics.
A lot like your webmaster!
3/10/16