THERE’S good news and bad regarding the weird, 1940-era lampposts found on the north-south entrance and exit roads servicing the Queens-Midtown Tunnel on either side of 2nd Avenue between East 34th and 41st Streets. The good news is that they are still there after 80+ years, and that the Department of Transportation is still servicing them. Indeed, after several years when they were painted green, they all have new black paint jobs.
The bad news is that the vintage 1950-era Westinghouse AK-10 “cuplights” have all been replaced by modern LED Bell fixtures. The strange thing about it is that when I went past here in the early spring of 2022, I noticed that one of the “cups” had an LED fixture installed, so the “cups” can accept them. Over the past couple of years, the DOT has been erasing the last of the Westys; a batch under the High Line at 10th Avenue and West 30th, which still boasted incandescent bulbs, were removed in favor of LEDs. Hey, they were getting the job done. about a dozen years ago, the Westinghouses lighting the second deck of the Verrazzano Bridge, which burned mercury greenish-white, were taken out. I’d say one of the few remaining AK-10s can now be found on the refurbished Wall Crook on Nassau street off Spruce.
The Tunnel Exit and Entrance lampposts were first installed when the tunnel opened in 1940.
Oh well. Sick transit, Gloria!
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7/14/21