Bronx

NEW York’s first water system was built between 1837 and 1842. Prior to those years, water was obtained from cisterns, wells and barrels from rain. Construction began in 1837 on…

In March 2022, when FNY presented the baseball streets of Commack in Suffolk County, several streets in NYC also named for baseball players were pointed out to me. Frankly I…

I hadn’t thought of mentioning them before, but New York City streets feature states’ names. Not in concentrated blocs, like signers of the Declaration of Independence (Brooklyn), vestrymen of Trinity…

AWHILE back, Forgotten NY noted some unexpected vehicular tunnels around town on a page that got good response. It got me to thinking about some unexpected traffic bridges around town…

THE country of Lebanon, wedged along the Mediterranean Sea between Israel and Syria, pops up here and there on New York city maps. There had been a Lebanon Terrace in…

I have mentioned NYC’s major tunnels only tangentially in Forgotten New York. Over more than 20 years, the site has become about NYC’s built infrastructure (at least the parts I…

I was recently sent this image of a Fteley / Watson Avenues sign from the Soundview Bronx neighborhood. These navy and white signs were employed in Manhattan and the Bronx…

I cannot tell you if Al Horn Baking Equipment, a wholesaler in the Westchester Square area, is still in business. I can tell you that the ghosts of its plastic…

THE Amalgamated Houses, seen here on Van Cortlandt Park South and Hillman Avenue, was the first union-sponsored housing cooperative in the United States, sponsored by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union…

If you look a street map of the southern Bronx, Brook Avenue seems to act oddly, running in a straight line north out of Mott Haven, but then curving northwest…

I have begun to pay more attention to platform lighting on elevated subway stations, which comes in a variety of posts from the earliest ornate ones, to the purely functional…

I am a fan of infrastructural elements in street layouts that aren’t shown on maps and consequently, I was unaware of until I bumped into them myself when out for…