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Multi-modal transportation back in the day

El, trolley tracks and horse-drawn carriages in old Boston

If you thought today's first mystery photo was just a little too easy (like, if you couldn't figure it out, hide your Boston ID in shame), you were right - the folks at the Boston City Archives posted the wrong photo.

Here's the correct mystery photo, showing your basic Boston street back when we had els running over trolley tracks and horse-drawn carriages were more than just a tourist attractions. Can you tell where and when the photo was taken? See it larger.

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Comments

The Charleston Elevated line, near City Square. As to when, very early 1900s.

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I don't see any velocipedes in that picture.

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Atlantic Ave. around 1900. Maybe around the North End.

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with elevated train lines. So much easier and cheaper than trying to put them underground only to have higher maintenance costs and difficulty. When Queens was just open space and Manhattan was too crowded, they built elevated rail to develop Queens. Much of it is retained in dense urban cities like NYC, Chicago etc.

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What are you talking about? Manhattan once had els on four of its avenues and they were all dismantled by the '50s.

With the abandonment of the 2nd and 3rd Avenue els, the east side has significantly less rapid transit capacity now than it did 60 years ago.

(Yes, many els remain in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens.)

EDITED to change "Staten Island" to "Queens". No idea what I was thinking when writing that!)

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Yes, the els were taken down in one of them to the detriment of transportation.

Now a new subway line is being constructed on the east side for how many billions of dollars?
The Big Dig cost how many billions of dollars to submerge an elevated highway?

Els are the most cost effective way to have dense transportation capacity. San francisco is suffering from the loss of its elevated highway after the big earthquake with horrible street traffic and congestion.

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has such crummy and spotty mass transit that it can barely be considered a "real" city. There are three transit agencies and they only line up in a few spots, often on a weird diagonal.

Plus most of the transit stations that are workable look like the alternate filming location of Slumdog Millionaire, because they're so filthy and crime-ridden.

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that it can barely be considered a "real" city

Rule #1: No one from Mass is ever to question SF being a real city....ever.

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Before interacting with Mark Kaepplein, please read this: http://www.wcvb.com/news/local/metro-west/neighbor-criticizes-couple-for...

Fixed the link, here's the first paragraph:

Some might applaud an Arlington couple's decision to adopt two special needs girls from China, but one neighbor accused them of putting an unnecessary financial burden on the town and its school system.
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Just want to make sure that anybody entertaining the thought of engaging in a conversation with you knows how much of a sociopathic asshole you are.

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....what are you implying, kisumxes?

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It's MY job to point out that he is a racist, sociopathic asshole.

Oh course, he could just be a racist asshole. Or a racist sociopath. Or just an asshole. I gave him a chance to pick one, but he punted on that.

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Isn't that what children like you do on the playground?

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First of all, I wouldn't even know about this truly sad little local story if you hadn't brought it up yourself in another thread. Second, how is posting a news story (however tangential) an "ad hominem attack?" For someone who seems to make a career of jumping into situations that don't remotely involve you with bizarre personal attacks and judgments (every pedestrian or cyclist killed by a car MUST have brought it on themselves; every young black guy killed on the street MUST have been a gang member; every adoptive family with special needs kids MUST be a bunch of money-sucking leeches) you're being a tad over-sensitive. Toughen up, buttercup.

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and then you have a reasonable statement.

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But eventually children develop reasoning ability, which means they would have to have a reason for saying what they say.

Of course, children who are raised properly also develop things like empathy. For instance, if a man were to lose his 19 year old son to violence, a properly raised child wouldn't decide to seek out the fault in the deceased. They would accept that see that the man is hurting and at least not say anything. Of course, children who are not properly raised might not do that. Say they were raised to be racist. In that case, they would find reasons to make those of different races lower than them. Or say they were sociopaths. In situations like that, they would lack empathy, which would make belittling victims of crime somehow acceptable. Or if they were raised without any boundaries they could just end up being assholes when they get older.

You know, you are one of the few people who use their actual names on this website, which means I could easily look up all those things that people say you did or say. The thing is, I've never done that. You, on the other hand, like to look up bad things about people who do not visit this website and post about them. That would be the difference between you and I.

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.

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He said if he had had all the information up front, he would have never posted his concerns.

Lemme break out my patented Sphincto-Translator device and see what this really means:

He said if he had known that his misanthropic, swollen prostate outburst of bile and years of pent up frustration for being hated by everyone would actually be called out in a very public way he would have remained cowardly hidden in his cave doing horrible things to his cat with a fork, because he is a sociopathic asshole.

Well there ya go.

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Battery Street Station is the structure on the El and probably 1901.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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Not just streetcar tracks and the elevated, but also freight trains, too! The Union Freight RR provided an important rail link between North Station and the yards just south of South Station; plus all the wharves and industries in between. It was one of the few non-passenger street railways in Boston and Massachusetts. It operated from about 1870 up until 1970. Although most of the moves happened at night, if you were on Atlantic Avenue at just the right time you might luck out and see a rare daytime move.

At Leigh Street, near the B&A yards on the northeast tip of the South End, there had been a connection to the lesser known Albany Street Freight Railroad. Imagine! At one time you could run a steam locomotive and box cars from Lowell Street and Causeway all the way to Albany and East Brookline Streets!

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Thanks for playing, folks! And for bearing with our mystery photo snafu today.

This photo was taken from the Lincoln Power Station and looks north onto Commercial Street. Also interesting is a note on the photo that says, "note union FRT. R.R. steam dummy hauling freight cars."

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...is July 10, 1901

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