New York Subway 1905
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ก.ย. 2024
- A Trip Photographed May 21, 1905, on the Interborough Subway, 14 St. to 42nd St., New York, N.Y. Transferred from 35mm print. Footage from this film is available for licensing from www.globalimageworks.com
thats insane that footage from 1905 looks this good. I always loved looking down the tunnels while on the subway.
The filming started at 14th Street on today's Lexington Ave. Line. The trains passed 18th Street, stopped at 23rd Street, passed 28th Street, stopped at 33rd Street and then curved left to the original Grand Central Station stop which is today's shuttle station. The local platforms were short because the local trains had fewer cars and the cars themselves were shorter. As the trains were lengthened and the car themselves were longer, all of the stations had to be increased in length. The 18th Street station was closed when the 14th Street and 23rd Street stations were lengthened.
The camera platform was on the front of a New York subway train following another train on the same track. Lighting is provided by a specially constructed work car on a parallel track.
You can tell how new and fresh the infrastructure is, very cool to see.
To those commenting on the camera work and quality, the Cameraman was G.W. "Billy" Bitzer. He was a pioneer in the early movie days and, I believe, was D.W. Griffith's Cameraman.
Wow, those stations look so new and clean. :)
This is what now is the 6 Line, going uptown from 14th St. Union Sq to the original Grand Central Station. That left turn it makes, starting at 4:35, was right before the right turn it currently makes into the present GC Station. The station currently being used for the Shuttle to Times Sq was the original GC stop. After 1905, it continued to Times Sq, then up the West Side.
Marvelous cinematography for its time, considering how the motion picture (and the New York subway) were in their infancy when this movie was taken. Grand Central subway station looked great at the end - an appropriate "terminal" for the film. It's hard to believe everyone dressed so well even to take the subway - must have been Sunday. Thanks for posting this!
This was filmed by GW "Billy" Bitzer, one of the true creative pioneers in motion pictures. I believe he was DW Griffith's cameraman. I believe that the film was a Biograph release.
If I may (after listening to my grandfather), people were not all well dressed back then. You only remember seeing the well dressed ones cause they were the ones in front of cameras. The poor has always dressed pretty badly. What counts as "acceptable" has changed because people figures that it doesn't matter like it used to matter. Just food for thought from an old man.
another food for thought in return as token of high respect to you: Moscow Subway was opened in 1935 under Stalin. The great way more picturesque, simply astonishing, please check youtube references. Hellow from Moscow, by the way.
Still looks better quality wise than most videos uploaded today
An incredible piece of footage! Anyone with the slightest interest in railroad/subway historywill ove this! Definitely going in my favourites!
This footage is remarkably well preserved and very interesting.
Here I am in 2019 and I am watching this video made in 1905. This is fascinating to me!!
This video is fascinating from a subway buff's point of view for a few reasons, not the least of which are:
1. The train starts at Union Square, and you can see the local platform on the righthand side, which has now been blocked up and grated over.
2. The train goes through 18th St. station, which is now abandoned, graffiti'd up, and in total darkness.
3. The video ends at what is now the Grand Central-42nd St Shuttle station, not the station the 6 train goes through now.
Amazing how short the platforms were in the beginning. There must have been a lot of construction to bring them up to today's length.This tunnel predates the Vanderbilt's private train tunnel to 32nd street (to their apartment building) but must run close by. How charming the two older chaps walking arm in arm toward the camera at Grand Central and then backs to camera. One looks a little like Joe Kennedy; perhaps they were with IRT
the fact that this FILM survived is wonderful
The line was only a year old when this was filmed, so it was likely as clean as it appears.
Thank you for sharing, what a treasure.
I love old subway cars, they're the best
I love old films like this really intruiging.......xxxxxxxx
The stations look new and clean. Where is all the garbage and rats?
In 1905 they were new lol
Remember, the original IRT only went as far north as 96th Street.
The Cameraman For This Early Footage Of The NYC Subway Was Shot By G W.Bitzer Who Later Photographed Many Films Of Pioneering Director D.W.Griffith Including "The Birth Of A Nation" (1915),And "Intolerance" (1916).
I agree. They actually tell you where the track is. This film was over 100 years old. They have changed some of the names of the lines since then.
yes it was. our ancestors & elderly folks had better morals & respect for everything back then. i wished i was able to ride on the brooklyn bridge in that cable car. would love to travel back in time for one day. this picture quality is B&W beautiful.*
Note that the first station the train passes after 14th st. is the now abandoned 18th st. station which was closed in 1948 after the 14th st. station was extended.
You're right. It's that station. Those tracks you see were the only ones, since the 1 wasn't constructed yet. The 6 used to go up the West Side.
Thank Edison for the clip. If your family lived in NYC back then, they may have been in the station sceans
Not Edison. Biograph.
simply.. amazing
a piece of visual history
Superb Quality for 1905!!! Never thought! Thanks f.posting!.
incredibly clear imagery considering the age of the film. Historical document. Part of our heritage. Thanks for posting.
the 6 starts at pelham pkwy. the 1 starts at van cortlandt park and goes to 1-2-3 and 72nd street. its hard for something to not exist when i took it last week...
The year my Nana was born. I had no idea they had trains back then. Cool.
my friend got 2 ride on 1 of these sunday. im so jealous. liek the v line had one of these every sunday in spirit of the holiday season
Wow 1905 the subway still looks the same and we are in 2020
Except for the lack of graffiti, no subway rats, panels all in place, no water damage, nobody sleeping on the platform, no garbage, everybody is dressed respectably...
Thank you for sharing this footage.
Thanks a MILLION for not adding any music to this! Too many of these have some crappy music dubbed in.
Very Classy
Plus, they knew they'd be recording. So naturally the stations were cleaned and prepared beforehand.
Even as late as the 1980s, the New York City Transit Authority still hadn't gotten around to installing modern fluorescent lighting in some stations.
It sure was creepy in those stations, illuminated only by low-watt bare light bulbs
Cool footage of 1905
it looks so different!
The guy with the top hat is mesmerising
Cool having the lighting equipment riding along on a train on the left track. It still is amazing the photography is so good considering the camera equipment and film available at the time.
The Cameraman was GW "Billy" Bitzer, a creative pioneer in the movie world. He was DW Griffith's Cameraman.
It feels like a whole different world just 107 years ago!!!
Back then the subway was so new..... People didn't litter, nor did you see anyone pole-dancing, or talking/texting on their phones... Because those kinds of phones were not around back then. This was even way before they built the World Trade Center in the late 60's and early 70's, in which would unfortunately be destroyed in 2001, destroying the Cortlandt street station on the 1. Other than that, this was less than 30 years before they constructed the 2 legendary skyscrapers, the Empire State and Chrysler building. The station nearest to the ESB was 34th street herald square, and the station nearest to the Chrysler was grand central 42nd street.
This was the birth of the most beautiful subway system in the world.
Oh yeah, so beautiful, those wondrous rats and goo dropping off the ceilings..the smell of urine, the 140 degree temperatures on the stations...remarkable
UnitedStatesOfEmbarrassment10018 Actually the Cortlandt St Station didn't exist when these scenes were filmed and was constructed as part of the Dual Contracts extension (roughly 1913-1920) that extended the IRT Subway south of 42nd St/Times Square via 7th Ave on the West Side and north of 42nd St and fourth Ave via Lexington Ave on the East Side of Manhattan, resulting in the present "H" system with the various Subway and Elevated extensions in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. This was the original Contract One IRT subway which opened in October 1904 and was completed with subway and elevated extensions up Broadway and Lenox Ave into Upper Manhattan and the Bronx to Van Cortlandt and Bronx Parks on the East and West Sides and the Jomorelem Street tube under the East River to Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn in (Contracts Two and Three, I believe) 1907. These Dual Contract extensions also brought the BRT (Brooklyn Rapid Transit) then BMT (Brooklyn Manhattan Transit) into Manhattan besides over the Brooklyn Bridge, via the Nassau St loop Subway between the Manhattan and Williamburg Bridges and up Broadway in Manhattan to 57th Street and via a East River tunnel to Queens and originally ran over the Flushing as well as Astoria Lines. These New York City Subway and Elevated extensions in Manhattan and the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens as well as reconstruction of elevated lines of the IRT and BMT were the besides the construction of the Panama Canal the largest single construction project in the United States during that period.
@MontagTheMagician the footage is beautiful. it doesn'y look old. beautifully retouched & remastered.damn. early 1905.+***
rare and rich video. Best regards from Brazil.
Okay, so this was before the line continued up Lexington Avenue because the train turned west into Grand Central. Today's line turns northeast into Grand Central then north immediately after leaving Grand Central.
Wow New York was so clean back then!! You could eat off the platforms!!
+Atypical Lavender You Got That Right!!!!! :D
I'm Glad You Agree With ME. But What Is Ruthlessly????
At one time NYC was so safe that department stores were open 24 hours. Streets at night were full of shoppers. Now the streets are full of thugs. Very sad.
That's Because NYC Is Not The Same Anymore. And I Wish NYC Wasn't YTK Now. :(
How cool, time warp.
Funny how the the train tunnel actually lines up exactly with the contuor of the train itself. Talk about precision.
This is interesting. Nice video
no not anymore. they do still have some old subways, but some of them are new. for instance the 123 is a fairly new subway (at least the interior is).
This is so cool to see!
amazing video, like someone above said it's like traveling back in time. Although I expected the station to have more ppl, since I read that new york was ridiculously crowded in the 19th and turn of the century.
@AlienBusDriver Since I can tell there's a slight jump in the film there, I think the guy was running over to the stairway you see on the left to get down to the platform.
At 1905, people looked more polite and more formal. The station was more tidy than today.
What do you thnk?
At the time, people likely thought this subway was fast!
WOW ! that was awesome !
most subways in new york were built between 1900 and 1940 all basically used the same design called cut and cover.
come on now...to all those people who are commenting on how clean it looks...can you really tell from this 100 year old b&w footage?? lets be real
one thing's for sure, they don't build them like they used to.
I'm glad this survived.
calm down. i was refering to the 1-2-3 i think. i dont live in New york, but on the board it clearly had 1, 2, and a 3 in a red bubble. i took it to chambers.
@pennyf9 it has been restored the original is very dark and grainy it does look fantastic
The train looks pretty. Well, pretty for a train in 1904.
oh thanks, how do you know about the subway so well, because it is so fascinating. i grew up in nyc. did you also see the old video of the woman with the skirt going up on the street because of the subway grate, on google? do you have an access to old subway maps? they had those same wood benches even when i was a kid in the fifties, i think. i am not sure. no square shape poles on platform, all round columns. the dripping water on the walls from where? the same stream as the empire state bldg?
this is from 1905?! damn! what a quality picture!
its so hard 2 believe that it actually looked like this in NYC
I would do anything just to ride the subway back then.
im with ya, kid
Wow. Thats pretty cool!
A snapshot of America when people dressed nice and weren't obese and slovenly. Makes you think about whether we are evolving or devolving.
cheers, interesting
Congratulations , very nice video.
wow I love this!
It's odd watching videos like this. People rushing around, doing their business, everything seems so important to them, yet everyone in that video is now dead, Strange feeling
nowadays theyd never let trains go that close to eachother.
There's an abandoned station on 18th st? Let's go.
WOW.
this was seven years before the Titanic
@d4seasons I want to travel back in time too for a day. I want to be the way I am now, know it's 2010 but go back to 1905 or thereabouts. I want to visit my hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee and experience how it was at that time.
I'm like "OMG" when i see old movies,photos,when i learned there were photograph machines in 1840's,i was like "DAFUQQQ!!"
Agree with the comment.
In Macroeconomics 101,
I contested outsourcing+globalization,
arguing that exporting consumerism abroad,
with a weakened domestic labor base,
exacerbates global environmental pressures.
I was shouted down by the professor and acolytes alike!
Present immigration wait-time for many legal immigrants is 60+ years!
Plus 5 more to APPLY for citizenship!
No immigration reform bills are passed.
It encourages illegal immigration.
That said, it is yet, a great country.
It was an official filming. The train on the left track was a light train to enable the camera to see.
Holy shit look at this!
whoa..Grand Central platform looked so classy back then! :) now feels like...oh well..:p
Remember, this was filmed 5 months after the subway opened.
The subway cars during this time have the same top speed as the ones running today. Things were a bit different though.
Wow thanks for taking me back in time do u or anyone have 1 riding in side 1 of those
before world war one, before the titanic, before radio before telephone, but there was wire telegraph.
tracks look alot cleaner than todays trains.. xD
wow why was everybody dressed so fancy back then
the trainstations look rather dark.
Yeah it is kind of weird seeing dead people in this film o.o
I've been watching this video trying to figure out the stations. I remember back I was a kid in the early 90s, seeing that on the S train there was tracks that led to I believe the 1 line. Am I correct? If so, is that what we're seeing in this video, those tracks in use, and that's actually the S line station. It's very mentally stimulating. You wrote your comment 2 years ago, I was scrolling down to see if anyone mentioned the stations.
The stations were 14th Street, 18th Street (train passed that stop), 23rd Street, 28th Street (train passed that stop) and then made the left curve to Grand Central (now the Shuttle Station). When the Uptown East Side Line and the Downtown West Side Line were completed, there was a track connection so that Shuttle Trains could be brought either Uptown or Downtown. I don't know if those tracks are still active.
In all fairness it looks like a test drive. I mean, there's a train right behind it. It looks like they're shooting it.
That's when our country was clean.
I don't think the footage is from the year 1905 ... Just have a look at the "light-source" which is mounted on the train driving on the parallel track.. Fluorescent Lamps (in that form) were not available until the 1930ies....
Wrong. It WAS filmed in April, 1905. The lighting was NOT fluorescent lighting. It was some early kind of lighting set up on a flatcar being pulled by a power car on the Express track. Somewhere on the internet there is a full description of the film, who filmed it, and how it was done.
omg who made this film what can you tell us about any more stuff, like the coney island girls school film is that yours, and what can you tell us. we love this stuff because its the real deal.