|
|
| Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown (306337) | |
 |
|
| Home > BusChat | |
[ Post a New Response | Return to the Index ]
|
| (306337) | |
Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by Joe on Wed Jul 8 19:13:38 2015 On November 1, 1927, the New York Times included the 170th Street Crosstown in its list of bus routes that Surface Transportation Corporation would begin that very day.--- I wish the Bronx Home News were available on-line as is the Brooklyn Eagle, but I must rely on the New York Times and its search engine for occasional news items. A crash on the Washington Bridge lets us know that the 170th Street Crosstown bus was operating in May of 1931. --- Four sent to hospital after crash at Bronx end of Washington Bridge. Wet pavement is blamed. Bus skids into car containing 30 passengers in a storm. The bus was a 170th Street Crosstown bus. The streetcar was a 180th Street Crosstown car, in later years to carry the Z route letter. --- In the 1946 Geographia Complete Street Guide is this description: 170th STREET CROSSTOWN Route 11 -- 3.55 miles -- From Southern Blvd and Freeman St, via Freeman St, Intervale Ave, Wilkins Ave, thr Crotona Park, FultonAve, Claremont Pkwy, Clay Ave., E. 170th St., W. 170th St, Shakespeare Ave, Woodycrest Ave, W. 168th St, Ogden Ave, Boscobel Ave, across Washington Bridge, W. 181 St. to St. Nicholas Ave. Returning via St. Nicholas Ave., W. 180th St, Amsterdam Ave, Bridge Plaza (West end of Washington Bridge); thence over the route described above to Intervale Av and Wilkins Ave, between Intervale Ave and Southern Blvd. In 2015, both ends of the 170th St. crosstown are somewhat different. |
|
|
| (306370) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by Asgard on Thu Jul 9 12:33:48 2015, in response to Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by Joe on Wed Jul 8 19:13:38 2015. "I wish the Bronx Home News were available on-line ..."You might be interested to know that it is at least available on microfilm at the Bronx Historical Society. I heard some time ago that they had looked into digitization, but it was prohibitively expensive. |
|
|
| (306411) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by Joe on Fri Jul 10 20:44:46 2015, in response to Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by Asgard on Thu Jul 9 12:33:48 2015. Thanks, Asgard, for the direction of possible future research.--- As the 170th Street Crosstown is one of the twelve routes Surface Transportation took over in late 1927, I presume it was one of the "emergency" Plant and Buildings routes John Hylan encouraged. Some of those routes were feeder routes, serving new residential areas and bringing people to rapid transit. The 170th Street Crosstown may have been designed at first to compete with TARS crosstown streetcars, namely the 167th Street Crosstown. However, with the 1920's construction of dense Bronx apartment houses, I see the Bx11 as serving people who needed service: 1) People in Highbridge could take the Ogden Avenue streetcar to shop in Washington Heights. However, as that streetcar returned to Manhattan on 155th Street, it did not connect Highbridge residents with the Jerome Avenue Interborough service (Lex and el), nor did the streetcar bring Highbridge people to the 170th Street business district, which continues to thrive. 2) The topography of The Bronx creates some big gaps in crosstown routes, and the Bx11 helped fill one such gap. At the Grand Concourse, the distance between the X-167th St. Crosstown trolley and the Z streetcar on East Tremont Avenue (yes, the Z, not the T here) is 1.2 miles. 3) The streetcar routes already jiggled a bit when they reached Webster Ave., the 167th moving to 168th, and the Z and T swapping streets (Z, now Bx36: Tremont to 180th; T, now Bx40/42: Burnside to Tremont). No wonder that the 170th Street Crosstown bus angles down a hill into Webster and takes Claremont Parkway as its crosstown thoroughfare. |
|
|
| (306423) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by Joe on Sat Jul 11 08:55:20 2015, in response to Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by Joe on Wed Jul 8 19:13:38 2015. Sometimes the Google search machine comes up with a surprise. In this case, I need to create a link below to a 600+ page free e-book from books.google.com, a scan of New York Court of Appeals Records and Briefs. I wish the title were more specific, as it is a transcript of court arguments regarding a mortgage suit involving the routes of Surface Transportation Company in The Bronx. Buried in the pages are lists and histories of Bronx routes and route proposals. Part of the problem seems to be that the franchises awarded Surface in late 1927 may have expired in 1937. This suit takes place in 1938 or 1939, and Victor McQuestion is grilled on bus franchise history. Into the mix seems to be Mayor LaGuardia's insistence that Surface bus franchises include a promise to remove TARS streetcars in five or ten years, or else the bus franchise gets lost! No, I have not comprehended the 600 pages of the law suit before the NY Court of Appeals.The link to this free ebook is --- The text includes a reference to Capwood Transportation Company operating Route 25 on Crosby and Layton Aves. and also Bronx Coach Company operating Route 26 on the Buhre Avenue and Country Club Line. |
|
|
| (306427) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by Joe on Sat Jul 11 11:34:58 2015, in response to Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by Joe on Wed Jul 8 19:13:38 2015. A Steve Zabel photo of 8367 with batwing ads passing Wertheimer's Department Store on West 181st Street is found on FacebookIt is already signed 11 TO SOUTHERN BLVD for the return trip. The Facebook photo is from BusTalk gallery. |
|
|
| (306450) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by Joe on Mon Jul 13 09:53:58 2015, in response to Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by Joe on Wed Jul 8 19:13:38 2015. Each time I look at a Bronx bus route, I try to imagine the needs it served or now serves. The Bx11 170th Street crosstown, for example, helped those who shopped along 170th Street in the perennially vigorous clothing+ stores between Jerome Avenue and the Concourse. Highbridge residents faced a daunting homeward climb up to the hilltop on Nelson or Ogden Avenues. The Bx11, for a nickel, provided that service. Also, the route accessed the 7th Avenue IRT, the Lexington-Jerome IRT, the new Independent Concourse line, the Third Avenue el, and the White Plains Road IRT at Freeman St.--- The Bx11 also gave access to movie theatres! It passed four theaters on West 181st St, The Empress, Gem, Lane, and Wadsworth. It looped past the Heights on Wadsworth Ave. The huge, long-lasting Coliseum was a block west. (As a child, I ran out of that theater when the circus tent in "Dumbo" caught fire.) Near Jerome Ave, the Bx11 passed the Luxor. East of the Concourse, it passed the Zenith. At Boston Road, the Boston Road Theater was a few steps away. At or near the eastern terminal (Southern Blvd & Freeman St) there were the Freeman and the Radio. |
|
|
| (306454) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by Asgard on Mon Jul 13 12:38:43 2015, in response to Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by Joe on Fri Jul 10 20:44:46 2015. You're very welcome.I'm enjoying your posts on the STS routes. |
|
|
| (306470) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by Joe on Mon Jul 13 21:27:46 2015, in response to Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by Joe on Wed Jul 8 19:13:38 2015. Regarding Bx11 access to movie theaters, I should have mentioned the Ogden Theater, now long gone, on the east side of Ogden Ave. north of West 171st Street. The Bx11 passed it.--- Though I have traveled much around The Bronx, I have never been on Claremont Parkway (Bx11) and Crotona Avenue (now Bx17) or anywhere inside Crotona Park, where these routes intersect with a transfer point. Google Street View shows bus shelters for northbound Bx17 passengers and westbound Bx11 passengers. In our five boroughs, is there a similar transfer point (north-south route crossing east-west route) inside a large city park? Thank you. |
|
|
| (306472) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by northshore on Mon Jul 13 22:43:44 2015, in response to Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by Joe on Mon Jul 13 21:27:46 2015. The Q46 and the Q76 at the intersection of Francis Lewis Blvd & Union Tpke in Cunningham Park. |
|
|
| (306479) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by Joe on Tue Jul 14 10:49:41 2015, in response to Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by northshore on Mon Jul 13 22:43:44 2015. Thanks, northshore, for pointing out the intersection of the Q46 and Q76 inside Cunningham Park.--- Trevon Haywood has posted on Flickr an excellent photo of Orion V 9831 on Bx11 westbound on Claremont Parkway inside Crotona Park. Link |
|
|
| (306578) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by Joe on Mon Jul 20 21:46:46 2015, in response to Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by Joe on Wed Jul 8 19:13:38 2015. An Automat restaurant signaled a district busy with foot traffic.The Bx11 passed two Automats, one at 121 East 170th Street, near Wythe Place and the Concourse underpass. The other was at 611 West 181 Street, near the last stop of the westbound Bx11. --- --- Thanks to Kevin Walsh of forgotten-ny.com for tipping me off about the 170th Street location. A few years ago, I enjoyed a Cuban lunch at Caridad Restaurant a block west and wondered about its previous role. |
|
|
| (306583) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by randyo on Tue Jul 21 16:14:07 2015, in response to Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by Joe on Mon Jul 20 21:46:46 2015. I remember the one on 181 St in Wash Hts. If I recall, it went out of business sometime circa 1960 and became a Ripley’s clothing store. |
|
|
| (306586) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by BxBus on Tue Jul 21 17:34:05 2015, in response to Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by Joe on Mon Jul 20 21:46:46 2015. Thanks, Joe, for bringing back memories of the Automats. As an adult I lived virtually across the street from the 104th/Broadway building when it was a supermarket, and often admired it's lingering memories of a wonderful place to eat. As a kid living in the Bronx, my parents would take me to visit my aunts in Washington Heights, taking the Burnside Avenue trolley west to the 181st St. terminus it shared with a multitude of other street car lines. We would walk a few steps from the trolley to the 181st St. Automat. My Dad would give me a few quarters, and I would put them down on the marble counter of the cashier's booth. Before I even got them out of my hand the cashier had placed a pile of nickels in the counter's indentation for me. The speed with which the happened was incredible to me. And then the baked beans, minute steak with spaghetti, and the choice of all the other wonderful things behind the little glass doors which opened when you inserted a nickel and turned the knob. And the coffee which spurted out of the little lion's heads...Good memories! |
|
|
| (306817) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by Joe on Thu Aug 6 06:37:40 2015, in response to Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by Joe on Wed Jul 8 19:13:38 2015. The NY Daily News reported on its website August 6, 2015, that a manhole cover was sent through the floor of an eastbound Bx11 bus waiting at the traffic signal at West 170th Street and Inwood Avenue. This happened about noon on August 4. The web article includes several photos of the damaged PLYWOOD floor on what appears to be bus 7747 (correction needed).Link |
|
|
| (306818) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by Terrapin Station on Thu Aug 6 07:27:26 2015, in response to Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by Joe on Thu Aug 6 06:37:40 2015. Good post. And excellent job placing this in your existing thread. You are a scholar and a gentleman. Others can learn a lot from you. |
|
|
| (306819) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by northshore on Thu Aug 6 09:33:17 2015, in response to Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by Terrapin Station on Thu Aug 6 07:27:26 2015. Thank you. That is the nicest thing you ever said about me. |
|
|
| (306821) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by cortelyounext on Thu Aug 6 12:37:42 2015, in response to Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by Terrapin Station on Thu Aug 6 07:27:26 2015. Aside from having the most legendary handle in the history of human society as we know it that post is exactly why Joe retains the highly sought after if rarely achieved #1 slot on the List of Aviators annum after annum which means year after year. Remarkable. |
|
|
| (306822) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by terRAPIN station on Thu Aug 6 12:43:13 2015, in response to Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by northshore on Thu Aug 6 09:33:17 2015. Corrected: Thank you. That is the nicest thing you've never said about me. |
|
|
| (306823) | |
Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown |
|
|
Posted by terRAPIN station on Thu Aug 6 12:44:14 2015, in response to Re: Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, posted by cortelyounext on Thu Aug 6 12:37:42 2015. He/it may not even be human. |
|
|