The streetcars used a conduit to access DC electricity because of opposition to stringing wires. La Guardia put an end to these streetcars because he thought they were noise, dirty and smelly.
The traffic light had not yet been invented. Every intersection of importance had a cop directing traffic.
The elevated railroad is the 3rd Avenue line, torn down in 1958. The wooden cars that serviced that line went to the east side of San Francisco Bay during World War II to provide trolley service to the shipyards. The lines were installed for the war effort and torn up right after VJ Day.
The Brooklyn Bridge had streetcar service leading to an underground terminal on the Manhattan side of the bridge. Note that the Brooklyn trolleys used catenary wire, not conduit.
Before the Hudson River tunnels were built, the railroads operated their own private navies to ferry people from Jersey City and Hoboken to downtown Manhattan. By 1966 the last railroad-operated ferry disappeared.
Despite the Brooklyn, Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges being in service and rail lines going under the river, there was still East River ferry service in 1911.
Thank you for that wealth of information.
Thanks for that informative post.
If only NY could go back in time. By about a century :-)