Thursday 20 September 2012

1971 AUTUMN in New York City

Myself in Times Square on 20 November 1971... they say the neon lights are bright on Broadway...
Billboard's Top 5 on 23rd October 1971

1.  Maggie May  - Rod Stewart
2.  Superstar - Carpenters
3. Gypsys, tramps and thieves - Cher
4.  The night they drove Old Dixie down - Joan Baez
5.  Do you know what I mean? - Lee Michaels

That's me wearing a yellow pom-pom hat and holding a cigarette on my lips. The brown velvet jacket was brought along from Brazil, so I had to wear a red cardigan under it to brace it for the New York autumn. I used to smoke mentholated Salem! I became a fan of Black people's fashion and colour-coordination and tried to adopt their attittude somehow. 

The Allied Chemical Tower in the background was built on the site where the New York Times erected their tower in 1904 to serve as its new headquarters. The paper's owner, Adolph Ochs, successfully persuaded the City to rename the surrounding area (then known as Longacre Square) after the newspaper, becoming Times Square

In 1913, only 8 years after, the Times moved its corporate headquarters to West 43rd Street which served as its home until 2007. On 6 November 1928, an electronic news ticker known as 'zipper' was introduced near the base of the building. The zipper originally consisted of 14,800 light bulbs. 

Look at me, Mum, on 42nd Street. As one can see 42nd Street was already degenerating into a shabby section where people with little money could go and watch double-featured sessions and spend the whole day there doing nothing. I used to love watching those Hammer-horror movies... 42nd Street was heaven for me!!! Remember Jim Brown? He was big then.
Jim Brown just being sexy and good looking. 
1971-1972 winter in New York City... with the statue of Liberty far away...

Billboard's Top 5 on 20 November 1971

1.  Theme from 'Shaft' - Isaac Hayes
2.  Gypsys, tramps & thieves - Cher
3.  Imagine - John Lennon
4.  Baby I'm a-want you - Bread
5.  Have you seen her? - Chi-Lites

Battery Park with its ugly buildings in the background... note a patch of snow on the ground...
Arthur is the author of the photos on this page. He worked at Peter Pan Records' office where I used to work as a machine-operator in the night-shift. Arthur lived next-door to us on Wilson Avenue. He was born of Portuguese parents who migrated to the USA.
Statue of José Bonifacio de Andrada at Bryant Park at the back of New York City Library where I used to sit and wonder in the Winter of 1971-1972. 
Blacula was big... and sleazy.

Billboard's Top 5 on 25 December 1971.

1. Brand new key - Melanie
2.  American pie - Don McLean
3.  All I ever need is you - Sonny & Cher
4.  Anticipation - Carly Simon
5.  George Jackson - Bob Dylan

I arrived in New York City on a Saturday morning, 2nd October 1971, having flown overnight from Rio de Janeiro. The trip took 9 hours and as I slept through most of it, I arrived at JFK Airport quite refreshed to start a brand new day in the Northern Hemisphere.

After having gone through immigration and customs I had my first little surprise in the new land: when I tried to open a glass door in front of me it actually opened by itself before I could reach it. It was one of those automatic doors equipped with infrared beams. If someone or something blocks the beam the door is triggered open. Wow! So much for advanced technology! I could not help but laugh at my naiveté and went ahead to look for a bus to take me to Manhattan. I had been told at the plane that there was such a service. It didn't take long for me to find the bus-stop and for it to move on. My first ride on American soil. I would not take my eyes off the window trying to absorb as much of the landscape as possible.

It was early Saturday morning. I cannot recall how but after a while I realized the bus was already in Manhattan. The bus must have taken the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and when I became conscious I was in Manhattan already. Even though I did not recognize any of the land-mark buildings I knew from photos I'd seen in magazines it had to be Manhattan because the main road - probably 3rd Avenue - was wide and long. The first thing I noticed was spurts of white steam coming out of holes down the long avenue. Later, I was told the steam came from furnaces and boilers installed at the basement of buildings... for it is a mamoth job to keep a big city like New York warm during autumn and winter.

Soon after we entered Manhattan I noticed passengers would signal the bus driver and he would stop a certain places to let them off. For some silly reason I started fretting after the 3rd such stop and thought I'd better get off somewhere soon. I didn't have enough English to ask for directions from the driver so I decided to get off the next time someone asked him to stop. I got hold of my guitar and suitcase - just like Paul Simon's 'Homeward bound' - and stepped off onto the sidewalk. There was a public phone near the corner and I thought I'd ring that Cuban friend of Bernardo's who lived in Queens. I don't remember his name anymore. I told him I had just arrived from Brazil. He was nice and invited me to visit him whenever I was 'settled'. I thanked him, said goodbye and was back at square one.

While I was talking in Spanish with him a big yellow taxi (I had never heart Joni Mitchell's 'Big yellow taxi' yet) pulled up near the phone booth. A Black driver got out of his seat and leaned against his car. After I hung up the phone he started talking to me. That would be my first cultural shock. I couldn't understand a single word he said. The only word I picked out was 'Dallas' or 'dalla'. It could not be Dallas... we were not in Texas! After some time I suspected 'dalla' would mean 'dollar'... bingo! I was right on! The fellow probably was talking 'jive' to me and I felt he was very friendly. Little did I know I had been really lucky to find a polite New Yorker the very first time I had to interact with one... in that heartless town. Later on I would find out that most New Yorkers are aggro and uncivil most of the time.

I showed the driver my address-book with a Newark address written on it and he spoke something I did not understand. I showed him some money I had received as change from a 100-dollar note at JFK. He picked out a 20-dollar bill and said it would be more than enough. He told me to get into the cab and drove to the Port Authority Bus Terminal on 8th Avenue next to 41st Street. When he stopped the cab I inferred I had arrived somewhere I could get a bus to Newark, New Jersey. He had driven no more than 5 minutes. I gave him a 20-dollar bill and he gave me a lot of change.

This is the entrance of the mamoth New York-New Jersey Port Authority Bus Terminal on 8th Avenue between 40th & 41st Streets.

I got off the taxi and went straight through those doors you see in the photo above into the lobby. There was an information desk with some Black female officers wearing uniforms. I went to one of them and showed her the address-book. She looked at me and uttered something that could be either six, sixteen, sixty or sixty-one. I was not sure about numbers in English, they sounded so much alike. Even so I gathered I had to go upstairs two more stories to the platform.

When I got to the top of some narrow escalator I entered a huge dark garage floor with many bus bays. I spotted the bus that would leave for Newark in a few minutes and mounted on it. I felt good inside the dark stationary coach. Soon the driver got onto his seat and started the bus descending a circling ramp that would take us all the way into the Lincoln Tunnel built under the Hudson River bed that separates New York from New Jersey. Wow! So much excitement for one morning.

When I least expected I was flying high on the New Jersey Turnpike - a highway suspended by the tallest-possible pylons over swamp-land on a vast wasteland. I could have never thought when I first heard Simon & Garfunkel's 'America' singing about 'counting the cars of the New Jersey Turnpike, they all come to for America' I would be there in less than 3 years.

In the very first few hours in America, there was I... counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike, just like Paul Simon had profesized in 'Bookends'. I couldn't believe my dreams were all being fulfilled with every passing moment. I looked back and saw the Manhattan skyline getting smaller with the Empire State and all.

'Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnkipe we all come to look for America...' Paul Simon's 'America' from the 1968 album 'Bookends'. Newark Bay Bridge at North Bayone Park. Newark skyline in the background.

While we were still riding on the highway I wouldn't have to worry. When the bus left it I braced myself for trouble and kept an eager eye where it led. Now I know the bus had entered south Newark and was heading towards Pennsylvania Station through Raymond Boulevard and Market Street but then I wouldn't have a clue where I was.

After a while, just like I had done in the Airport shuttle-bus in Manhattan, I decided it was about time for me to get off and that's what I did when it stopped next. This time I was even luckier. I got off the bus at Ironbound Station Place. I saw a bench near a statue of some nun - that I later found out it was Madre Cabrini's - and thought I might as well sit down and have a smoke. I used to smoke Salem mentholated cigarettes then. So much had already happened since my plane had touched down at the break of dawn. It must have been close to 9:00 AM.  After smoking I looked at my left and saw there was a sign bearing the name of the street that joined the square. I crossed the street to have a close inspection and to my real surprise it said: Ferry Street... the very street I was about to search for. It's funny that I just took it as naturally as possible.

I got hold of guitar & suitcase and started walking up the street. I would have to look for a certain dona Eugênia, who owned a newsagency at 112 Ferry Street. Used to the decimal system in Brazilian culture I thought 112 would be found on the next block. But that was not the case. Americans use a different system of street numbering. I had to walk up 4 blocks, crossing 1. Union Street, 2. Prospect St., 3. Congress St. and 4. Jefferson St. before I arrived at #112. Dona Eugênia's newsagency was located in the block between Jefferson and Madison streets. It's an easy way to remember past American Presidents' names.

Licia E.W. had told me Tia was a nice woman and there she was in front of me behind the counter on 112 Ferry Street. It was hard to tell her age. She was probably between 40 and 45. She had two adult children, a male and a female - both worked at the Newark Airport that employed many documented Brazilians who were a 'caste' among those who lived in the Ironbound. Tia was one of those Brazilian women that you trust as soon as you lay eyes on her. When I entered her shop carrying a guitar case and a suitcase she knew right away where I had come from and what my intentions were. I told her I had been sent by Licia and gave her a chocolate box. She just smiled and said I could leave my stuff behind the counter and 'stick around' for as it was a Saturday she expected a lot of Brazilian customers coming in and out of her store.

Tia (it means 'aunt' in Portuguese) had a loud laughter that could turn into a guffaw depending on  her mood. She talked to anyone and seemed to know each and every person who came in. She was portly but not fat. She reminded me of my father's Aunt Anna, my grandmother Albina's younger sister. Having a de-facto prominent role in the Brazilian community in the Ironbound, she knew secrets from every corner but her lips were sealed. She never bad-mouthed anyone but if you read between the lines you'd know who she was talking about.

There was a cardboard box at a corner on top of one of the counters which contained mail - and that's where most Brazilian men directed themselves to as soon as they entered the store. They went through the letters to check if they had mail. 112 Ferry Street was a notorious address within the Brazilian community in the Ironbound - most of them tourists who over-stayed their visas or illegal immigrants who were afraid to give their real addresses to employers so Tia allowed everyone to use her shop's address in case 'La Migra' (the Immigration police) showed up inadvertently. I would soon be added to that select list too.

Reminiscing about that particular 2nd October 1971, I realize Tia was the first person I really inter-acted in the USA. Since I arrived at her store at 9:00 am until I left it a quarter of an hour before 5:00 pm I had spent almost 8 hours in and out of her business. Tia tried to get various Brazilian fellows interested in my plight but most of them just checked the mail-box, bought a Brazilian newspaper or magazine and went away in some other chore. Having spent so much time with Tia I grew to appreciate her as if she was a relative and she became like a friend o mine. It's a pity I never showed her my appreciation. 

Soon I noticed that the first thing Brazilians asked when they met me was: 'Where are you from in Brazil?' Most Brazilians who lived in the Newark area were Mineiros, young males from Minas Gerais,  a land-locked state west of Rio de Janeiro and north of Sao Paulo. When I answered I was from S.Paulo, most Mineiros would lose interest in the conversation. Young and not-so-young males came from near-by places like Paterson, Passaic, Elizabeth and Kearny, across the Passaic River just 4 blocks away.

After having been addressed by a few guys who came in and went out, Tia must have noticed that I wasn't going anywhere so the next time she saw a fellow my age she asked him to help me fill out an application to get myself a Social Security number. Tia had a form somewhere. I sat down and filled in the blanks. Thank God I had enough notions of the English language to be able to fill it in by myself without having to ask too many questions. I bought a local stamp and went up to the Post Office on Merchant Street to mail it out before it closed at 12 noon.

Here was I in the United States of America in 1971, being benefited by the the Social Security Act introduced by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt 36 years before. Modern U.S.A. was a product of those hectic years.


A Paulista fellow who called himself Frank (Francisco most likely) and looked a bit like Goths-Punk do today - after knowing I was from S.Paulo said he could help me find work. He knew a small plastic factory where they always needed hands. He took me to the sweatshop which was not too far from Ferry Street (I presume it was on Lafayette Street) and introduced me to the boss; I promised him I would be back there at 10:00 pm to start working night shift on that very day... my first day in the USA.

Around noon I was invited by a Portuguese man I had met earlier hanging around Tia's news agency to have lunch with him at a Portuguese restaurand called 'Sol e Mar', two blocks away. 
Although I wasn't actually hungry I went along for the ride. I could see that Rodrigo was a lonely man for wouldn't fit in either with the Portuguese living in Newark or the Brazilian fellows that were much younger and devil-may-care.

Rodrigo was older than the average migrants I had met so far - maybe in his mid-to-late 30s - who had arrived from São Paulo just a few days before myself; probably the Thursday (30 September 1971) flight from Rio. Supposing Rodrigo was born in 1935, he first migrated to Brazil when he was 20 yeas old, in 1955, worked hard and managed to buy himself a bar-restaurant on Rua Brigadeiro Tobias. He acquired the bar with a partner I suppose must have been a Portuguese man too. Apparently it was a successful enterprise but after a few years he fell in with his partner and decided to leave it all behind and start a-new elsewhere. Rodrigo's bar was located on the same street where Licia E.W. had her travel agency, so I guess he too must have arrived in the USA through her services.

Rodrigo ordered cod fish as a main dish. Suddenly he seemed content and even proud of his feat, was in his element. He knew and appreciated Portuguese cuisine and ordered a bottle of wine from which I partook just a sip. Even though Rodrigo sounded upbeat I knew he was apprehensive about his situation. I think he had regrets of having left his Portuguese wife and all behind in São Paulo to be stuck in this place where he did not understand the language. He was somewhat lost. He had got used to Brazil's slow pace of life and now he was scared of this hard environment where his own countrymen were indiferent of his plight.

Portuguese men living in the USA then were mostly illiterate, brutalized by decades of fascism and self-centered. They shunned the society of Brazilians and considered South Americans 'second-class citizens'. This is a self-defeating expression on account that most Brazilian men were not even 'citizens' to start with. There was an understanding that most Brazilian guys were illegal immigrants (undocumented migrants) which was true and most Portuguese people were documented due to bi-lateral agreements the USA government had had with the Portuguese fascist government of Oliveira Salazar since the end of WWII. That was also true.

Rodrigo who I suppose must have followed the same instructions as given to me by dona Lícia had found accomodation the first day he arrived. He lived in a room on the 2nd floor of a 3-story-house on Wilson Avenue corner with Barbara Street which boasted a go-go bar owned by a Brazilian man called Alberto. He was a tall, slim, bald man in his early 40s probably  who worked some place at Newark International Airport. Rodrigo was worried he could not find work because he wasn't as young as the rest of us and could not rely on either Brazilians or Portuguese men to help him with English when applying for a job.

Newark's Ironbound was practically a Portuguese enclave in a mostly-Black town. Before we parted at the Portuguese restaurant, Rodrigo promised he would ask his landlord about providing a bed for myself.

I went back to Tia's shop to see if I could meet with someone who helped me find accomodation. Tia said she would shut the store at 5:00 pm so I still had a few hours left. But I was getting uneasy. In the first part of that Saturday morning I had had a lot of fun lingering at Tia's shop but now I was getting weary of the wait and uncertainty.

The morning period had been fraught with excitement. There was always someone new saying something interesting or taking me along to visit a grocery-mini-market where one could open the fridge and reach for a great variety of Tropicana juices. Tomato juice of many brands. I loved tomato juice with lemon since the first time I tasted it on the Varig DC-10 the night before. I also fell in love with the taste of apple juice which I had never tasted before this trip. Exquisite! I could no stop drinking can after can. In the Puertorican grocery store there were also guava and peach nectars and other fruit from Latin America. Ferry Street was definitely fun! 

There was a record-store across the street 3 houses down towards Wilson Avenue where they played Puerto Rican hits. They had a Sarita Montiel album cover on their window. I was suddenly marvelled but as everything happened so intensily I couldn't think deeply on the things I was experimenting. I think it was exactly at this record shop I saw a poster announcing Italian pop sensation Rita Pavone would be singing that very night at the Mosque Theater on 1020 Broad Street.

Three blocks up Ferry Street, on the same sidewalk, there was a coffee shop owned by a Brazilian man. I was taken there to have a coffee or a guaraná which was bottled somewhere in Canada and exported to the USA. It had a juke-box where I heard Joan Baez's 'The night they drove Old Dixie down' for the 1st time. I also heard John Lennon's 'Imagine' and 'Happy Xmas' ('War is over') there for the 1st time a few days later. 

Half an hour before Tia's closing time when I was about to start to be really worried, Rodrigo finally returned with good news. He had spoken to his landlord who said I could share his room. I would pay 16 dollars a week. Earlier, Tia had hinted that place was not the best for a 'good-boy' like me. She even mentioned the landlord's nick name as 'Alberto-Deus-me-livre' (Albert-God-forbid) and gave her familiar guffaw (laughter).

Rodrigo got hold of my guitar case, I took my suitcase and up we went Ferry Street crossing seven streets, namely: 1. Madison St., 2. Monroe St., 3. Adams St., 4. Jackson St., 5. Van Buren St., 6. Polk St., 7. Merchant St., where there was a Post Office and Ferry Street turns left while starting up at Saint Stephen's it forks out into Wilson Avenue.

On Wilson Avenue we walked another 9 blocks, namely: 1. Patterson, 2. Hensler, 3. Lafayette, 4. Ann, 5. Darcy, 6. Marne, 7. Garrison, 8. Komorn and finally 9. Barbara Street. This would be my neighbourhood for the next year or so.

As we entered the building from Barbara Street the first thing I noticed as we climbed up the narrow stairs to the 1st floor was a peculiar smell that emanates from those old frame-houses built from synthetic material like fiber-glass to insulate them from the bitter winter cold. As they get older they give off a peculiar smell laced with the heating-oil fumes let out from boilers in their basements (aka cellars). This peculiar smell would become familiar to me from then on. I was happy when I finally entered Rodrigo's room and I had the chance to sit down on the bed that would be mine for the next few weeks. Home sweet home very far away from home.

My single bed was on a corner next to a window which looked out on Wilson Avenue from which I could see the reflections of the go-go bar neon lights. Even though I was really tired I knew I could not really relax since I was supposed to start working at 10:00 pm at that small factory Frank had taken me to in the afternoon. I wasn't hungry for I had cod fish for lunch and a lot of apple and tomato juice during the day.

At about 9:00 pm I took courage and went out in search of the sweatshop but no matter what street I turned I could not remember where it was located. I was dismayed when I was back at Rodrigo's room and told him I just couldn't remember the place no matter what. At the same time I was glad I could finally lie me down to rest at the end of the longest day of my entire life. That was 2nd October 1971. 

Being a Saturday night the go-go bar was packed up to the rafters with patrons and the juke-box blared till late hours. There was someone who kept on playing 'Ain't no mountain high enough' repeatedly. Diana Ross had taken 'Ain't no mountain' to #1 at Billboard on 19 September 1970, for 3 weeks. The song was more than 1 year old but still a favourite with this particular person who was a regular at the bar. I can't help but remember those early days in Newark's Ironbound whenever I hear it.

The most popular record in that joint though was undoubtedly Rod Stewart's 'Maggie May'; the story of a teenager fellow who falls in love with an older woman...the highlight of the disc - apart from Rod's throaty voice - was a mandolin section at the end of the song... it played all day and all night. 'Sweet city woman' was also well played downstairs; a country-flavoured hit by Canadian band The Stampeders in which a banjo was prominent. 

I awoke early on the Sunday, 3rd October 1971, the first time I had slept on American soil. I could hardly wait to go out. I had planned to go back to Manhattan! I bid Rodrigo 'so long' and walked down the 7 blocks to Wilson Avenue and the 12 blocks to Newark Pennsylvania Station where I knew I could take the bus to 41st Street. I didn't know then I could take the PATH tube train that was much cheaper than the bus and probably quicker too.


As the Manhattan-bound bus stopped at the kerb on Market Street under Penn Station I noticed an ad on its side announcing Yvonne De Carlo in Stephen Sondheim's 'Follies'. Miss De Carlo had been a favourite of mine since I was a boy of 9 living in Marilia-SP. The Broadway production had opened on 4 April 1971 at the Winter Garden at 1634 Broadway between 50th & 51st Streets. I looked at the poster and felt a happy feeling to know that Yvonne De Carlo was living next to me - in the same town. But I never actually thought about the chance of buying a ticket and watch the show. My one and only concern then was to find a job as soon as I could.

I can account for the first 2 days since I arrived in the USA. Saturday, 2nd October 1971, had been the most sensational day of my whole life. When I awoke early on Sunday, 3rd October 1971, I was eager to go out and take my first bus trip to Manhattan and that's what I did. I told Rodrigo I would stay out the whole day and directed my feet towards Ferry Street to wait for the Manhattan bus under Pennsylvannia Station. 

I soon got used to Rodrigo's being my room mate. He was quiet and didn't do much. I remember him sitting on his bed either reading a letter he received from his wife in São Paulo - apparently they didn't have children - or quietly writing to her. I used to do a lot of letter writing too. He never went into details about his life. I only knew he had this business feud with his partner about the bar on Rua Brigadeiro Tobias, had felt betrayed by him - but never told me exactly what had happened. He decided to opt out of the partnership. He was sort of  bitter about it but was more worried about his present situation than what had happened in the past. 

Before the weather turned too cold, probably a couple of weeks after I moved in with him I invited Rodrigo to go to Manhattan with me for he'd never had set his feet there. I took my cheap camera along so Rodrigo took a few photos of myself on 42nd Street, posing in front of the old New York Times building on Times Square etc. I must have taken a few photos of Rodrigo so he could send it to his wife in São Paulo but I haven't kept any copy for myself. 

As the days turned into weeks Rodrigo became gloomier for he still couldn't find a job. I had already worked at a cabinet maker's saw mill - which lasted a week and a half - being laid off due to my inability to saw timber properly. The Italian owner of the place said he was sorry to let me go but he'd be bankrupt if I continued to saw planks in that dreadful way.  So I was back to square one. 

Less than a week later though, one of the three Mineiro fellows who lived next door to us told me I could apply for a job as a machine operator at Synthetic Plastics Company, a record making factory he worked - at Francis Street, only 5 blocks away from where we lived. As I don't remember his name I'll call him Raul. He did shift work making plastic ash-trays from a-quater-to-midnight until a quarter-to-eight the following day. The very next morning I went down to the factory's office and filled in an application and started working there the next Monday night 28 October 1971, at a quarter to mid-night. 

Rodrigo seeing I had already held 2 different jobs having arrived in the USA after him, was even more heavy-hearted even though he never showed it.  

Reminiscing my first 

Looking back at the time I went to live in the USA on 2nd October 1971, I could say with certainty that the first 3 months (October, November & December 1971) were the best of times. I could considered myself as having been lucky in the first few weeks and months. 


NJ & NY Port Authority Bus Terminal on 8th Ave.

Port Authority Bus Terminal looking westward to New Jersey.
Recently opened Bus Terminal on 8th Ave between 40th & 41st Streets in 1950.
8th Avenue.
This is how it looks in 2022... 
The bus terminal before it was opened...
Bus Terminal as seen by an artist in a 1950 postcard.

I remember distinctly well the first time I ever got to the Port Authority Bus Terminal on 8th Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets. It was on the morning of 2nd October 1971, a Saturday. I had just stepped out of a Varig jet-liner that had brought me from Rio de Janeiro to JFK Airport.

Not knowing exactly what to do I took a bus from the airport to the city and alighted somewhere downtown Manhattan when I thought it was about time for me to get off. Then, I didn't know what else to do! I happened to be near a taxi-cab with a Negro driver who helped me use a pay-phone. I showed him an address I had written on a piece of paper telling him through gestures that I wanted to go to Newark, N.J.  

The traxi-driver who was extremely friendly took me to the Bus Terminal. I gave him a 20-dollar bill for the fare and he gave me the right change when he could've easily over charged me. I didn't have the slightest idea about US monetary value. The 'brother' was 'right on' and left me on the corner of 41st Street and Eighth Ave. My very first experience with a New Yorker was a complete success!

I hardly spoke any English and I had a hard time deciphering the information a Black woman at an Information-booth at the Bus Terminal gave me when I showed her the scrap of paper with the Newark adress written on it. She shouted something that could be platform number 6, 16, 60 or 61. I thought that maybe 'sixty-one' would be the right choice and I hit the big pot. 

Yes, Newark platform was on the highest level and its number was indeed 61. I entered the bus and a few moments later the driver started the beast and we sailed right down those lanes you can see below coming out of the Bus Terminal and going into the Lincoln Tunnel in no time. 

Aerial view of entrance-ramp to the top of Port Authority Bus Terminal. 
going down into the bowels of the earth...

Eleventh Avenue in 1911
entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel.
Westbound traveller crosses from New York to New Jersey shortly after the 22nd December 1937, opening of the Lincoln Tunnel.”

“The dedication ceremony was held on the 21st and included, “a military parade, aviation maneuvers, aerial bombs, sirens and an artillery salute, followed by the brass-throated chorus of harbor craft whistles,” as a Times article from the date recounted.

The following day, the first person to drive through the tunnel was Omero Catan, or “Mr. First.” He was “among the obscurest annals of New York History.” Among his 537 firsts were crossing the George Washington Bridge in 1931, riding the 8th Avenue subway in 1932, and skating in Rockefeller Plaza in 1936. To be sure he’d be the first through the Lincoln Tunnel, he parked his car near the entrance on the Weehawken side at 10pm the night before.

Another man who made headlines that day was Charles T. Meaney. Just 10 hours after the tunnel opened at 4:00am, he “won the dubious distinction” of becoming the first person to run out of gas inside. He was towed within five minutes.”

“On 22nd December 1937, the center tube of the Lincoln Tunnel opened to motor traffic, connecting midtown New York City with Weehawken, New Jersey. Funded by the the Public Works Administration (PWA), the tunnel was built beneath the Hudson River by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, putting thousands of people to work during the Great Depression. A terrific engineering feat, the tunnel eased commutes in the burgeoning metropolis. Named after Abraham Lincoln, the tunnel followed the completion of the Holland Tunnel, also under the Hudson, in 1927.

Construction on the Lincoln Tunnel began in March 1934, and crews worked from both sides of the Hudson River. The work of the sandhogs—as workers who dig tunnels are sometimes known—was dangerous and claustrophobic. To reach the construction sites beneath the river, crews had to pass through air locks that eased them in and out of the high pressure areas. Dynamite exploded, giant drills roared, and tram cars rattled as workers braced the tunnel’s excavation with concrete and hundreds of giant iron rings. The New Jersey and New York workers met beneath the river for the first time in August 1935.

Today, the Lincoln Tunnel has three tubes, each with two traffic lanes. The 8,216-foot (2,504-meter) center tube carries vehicles in either or both directions, depending on traffic needs. Westbound vehicles travel in the 7,482-foot (2,281-meter) north tube, opened in 1945. The 8,006-foot (2,440-meter) south tube is for eastbound traffic. The completion of the south tube of the Lincoln Tunnel in 1957 brought the total cost to about $190 million. More than 20 million vehicles use the tunnel every year. Today’s cash toll for using the bridge—$15 for cars—is slightly higher than the original fare of 50¢.

As late as 1900, Manhattan was not connected with New Jersey by either bridge or tunnel. A few bridges crossed the narrow Harlem River on the north, connecting Manhattan with the Bronx. Brooklyn Bridge, across the East River, connected the lower end of Manhattan with Long Island. But the thousands of New Jersey people who worked in Manhattan had to cross the Hudson River every day by ferryboat. This was the same method that the Dutch settlers had used nearly 300 years before. Today, seven tunnels under the Hudson River connect Manhattan with New Jersey. The tunnels are used for rail, automobile, truck, and bus traffic. Construction of other routes beneath the river is ongoing.”

inside the bowels of the earth.
this is exactly the line dividing New York State and New Jersey... under the mighty Hudson River flowing down all the way from Canada.
an old post-card showing the Lincoln Tunnel entrance in New Jersey.
Lincoln Tunnel access from the Jersey side.
Lincoln Tunnel access on a busy day - 1955.
New Jersey Turnpike going towards Newark.
New Jersey swamp land.
No man's land... the swampland between Newark-NJ and Manhattan-NY.
amazing scenes under and around the New Jersey Turnpike.
we're almost there!
Newark ain't no pretty sight.
an industrial building among common houses... a typical sight in the Ironbound area.
New York Avenue in Newark.
Columbia Street, Newark.
Saint James Hospital.
Ferry Street after a snow fall.
Ferry Street looking towards Saint Stephen's Church.
Saint Stephen's Church with Wilson Avenue on the right.

PATH from Newark to 33rd St. and WTC

PATH actually means Port Authority Trans-Hudson
PATH Train map - from Newark to 33rd Street & WTC.
New Jersey
PATH trains started rolling in 1908, more than a 100 years ago.
Newark's Pennsylvania Station.
Leaving Newark's Penn Station. 
getting to Harrison, N.J.
here it comes!
Harrison station is such a quaint little place that reminds one of a little town in the country.
Harrison Station entrance.
PATH bridge over the Hackensack River.
NYC bound.
leaving Journal Square station.
Journal Square platform can be pretty gloomy in winter.
Journal Square, Jersey City post card.
scraggy all the way...
Pavonia - Newport.
Hoboken, N.J.

Christopher Street entrance to PATH - Hudson Tube.

Christopher Street, Greenwhich Village.
9th Street station.
9th Street stairs from the PATH station.
amazing 9th Street station passage-way.
14th Street Hudson Tube station.
14th Street station entrance.
33rd Street terminal.
N.Y.C.
Hotel McAlpin in the 1930s. on 33rd Street & Broadway.

Hotel Mc Alpin on Herald Square & 34th Street having the Empire State at its back.
Herald Square
Herald Square in the 1950s - one can see Gimbels Dept. Store at the left.

ON THE NEWARK - WORLD TRADE CENTER PATH LINE.


Exchange Place
Exchange Place in Jersey City on 4th of July 1976 - it looks you're in Lower Manhattan but you're actually across the river...
the best view of Manhattan's Financial Center is from Jersey City.
waste land a few miles from downtown Manhattan.
pretty scary patch of land going towards Downtown Manhattan...
World Trade Center on a slow day.
Same WTC on a busy winter day.
World Trade Center in early 1971.
that's how it felt when you looked up from the ground floor... all the way to the skies...
Top of the world, Ma!
September 11, 2001.

http://www.hudsoncity.net/tubesenglish/1-constructionhistory.html

PATH, derived from Port Authority Trans-Hudson, is a rapid transit railroad linking Manhattan, New York City with Newark, Harrison, Hoboken and Jersey City in metropolitan northern New Jersey. It is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a bi-state agency controlled by the governors of the two states.

While some PATH stations are adjacent or connected to New York City SubwayNewark Light RailHudson-Bergen Light Rail, and New Jersey Transit stations, there are no free transfers between these different, independently run transit systems; however, PATH does accept the same pay-per-ride MetroCard used by the New York City Subway. PATH trains run 24 hours a day.

PATH has a route length of 13.8 miles (22.2 km), not including any route overlap.

PATH trains use tunnels only in Manhattan, Hoboken and downtown Jersey City. The tracks cross the Hudson River through century-old cast iron tubes that rest on the river bottom under a thin layer of silt. PATH's route from Grove Street in Jersey City west to Newark runs in open cuts, at grade level, and on elevated track.

As of the third quarter of 2011, PATH had an average weekday ridership of 259,100.

The history of PATH, originally known as the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, predates the first underground line of the New York City Subway (the IRT). Although the railroad was first planned in 1874, existing technologies could not safely tunnel under the Hudson River. Construction began on the existing tunnels in 1890, but stopped shortly thereafter when funding ran out. Construction did not resume until 1900 under the direction of William Gibbs McAdoo, an ambitious young lawyer who had moved to New York from Chattanooga, Tennessee. McAdoo later became president of what was known, for many years, as the H&M, Hudson Tubes or McAdoo Tunnels.

The first tunnel (the more northern of the uptown pair) was originally built without an excavation shield or iron construction because the chief engineer of the time, Dewitt Haskin, believed that the river silt was strong enough to maintain the tunnel's form (with the help of compressed air) until a 2½ foot (76 cm) thick brick lining could be constructed. Haskin's plan was to excavate the tunnel, then fill it with compressed air to expel the water and to hold the iron plate lining in place. They succeeded in building the tunnel out by approximately 1,200 feet (370 m) from Jersey City until a series of blowouts — including a particularly serious one in 1880 that took the lives of 20 workers — ended the project.

When the New York and Jersey Tunnel Company resumed construction on the tunnels in 1902, they employed a different method of tunneling using tubular cast iron plating. An enormous mechanical shield was pushed through the silt at the bottom of the river. The displaced mud was then placed into a chamber, where it was later shoveled into small cars that hauled it to the surface. In some cases, the silt was baked with kerosene torches to facilitate easier removal of the mud. The southern tunnel of the uptown pair, as well as the downtown tunnels, were all constructed using the tubular cast iron method.

The tunnels are separate for each track, which enables a better ventilation by so-called piston effect. When a train passes through the tunnel it pushes out the air in front of it toward the closest ventilation shaft in front, and "sucks-in" the air to the tunnel from the closest ventilation shaft behind it.

The tunnels in Manhattan, on the other hand, employed cut and cover construction methods.

Hudson and Manhattan Railroad years

The first trains ran in 1907 and revenue service started between Hoboken and 19th Street at midnight on 26 February 1908, after President Theodore Roosevelt pressed a button at the White House that turned on the electric lines in the uptown tubes.

On 19 July 1909, service began between the Hudson Terminal in Lower Manhattan and Jersey City, through the downtown tubes located about 11⁄4 miles (2.0 km) south of the first pair.

After the completion of the uptown Manhattan extension to 33rd Street and the westward extension to the now-defunct Manhattan Transfer and Park Place Newark terminus in 1911, the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad was considered to be complete. The cost of the entire project was estimated at between $55 and $60 million, equal to more than $1 billion in present-day dollars

Originally, the Hudson Tubes were designed to link three of the major railroad terminals on the Hudson River in New Jersey — the Lackawanna in Hoboken, the Erie and Pensylvannia Rail Road in Jersey City — with New York City.

While it still provides a connection to train stations in Hoboken and Newark, the commuter train stations at Erie (now Pavonia-Newport) and Exchange Place (the PRR station) have since closed down. Towards the end of the 20th century the old rail yards at Pavonia and Exchange Place were replaced with large-scale office, residential, and retail developments.

The original plan included an agreement between H&M and the Pennsylvania Railroad whereby PRR traffic headed for Lower Manhattan transferred at Manhattan Transfer to the Hudson Tubes, and H&M would operate all traffic — ferry, train, or tube — between Lower Manhattan and Newark. The Tubes would take over operation of the Jersey City Pennsylvania Railroad Harborside Terminal station at Exchange Place, when the new Pennsylvania Station in midtown Manhattan were to open, which would have its own tunnel under the Hudson River.

Penn Station in Manhattan did open some ten years later, but the plans had changed; the PRR maintained operation of its Jersey City Station and they also maintained their ferries between Exchange Place and Lower Manhattan. Additionally, the route between Journal Square (then Summit Avenue) and Newark became a joint operation of the H&M and PRR.

There were early negotiations for Pennsylvania Station to also be shared by the two railroads. Attempts to extend the Tubes to Astor Place and Grand Central Terminal failed, even after some construction began on the extension. There was also a plan to build an extension from the curve west of Hoboken Terminal to where Secaucus Junction is now, and a plan for a north-south connection from the 33rd Street Station south on Broadway to Union Square and then a new alignment to Hudson Terminal.

The opening of the Holland Tunnel in 1927, coupled with the Depression that began shortly after, marked the decline of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad.

Later, the construction of the Lincoln Tunnel and the George Washington Bridge further enticed people away from the railroad. All of these tunnels were intended to increase the flow of auto-traffic, providing an alternative to the railway.

Port Authority takeover

Promotions and other advertising proved ineffectual at slowing the financial decline. In the 1950s, H&M fell into bankruptcy, but continued to operate. It remained under bankruptcy court protection for years, a source of embarrassment.

For decades, New Jersey politicians asked the Port Authority to operate the vital transit link, but Port Authority officials were reluctant to assume the money-losing operation, and New York politicians did not want extra Port Authority money spent in New Jersey.

The World Trade Center finally enabled the three parties to compromise. The Port Authority agreed to purchase and maintain the Tubes in return for the rights to build the World Trade Center on the land occupied by H&M's Hudson Terminal, which was the Lower Manhattan terminus of the Tubes.

In 1962, the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company ceased operation of the Hudson Tubes, and service began through the Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation (PATH), a subsidiary organization of the Port Authority. Upon taking over the H&M Railroad, the Port Authority spent $70 million to modernize PATH's infrastructure.


Hackensack River in the foreground; Hudson River in the middle and Manhattan in the background. 
Passaic River, Newark, N.J.