(above picture found by Ron)
(Above Picture and copy below found on Google)2007 - NY has hundreds of bridges, not just the five that everybody knows. You can see five of them from Rainey Park in Astoria: Queensboro Bridge, Roosevelt Island Bridge, Triboro and Hellsgate, and a small pedestrian bridge going from Manhattan to Wards Island. I had to wait a couple of days for the rain to stop to take that panorama. Rainey Park closes after 9pm, and all the gates stay open. Three police cars drove into the park, and came up to me and asked me what I was doing, that the park is closed, that I’m not supposed to be here, that I could be a terrorist, that it’s dangerous in parks alone at night, that I could get a summons, yadayadayada… fortunately they were all kind enough to leave me alone after a brief chat.
"My sister just reminded me about our trips to Rainy Park..."
One summer, I loaded up my sisters carriage with, of course my sister, some lunch, and a container of water, joined by my cousin Michael (Conlon)(I was about 11, Angela was about 3 and Michael was about 9).... we would then walk to Rainey Park. It was about two miles or so from my house. The park was on Vernon Blvd in Astoria. Looking across the river New York spread out before us.We never appreciated the view but what kid does.. ...The entire Park was about two blocks long and a couple of hundred feet deep. It was right on the East River and the only thing separating you from the water was a wrought iron fence about four feet tall. There were no swings or see saws, no bathrooms, just green grass ( which we very seldom saw) and as you walked to the waters edge the grass slopped down at a steep angle ending at the fence, as shown in the above picture..that carriage did build up a lot of momentum...My sister was the 1st Evel Knievel..
Getting bored just sitting on the grass and looking at the water, Michael and I decided to play a game. We put Angela in the carriage, took out the food and the water of course, and standing at the top of the hill, rolled the carriage down. It was a crazy thing to do but hey, why not. The carriage stopped when it rammed into the fence. It was going very fast and how my sister did not propel out of it and into the river I will never know. The good news was the carriage did not break and oh yes, neither did Angela...they don't make carriages or sisters like that anymore....how our generation survived I will never know but compared to today's kids we were fortunate. We really had nothing, but we had each other, great imaginations and lots of fun.
7 comments:
What a good story.. I love it...
Here is a picture of Rainey Park today, showing the slope and the fence that my Aunt used to slam into with her Pram. Was it a real baby carriage or something that Pop-Pop built ?
Click the LINK below
Rainey Park
Some History...
RAINEY PARK
8.99 acres
Dr. Thomas Rainey (1824-1910), a resident of Ravenswood, Queens, spent 25 years of his life and most of his fortune advancing the construction of a bridge across the East River between Manhattan and Long Island City. The area that now accommodates Rainey Park was to be the Queens anchor for the ¡§Blackwell Island Bridge,¡¨ a project backed by leading citizens of Long Island City after the American Civil War. In 1871, they incorporated the ¡§New York and Queens County Bridge Company.¡¨ The bridge, planned with one ramp south to Brooklyn and another out to Long Island, was promoted as a catalyst for developing growth in Queens and as a railroad link to Long Island. To the community¡¦s disadvantage, the effort fell apart during the financial Panic of 1873.
Rainey had been one of the earliest and staunchest supporters of the project, and the burden of organizing and refinancing the company fell on him, first as treasurer in 1874, then as president in 1877. Dr. Rainey lobbied around the country to get financial backing and a bridge franchise. However, the War Department, concerned that a bridge could interfere with the defense of New York and access to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, withheld approval. Most interest in the region was for another bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan. The sparse population in Queens at the time raised further concerns of need and profitability, and the project had once again lost steam by 1892.
A group from the community called the Committee of Forty kept the effort alive. After the consolidation of New York City in 1898, the project gained new momentum and the bridge was finally built at Queens Plaza, a few blocks south of the proposed location. On opening day in 1909, Dr. Rainey realized his dream as he crossed the new bridge with Governor Charles Evans Hughes. The Queensboro Bridge fulfilled its promise by tying the Borough of Queens into Greater New York and Rainey received a gold medal inscribed ¡§The Father of the Bridge.¡¨ On that day Rainey told the New York Times, ¡§This is my bridge. At least it is the child of my thought, of my long years of arduous toil and sacrifice. Just over there, are the old towers of my bridge, which I began to build many years ago. I spent all I owned on the project . . . It is a grand bridge, much greater than the one I had in mind. It will be in service to thousands in the years to come, when Dr. Rainey and his bridge projects will long have been gathered into the archives of the past.¡¨ Rainey¡¦s pride in the structure was so great that, a year before his death at age 86, he reportedly attempted to walk the length of the bridge.
The structure was named the Queensboro Bridge, but Raineys contribution was not forgotten. On April 18, 1904, the City of New York acquired several acres of waterfront property through condemnation procedures. The concrete sea wall, built where the park meets the East River, was completed in 1912, by which time Rainey had passed away. To honor his public spirit, the city named the property Rainey Park. An exchange of properties with a local landowner in 1917 nearly 3 acres to the northern part of the park.
This park is the largest in Ravenswood, once an exclusive neighborhood with spacious plots of land along Vernon Boulevard. The area was industrialized in the 1870¡¦s and has been so thoroughly transformed that Rainey Park has become something of an oasis among the factories that populate much the neighborhood. The riverside promenade and baseball fields makes Rainey Park a popular spot for picnicking and play. Oaks, London Planes, and Callery Pear trees shade adorn this public greensward that one former Parks commissioner called ¡§one of the prettiest parks in the system.¡¨
Monday, Nov 06, 2000
Thanks Ron, I added the picture you found to the BLOG story, that is exactly how I remembered it. and no, Pop Pop did not build the carriage, if he did it would have gone thru the fence and into the water....
Wow, Ron, and I thought I was the historian in the family. I loved that park...I'd look forward to seeing it every day as I took the bus from Astoria to LIC to school. Even then I was the environmentalist, upset that so liitle space was set aside for grass and trees and beauty and so much for concrete factories and other ugly blights. The only factory i loved was the Steinway Piano factory. What a treat when returning from school someone was trying out a new piano...that was my philharmonic...I'd stand and listen before continuing past the GM parts plant.
Explaination: The Steinway Piano factory was on the corner of 30th Ave and Verson Blvd in Astoria, across the street from the East River. Those were pre air conditioning days, and windows would be open.. and in the summer as you walked by, you could hear the craftman tuning and testing newly made pianos...
HI
THAT STORY WAS TOO FUNNY. THANK GOD ANGELA DIDN'T GO INTO THE RIVE NO THANKS TO YOU........HA
LOVE YA
THANKS FOR THE STORIES.........
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