Video of the Day: Arteries of New York, 1941

In 1941, Encyclopedia Britannica put out a little educational film called "The Arteries of New York City". As you can guess, it describes how transportation to, from and inside of Manhattan, works.

The narration is ever so literal, describing that, "the main job of transportation in the city, is to carry people between three points: where they live, where they work and where they play."

The narrator also explains that ,"year after year, these arteries of New York thrive steadily, but it is no accident that they operate so smoothly or that new ones come in to being just when and where they are needed. Providing transportation for New York's millions is the job of many kinds of experts. This group of research workers analyzes trends to determine when and where new arteries are needed." This group of research workers needs to analyze the L train a little bit more.

And you gotta love the comments posted on YouTube about the video: "OMG that was so cool, even if its old.. i learned a lot about new york...i didnt even know there where tunnel under rivers to go to Manhattan!!!"

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment, Miscellaneous on December 12, 2006 11:00 AM

Comments [rss]

Bossanova913

Interestingly at at time when Robert Moses was still very much in power pushing a vision of a fully car reliant culture, the video still emphasizes the need for mass transportation. It is a much more balanced vision of NYC urban development than what I would expect. Still, the definition of 'arteries' is a bit contradictory - the beginning of the film talks about arteries of mass transportation, while the end of the film looks at the future development of arteries that seem to be mainly road and highway based. A very interesting piece of urban boosterism.

josh!

I'm still waiting for them to build an artery to make the commute via rocket viable.

josh!

I'm still waiting for them to build an artery to make the commute via rocket viable.

josh!

I'm still waiting for them to build an artery to make the commute via rocket viable.

Contested Streets

Transportation Alternatives, Cicala Filmworks, and the NYC Streets Renaissance campaign used a fair number of clips from this film in the new Contested Streets documentary. The film shows the rise of the automobile in NYC, and the steps that Copenhagen, Paris, and London are taking to reduce congestion. Really great film.

go here:

http://www.contestedstreets.com/

mel

There are?!? And here I've been swimming to work all these years...

Monkey Fist

I echo Mayor LaGuardia. Awesome stuff.

Sorry to nitpick, though, but I think it's "these arteries of New York throb steadily"...

nisey79

This video is very interesting; however, I saw it referenced previously on Gothamist in a post about "white NYC"--it linked to the ANIMAL New York website.

It might make sense to include a link to the previous post (I think it was one of Jake Dobkin's Extra, Extras). It appeared in September or early October, if memory serves correctly.