Queens: Then & Now

Queens gets the Then & Now treatment as Arcadia Publishing releases their image-heavy book by Jason D. Antos, filled with contemporary and historic photographs of the borough. You'll get side-by-side shots comparing the old and the new landscapes, but the book won't hit shelves until January 19th, so here's a sneak peek at what you'll find inside.

Interesting factoid from the introduction: "Around 60,000 years ago, the territory that would become Queens and Greater Long Island was created by an enormous glacier that descended from southern Connecticut." There were even prehistoric creatures inhabiting it...and currently there are muppets living there.

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By Jen Carlson in Arts and Events on January 5, 2009 5:35 PM

Comments [rss]

west side Michael

My comment on the Queensbridge houses and the

teen gangs of LIC( in the 1950's )has disappeared I

wonder why???

Maybe a developer of LIC luxury loft living removed me?

r1b2

I love the gal with the waspish-dominatrix waistline. HOT!

Think2wice

Pic #4 is legendary among transit buffs, but to see the "now" shot of it is just sweet.

As for the elevated itself, too bad the old Public Service Commission and the IRT didn't have the foresight to make the Flushing Line four tracks instead of just three.

Here's a rendering of it from the original design.

NannyState

Bring back the glacier.

whitecastlerock

Great pics... it clearly shows just how fucking disgusting Queens has become. It is a shame

jonathan

I fail to see your argument.

whitecastlerock

your failure is all on you pal

chuzzlewit

"factoid".

derrr

drewo

I wonder if that cyclist stopped at red lights.

Wait -- there were no light signals. Because, pre-automobile, life was so much more pleasant.

dr zippy

Except for all the horseshit and occasional dead horse in the street.

MFer

Instead he got run over by a trolley.

dr zippy

Um, Spiritof76? Those "quotation marks" Jen used means she pulled the sentence out of the book. It wasn't Jen that made up the stuff about the trolley being drawn by horses.

Spirit of 76

Um, Zippy, have you noticed the "reply" link under posts? Makes threaded discussions much easier to follow.

Gothamist writers like to crack snarky. They usually don't post just a straight regurgitation of other news. I'm sure Jen could have and would have made light of the book's error if she had noticed it.

dr zippy

Sorry about not using the reply link!

peanuthead

ha ha! note the fixie rider to the right in the first picture. chances are it really was fixed, cuz that's what many of the earliest bikes were.

wow! who woulda thunk it that queens was already such a mecca for folks of such ilk (insert your favorite term for fixie riders).

Spirit of 76

Um, Jen? Those "horse-drawn trolleys" of yours seem to have trolley poles to pick up electricity from overhead lines. See those angled poles sticking out of the top?