# The less visited New York - City and State



## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

Ok, no one guessed it but those houses that now look like they are in the jungle are in Brooklyn, New York. They are actually part of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which was another site I recently visited.


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The Navy Yard is in the background. Over the wall you can just make out the cranes in the ship yard.


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A mural on the wall of the Navy Yard.


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This is one of the old entrances to the Navy Yard which is now used by the New York Police Department. Notice the initials NYPD on the left? If you get your car towed by the police in Lower Manhattan there is a good chance this is where they will bring it.


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Ok, now we are at the Planet of the Apes looking place. These old homes, old mansions actually, are on Navy Yard property. They are called "Admirals Row" and they are where the top officers in charge of the Navy Yard lived. When this was a Navy Yard, from 1809 to the early 1960s it was an actual navy base.


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These houses were quite big as befits high ranking officers. I am told they were actually inhabited as late as the early 1970s. It is stunning that they would decay so fast and be overtaken by a virtual forest.


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Note the large bay window.


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You can hardly see the building here it is so overgrown.


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They actually do want to restore some of these but they are so far gone most, if not all, will simply have to be torn down.


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I had to walk further down Flatbush Avenue to get to the visitor entrance. It is a sizable complex. At its peak during the Second World War 70,000 people worked here.


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Note the sign that says "We used to launch ships. Now we launch businesses". After the Navy left in the 1960s it operated as a civilian ship yard up until the 1980s when it pretty much closed completely. It has since been built back up as a center for small and medium sized industrial firms and other places needing space. One of New Yorks largest movie production studios is actually located here.


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There is a good sized visitor center called Building 92. It has a decent sized museum which is fairly well done. But the highlight is to tour the grounds. You can't do that on your own. You have to go as part of a formal tour, which is what I did. Those will be the next pictures.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

On the tour we went around and saw a number of the old buildings and dry docks in the Navy Yard:


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The paymaster building.


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Lots of the old cranes were there. This Navy Yard built some very famous ships, among them the Maine which sank in Havana Harbor and set off a war, the Arizona which was sunk at Pearl Harbor, and the Missouri which was the battleship that the Japanese signed the surrender papers on in Tokyo harbor. Interesting that the ships that began and concluded US involvement in WW2 were from this shipyard.


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Here we come a dry dock. Originally ships were constructed in these dry docks but not they are only repaired there. This tug was being worked on as we watched. You can see the old crane works and was in use.


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This large building is actually much bigger than what appears in the picture. It is U shaped and it is where they built the ship engines. It is in quite a precarious state and although it looks fascinating you cannot go inside.


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That is the Williamsburg Bridge in the distance. During WW2 the bridge was completely covered in fabric, as was the Manhattan Bridge, to prevent people from spying on the Navy Yard from the bridges.


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This is the huge engine construction building. As you can see, just a shell remains.


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This was an interesting building. The bottom part is a massive, windowless structure. To date, it has never been said by the Navy what was done in that part of the building. On the top were the administrative and executive offices of the Navy Yard. So whatever was done in the bottom part I guess it couldn't have been too dangerous.

Note the B&H Photo sign. They have their mail order operations here. So if you bought something over the internet from B&H this is where it came from.


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This is one of the parts still used as a shipyard.


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## streetlegal (Sep 7, 2008)

Fascinating stuff. Did you get to Buffalo? I passed through once and it look really interesting in a post-industrial rust-belt kind of way?


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## Spookvlieger (Jul 10, 2009)

You travel to other countries for old industrial area's and canals but you have so much to explore in your own state! Great pictures and what a nice area to explore. The Semi abandonned feeling always gets me warm


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## Piltup Man (May 21, 2010)

I like the 3rd pic from the bottom - it looks like the two cranes are battling it out. "Who are you calling creaky, you rustbucket?"


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

streetlegal said:


> Fascinating stuff. Did you get to Buffalo? I passed through once and it look really interesting in a post-industrial rust-belt kind of way?


Yup. I grew up 60 miles from Buffalo and have family there. I'll definitely be showing some pictures from there.


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## ikops (Jun 12, 2008)

I know I am repeating myself, but this really is an amazing thread.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

joshsam said:


> You travel to other countries for old industrial area's and canals but you have so much to explore in your own state! Great pictures and what a nice area to explore. The Semi abandonned feeling always gets me warm


That is the irony, we often don't explore as much where we live as we should. Note all the Belgians who haven't been to Charleroi or the French who haven't been to Lille. And lets not even get started about Londoners who seem not to have made it north of Cambridge :lol: Here in New York City it is taken as a sign of being a "real" New Yorker that you have never been to the Statue of Liberty.

I have gotten around New York a good deal and am doing even more now so there will be plenty to show here hopefully.


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## Wapper (Feb 24, 2011)

600West218 said:


> That is the irony, we often don't explore as much where we live as we should. *Note all the Belgians who haven't been to Charleroi *or the French who haven't been to Lille. And lets not even get started about Londoners who seem not to have made it north of Cambridge :lol: Here in New York City it is taken as a sign of being a "real" New Yorker that you have never been to the Statue of Liberty.
> 
> I have gotten around New York a good deal and am doing even more now so there will be plenty to show here hopefully.


Well, Charleroi has a very bad reputation here. Most people would only go their if they would get paid :lol:. But I know what you mean. Lots of Europeans are making trips around the world, while there is so much to see and to do in their own country and continent. It's strange.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

The next part of the tour took us to the old military hospital that was part of the Navy Yard.


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This is the military hospital. It was built in 1811, right before the War of 1812.

Its claim to fame is that a military physician named E.R. Squibb worked here. He was disenchanted with the very poor and irregular quality of medicines used in the U.S. military and spent his time at this hospital developing methods and making consistently high quality medications. He later formed his own company and he is the "Squibb" in Bristoy Myers-Squibb.


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Ok, this is a total crap picture because they have unfortunately allowed vegetation to overtake this sign. It is actually marking a military cemetery.

Before it was a Naval Yard this area was a significant bay called Wallabout Bay (the name comes from the Walloons from Belgium who were the first people to settle in the area). During the American revolution when the British controlled New York City they had old war ships beached here which they used to hold American prisoners. The most famous one was the HMS Jersey. The conditions were horrible and about 10,000 prisoners died and they were sometimes simply thrown overboard or sometimes taken ashore and buried in the beach.

Over the years as the Wallabout Bay was dug up and changed to expand the naval yard bones have been found. They were collected and moved to this area. In the 1970s when the Yard was to be closed they were dug up and moved to another cemetery. However, they have since discovered that there are a lot more bodies here that were never moved and so they are supposed to be restoring it as a military cemetery.


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This is the home of the Chief Surgeon at the hospital


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A better shot of the hospital. It supposedly has a nice interior and they are hoping to restore it enough that people can go inside.


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An abandoned monument to the Opium War - something completely forgotten in the U.S.


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Back down in the main part of the Yard again.


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Back by some massive warehouses/factory buildings.


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After the tour I spent more time in the Building 92 museum.


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This notes that the first angled deck on a carrier was built here. It also gives one part of the reason the ship yard was closed - NYC made it illegal for ships with nuclear reactors to enter New York harbor.


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This neat mural over a timeline shows the more famous ships that were built here.

BTW, the Monitor, which was the famous ironclad ship built by the Union in the Civil War was built at another ship yard in Greenpoint Brooklyn but it was brought to the Navy Yard to be fitted with its turret and gun.


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At the end you see an oil tanker which was the last major ship they built here.

And that is the end of my visit to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

The next place to visit is where this strange flag flies, if anyone can guess it:


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## Piltup Man (May 21, 2010)

Is that when the United States decided that each new State added to the Union would be represented by a new star _and_ a new stripe? Hence 15 stars and 15 stripes on this flag. It makes sense as 50 red and white stripes today would just look pink from afar.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

Yes, this is from when they added stripes for states as well as stars, then they reverted to just stars and the stripes would get a little out of control.

It flies over a fort on Governors Island in New York harbor.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

The next trip is to Governors Island which is the fairly large island in New York harbor, between the tip of southern Manhattan and Brooklyn.

It used to be a military base, then a Coast Guard base. When that all closed it laid empty for a while but is now open to the public as a park.

The ferry trip to get there is free and leaves from the old Staten Island ferry terminal right next to the new Staten Island ferry terminal.


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The new terminal is on the left.


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The ride over is very short, maybe 4 or 5 minutes. The white tower is a ventilation shaft for the Brooklyn-Battery automobile tunnel.


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As you can see you aren't far from Manhattan.


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The old flag flies over Fort Jay which was built between 1794 and 1807 as part of the defenses of New York harbor.


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That lousy building poking up in the background ruins the view of the historic fort :-(


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The fort is open to the public and you can go inside.


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I wonder if those canons could hit the world trade center from there?


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As you can see, they once had lots of canons in the fort, and they had railings to allow them to maneuver easily.


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The main entrance being renovated.


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Before exploring the rest of the island I decided to stop and the beachside grill to get some food.


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You do get a nice view of the Staten Island Ferry going back and forth from there. Also, you can see both ferry terminals in this picture.


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## DanielFigFoz (Mar 10, 2007)

Very interesting!


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## Piltup Man (May 21, 2010)

Why did they need to build a new ferry terminal? The old one still seems perfectly adequate.

I like the fort by the way.


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## Spookvlieger (Jul 10, 2009)

^^Probably because ferry traffic became to big to handle for the old terminal...

Nice new set of pictures! I've seen pictures of te fort before. It's great such place survived aal the renewal that N-American cities do, altough ,not in the greatest conditions.


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## Piltup Man (May 21, 2010)

The fort seems in good condition to me - obviously a lot of the cannons have since gone but that's to be expected.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

Yes, the fort is in good condition. The buildings inside of it have been used for housing and upgraded throughout the year.

However, this is only one of two forts on the island. The next one I'll show is much more interesting


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Interesting and very nice presentation from these districts of NYC


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

streetlegal said:


> The pictures confirm that there ain't nothing quite as intriguing as the recent past . . . the past that is dying in front of our very eyes. I felt this sense of a vanished world, of factories, their factory-clock rhythms, and workers communes, when I visited Milwaukee some years ago.


Very true! The recent past is so intrigueing - it certainly sucks me in. You can almost, but not quite, touch it. You can relate to it... but not completely. It feels like its your history, yet you weren't there for it.

So yes, on a lot of levels recent history is intrigueing.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

streetlegal said:


> I have noticed that the US has some amazing industrial heritage. These semi-abandoned towns, like many I saw in the mid-west, also have an incredible housing stock, sadly left to rot. Still, if you want to buy a cheap house . . .


Yup, in lots of places in Upstate New York buying a house is cheaper than buying a car. In Buffalo you can buy a huge house, maybe 4,000 square feet, for $5,000.


In fact, I was offered a job once in Fredonia NY--would have been a hell of a lo


streetlegal said:


> t cheaper than San Fran!! But also mind-numbing for a foreigner, I suspect . . .


That must have been a tough choice, San Fran versus Fredonia. :nuts:
But you are right, with a decent paying job in Fredonia you would be rich.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

joshsam said:


> Wow, that just.....how they come let thiw town so far. yet it gives great exploring opportunities... It almost makes me sad though looking at those nice homes.
> 
> I wonder...this town is only 30miles form the Albany-Troy metro area, both towns still having a nice historical center with buildings maintained and in a good shape. Why can't this just be a commuter town of that metro area? because on GE you can see recently build suburbs around... I just don't get why people would abandon such town when it's so close to a metro area.


Yes, it is close to being part of that area. There are busses that leave Amsterdam in the morning to take people to work in the government offices in Albany. I suspect that is the main reason this place isn't completely dead.

Albany, is in good shape because of all the government jobs. Troy has Renssalier Polythenic Institute which is very big (and very good) and that probably stabalizes its economy. Schennectady, which is the other main part of that metro area (it is actually Albany-Schennectady - Troy metro area) has some universities, still some General Electric factories but also some abandoned areas. Plus the State government puts offices in both Troy and Schennectady to help prop them up. I have pictures of Schennectady and when I walked around its downtown the biggest building, and the only new one, was the New York State Lottery.




joshsam said:


> Also, there are giant strip malls on the edge of the town. Why? Even the suburbs are in walking distance of the town center. Such a waste.


Yes, this is common. Cities are left to rot while the suburbs expand. A big part of this is racial - the white population does not want to be around blacks and hispanics. Another part is the car culture where people want to drive everywhere easily and that means you have to have lots of parking, which city centers don't usually have.

That is the normal pattern in the US - a poor and in decline city proper, prosperous suburbs, and in general a pretty sterile atmosphere. Very few cities break this pattern - New York, San Fran, Miami, DC, Boston and to a limited extent Chicago. Most every other city follows that pattern.

What is worse about these Upstate cities is that not just the city proper is in decline but the entire metro region is generally in decline. Go to the suburbs of Buffalo or Syracuse and you'll see abandoned houses and shopping malls.


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## Spookvlieger (Jul 10, 2009)

^^Thanks a lot for the info. So the Albany-Schennectady - Troy metro area is in better shape because of all the gouvernment jobs. At least that's one metro area saved... I thought Detroit was one of the baddest places. But afther seeing these immages and hear your story, I'm not sure if it really is.

Chicagogeorge a forumer on this forum allready posted several maps of the Chicago metro area with the movement of people. And it show a rapid decline in number of people living in the ity propper.

Well I hope these places will change for the better and new suburbs are halted.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

I didn't go any further in to that abandoned complex and although it was very tempting to try I didn't dare try to go in any of the buildings. If anyone wants to see a bit of what some of these buildings look like you can see these photos someone put on Flikr ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/altuwa/sets/72157623538721654/with/4842362773/ )

Instead I walked back out to a residential street and headed for some other interesting stuff.


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Probably real cheap if anyone wants it.


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This tower looks really interesting but I'm not sure what it was used for.


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At the base it was broken open and people have obviously gone in it, but it was dark and isolated and who knows what dangers lurked inside such as stairs that would give way. Plus I was by myself. So I decided I better take a pass on this.


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I then started walking back towards the center of the city, taking different streets this time.


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Again, total abandonment and no one to be seen.


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Obviously this city had some money at one point to build a rather stately library.


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These were some really cool buildings that I think any city would be happy to have.


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This is the small river that runs down the hill that Amsterdam is on and into the larger Mohawk River. This water power is what got Amsterdam its start.


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The most famous resident (well, past resident) of Amsterdam, Kirk Douglas. Now, if he could get his son to bring Catherine Zeta-Jones around the place could pick up a little 


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Looking back up to another industrial area further up on the hill. It is really quite amazing how many old factories this place has. I would say in the area I explored there were a good dozen old factory complexes and then the city extends to the other side of the Mohawk river and I saw a good number of factories there too when I took a quick drive over there (no pictures though). There will still be a good bit more exploring to do the next time I go back.


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As I'm heading uphill things get better and the houses start being fairly decent and kept up.


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This factory was built right over the river, probably for waterpower.


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City Hall.


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This used to be the mansion of one of the main industrialists in Amsterdam. He donated it to the city.


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In back of the city hall there was a little garden area.


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Inside the city hall that had a display case with some of the local industrial products. Note the Fownes Gloves. That was the factory I went by that was just in the process of being shut down.


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More factories.


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Some of these up in this part of the city were still being used.


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The little river making its way down into the valley that I had been exploring.

That is it for Amsterdam. Definitely a place I hope to get back to for more exploration. Great heritage but sadly emblematic of what has happened to Upstate New York.


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## streetlegal (Sep 7, 2008)

Amazing stuff. A kind of "Anti-Disneyland"--just more fascinating. Please find out what that tower was for!!

When I was a kid, there were smelting towers I used to snuggle into, but this looks like something different???


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## streetlegal (Sep 7, 2008)

Excuse my ignorance, but what were "Mendets"? Were they kind of instant fixes for broken pots etc?

And what was the lumber connection (sorry if I missed this)?


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## streetlegal (Sep 7, 2008)

Last point: have you ever thought of putting a book together of USA's abandoned industries--so many fascinating buildings and stories worth recording before they vanish.


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## Spookvlieger (Jul 10, 2009)

This thread is great! How can such a small city can have so much industry! I guess it must have been a rich city back in the days... I also like the river somehow 

Great pictures.


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## Puinkabouter (Jan 8, 2007)

Looks like a really beautiful town with a lot of very pretty architectural and industrial heritage. Except for that Sanford Mansion, that's just a horrific mishmash of styles. But those huge abandoned factory buildings are _beautiful_ :drool:

There used to be a couple of old factories of that scale in my hometown too (which you visited), but they were torn down and only the smaller ones remain, but most of those got repurposed as museums, apartments, shopping centers, artists' workshops, and so on. This town has lots of infrastructure that offers a great potential, especially as it is pretty close to a sizable metro area, apparently...


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## vitaniya (Jun 12, 2012)

Really amazing!


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

streetlegal said:


> Amazing stuff. A kind of "Anti-Disneyland"--just more fascinating. Please find out what that tower was for!!
> 
> When I was a kid, there were smelting towers I used to snuggle into, but this looks like something different???


I will look it up. I think I found out about it before on the internet, that it was some old mill. But I'm not sure what roll the tower played.

Edit: Here we go, it was part of the Mohawk Carpet Mill:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/windy_valley/2682269127/

The company still exists but it is in Georgia. Most all of this industry moved to the southern United States to get cheaper, non-union labor.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

streetlegal said:


> Excuse my ignorance, but what were "Mendets"? Were they kind of instant fixes for broken pots etc?
> 
> And what was the lumber connection (sorry if I missed this)?


Not sure what menders are - I never heard of them before. It looks almost like a sowing kit but then the woman seems to be holding a pot.

The lumber industry here would not be surprising. Just north of this city is a huge forested area called the Adirondacks. It is actually about the size of Belgium and it is just forests with some rivers and lakes. They used to cut a lot of trees for lumber and to make paper. In fact, there is still some paper industry in other cites around here.

There already are a number of books on abandoned industry in the US. There are a couple on Detroit alone.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

Puinkabouter said:


> Looks like a really beautiful town with a lot of very pretty architectural and industrial heritage. Except for that Sanford Mansion, that's just a horrific mishmash of styles. But those huge abandoned factory buildings are _beautiful_ :drool:
> 
> There used to be a couple of old factories of that scale in my hometown too (which you visited), but they were torn down and only the smaller ones remain, but most of those got repurposed as museums, apartments, shopping centers, artists' workshops, and so on. This town has lots of infrastructure that offers a great potential, especially as it is pretty close to a sizable metro area, apparently...


Yeah, and I've seen factories put to good use in other places. In England some were made into small shopping and dining centers. In Charleroi they had the big artist studios and club in the steel mill. It would be great if they could do that here but the problem is that the area isn't that populated and it is relatively low income with a lot of unemployment and many people moving to other parts of the U.S.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

Next up will be this place:


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## Spookvlieger (Jul 10, 2009)

That's a really nice sign! i wich our old factories has such nice signs overhere.

The only neon lit sign on a factory I now close to me is that of the RECOR factory in Hasselt and it looks like shit compaired to this amazing sign.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

joshsam said:


> That's a really nice sign! i wich our old factories has such nice signs overhere.
> 
> The only neon lit sign on a factory I now close to me is that of the RECOR factory in Hasselt and it looks like shit compaired to this amazing sign.


Actually, it never dawned on me that it was a neon sign. I've only ever seen it during daylight.

But you are right, it is a neon sign:

http://youtu.be/_-rzm1DdunM

Edit: BTW, how do you embed video in SC?


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## Spookvlieger (Jul 10, 2009)

^^ like this but without the * 

[*youtube] part of URL behind= [/youtube]

So in your case you place _-rzm1DdunM&feature in between.

This is the result:


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## DaveF12 (Nov 25, 2011)

it's really sad to see some cities/towns look like this.
thank you fro showing these photos.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

Given how depressing the last place explored was this time I'll post on a place that is in significantly better shape, even if it has its own problems. It is Schenectady, New York and is about 20 miles east of Amsterdam New York. It is part of the Albany - Schenectady - Troy metro area.

Some of these pictures I took with an iPhone, some with a regular camera so the quality of pictures will vary.

I started in the downtown of Schenectady:


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Look - a person on the street!! You can probably already note that while Schenectady's downtown in nothing to brag about it is better off than Amsterdam.


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There are some small, but obviously used, office buildings. It turns out that most of them are government buildings but still it is better than complete abandonment.


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There were a few hints of interesting buildings but in general I found this area to be pretty drab.


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The Procter Theater is from the 1920s and is quite luxurious (though unfortunately I couldn't get any good shots of the interior). It is actually on the National Register of Historic Places.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

The little arcade and box office were the least interesting part of the interior. The actual theater was quite ornate with spectacular chandaliers but it was too dark to get pictures.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

Interesting bay windows.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

The City Hall was pretty nice.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

The General Electric Company and Schenectady are very much linked, at least historically. We'll see more of that later.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

I never knew this before but Schenectady is quite old and was founded by the Dutch. Doesn't sound like a Dutch name but what do I know....


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

This little lane that went between the City Hall and the main part of downtown was nice.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

Their was a huge locomotive manufacturing company here.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

There were a bunch of Civil War monuments here, something you'll find in virtually all Upstate New York villages, towns and cities.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

Healthcare and insurance companies are one of the few remaining businesses in Upstate. While most of industry has left an older population has stayed behind along with the hospitals and insurance companies that cater to them.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

Nice to see some renovated buildings here. But again, note there is no cafe culture here. I think we've seen one person so far.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

This is the largest office building in the downtown area and I found it rather pathetic for a city with a big industrial and corporate heritage that it is the headquarters of the New York State Lottery.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

I imagine the State politicians put it here to try to prop up the city and win votes.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

I wonder what all the working class and poor people in New York City who spend their money on Lottery tickets would think if they saw this.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

This marker is where an old train station used to be. There is nothing there now but a parking lot. But Edison's arrival here is what put Schenectady on the map as we'll see in the next installment.


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## Piltup Man (May 21, 2010)

Very nice pics; Schenectady does indeed look in better economical shape than Amsterdam.

I very much like US architecture of the first half of the 20th century.


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## DanielFigFoz (Mar 10, 2007)

Piltup Man said:


> Very nice pics; Schenectady does indeed look in better economical shape than Amsterdam.
> 
> I very much like US architecture of the first half of the 20th century.


Agreed.

Another very interesting thread


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## Spookvlieger (Jul 10, 2009)

I like brick buildings in general so the downtown of this city isn't bad at all. some places are empty but imagine, oh my, they even a little pedestrian shopping street 

It looks well kept, although like a lot of places, empty. I don't know how much inhabitants it has but I live in a town of 40.000 people. If you are interested 600 WEST I have pictured every corner of the city center, you can find it in my nickname. You'll see as well that towns in Belgium suffer from to much suburbia ( cars flood the city and the central market square is a big parking lot)...but are still vibrant.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

joshsam said:


> I like brick buildings in general so the downtown of this city isn't bad at all. some places are empty but imagine, oh my, they even a little pedestrian shopping street
> 
> It looks well kept, although like a lot of places, empty. I don't know how much inhabitants it has but I live in a town of 40.000 people. If you are interested 600 WEST I have pictured every corner of the city center, you can find it in my nickname. You'll see as well that towns in Belgium suffer from to much suburbia ( cars flood the city and the central market square is a big parking lot)...but are still vibrant.


Your city looks a LOT more interesting than Schenectady 

I think Schenectady has about 50 0r 60 thousand inhabitents in the city proper with more in the surrounding suburbs. 

Yes, one good thing about quiet downtowns is the rents become very cheap so some interesting stores will move in that are really nice but could't afford high rents. In one picture here I think you can see a bit of an art craft store. So that is one positive effect. It did look like they were fixing this up so it should get better in the future. Plus the GE factory is actually finally expanding rather than laying people off.


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## Spookvlieger (Jul 10, 2009)

^^Well that's positive!  I surely hope that the new workers will chose the city center to live in and not some new build suburb


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

I next took some shots of the big General Electric complex here. Unfortunately you can't go inside as it is a gated off area. But you can see some of it, and there are other old historical GE buildings that are not in the complex.


Schenectady is where Thomas Edison founded General Electric and still houses its power turbine division. by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

This was an old General Electric building that was outside the main complex.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


The complex had hundreds of buildings at one time and around 50,000 employees. by 600West218, on Flickr

I guess the Dopler Radar that we all see on the nightly weather forecasts was developed here.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

The main entrance of the complex.


An old GE building. by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

They even have their own exit on the highway.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

I tried to zoom in and take a couple shots of the industrial buildings inside the complex.

The only thing they still make here are turbines for power plants.




One of the large assembly buildings on at the GE site.

 by 600West218, on Flickr
It is a pretty long and massive building.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

They did actually have a TV commercial (by a beer company!!) about them at last years Superbowl, so that is pretty high profile.







I then went to the other side of town, but not too far, maybe 2 miles, where they had an old train locomotive factory.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

This belonged to the American Locomotive Company which was the largest locomotive manufacturer in the United States and had a long history here going back to the steam locomotives in the late 1800s.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

It shut down completely in the 1960s. The reasons were interesting. When locomotives changed from steam to diesel-electric in the early 20th century ALCO partnered with their neighbor from across town to build electric motors. That is, all ALCO locomotives used General Electric electrical equipment. This went on happily for decades but then GE noticed that building locomotives seemed to be a profitable business and decided to start building them themselves, which they still do today in Erie Pennsylvannia. They then refused to sell electrical equipment to ALCO which effectively put them out of business.

Thanks GE! (Not)


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

In the next installment we'll leave the industrial stuff behind and show some residential areas.


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## Piltup Man (May 21, 2010)

Would this be where they manufactured the Big Boy? Those locomotives were incredible.


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

Piltup Man said:


> Would this be where they manufactured the Big Boy? Those locomotives were incredible.


Yup, they did build that in Schenectady:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Locomotive_Company


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

Next I went to one of Schenectady's older residential areas that is still fairly well kept.

It is of Dutch origin and many of the buildings are, by US standards, quite old. 


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


The old Stockade district of Schenectady which was settled by the Dutch around 1750. by 600West218, on Flickr

I think their house needs a trim 


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

Can't say if I like or dislike that house. It is impressive. But it also seems a bit creepy.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Buildings like this dated to the late 1700s by 600West218, on Flickr

This is a neat and very old looking home but it would be good if they could do something about all those power and telephone lines.


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


The Yates house by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr

You can see this house is from 1750


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


Untitled by 600West218, on Flickr


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## Chadoh25 (Dec 28, 2007)

Great photos!


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## Spookvlieger (Jul 10, 2009)

Nice pictures! Very Nice area. If would live in this city, that neighborhood would be where I would live. Nice to see that people do efford in maintaining those houses well. This area is 100times better than the downtown


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## 600West218 (Aug 30, 2010)

Yes, it is nice. It is pretty affluent and there is a college not to far from there - Union College so there are a fair number of students that live there.

The name of the area is the Stockade District and it has a Wilkipedia entry here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockade_Historic_District


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