Station to Station

Outbound train approaching Langhorne Station

Bellevue Avenue crossing the tracks, with the bus stop sign on the telephone pole.

An inbound train approaching Langhorne Station

The new station

 Today I decided to revisit the Langhorne train station to take these pictures.   The building here is new, about a year old, and definitely modernized.  The previous station was a small room with a wooden floor, and wooden benches along three of the walls.  The new building has a tile floor, restrooms, and an LED display of the next train to arrive.  I have ridden the West Trenton train thousands of times over the years, usually from Langhorne to Center City and back.  The commute was fairly normal, although I did occasionally see some bizarre things happen, usually later at night. 

  In the stretch of tracks that passes Langhorne, SEPTA trains share the line with CSX, the actual owner of the tracks where their freight trains run.  The SEPTA trains go north about ten more miles before terminating in West Trenton, New Jersey.  The freight trains continue past there and travel across the state to the terminal in Kearney, outside of Newark and Jersey City.  At one time, it was possible to change trains at West Trenton and ride a New Jersey Transit train from there to Newark and New York, but NJT discontinued service from the Manville Junction to West Trenton.  SEPTA passengers not familiar with the system will sometimes confuse the West Trenton line with the Trenton line, and expect to make a connection to New York at the last stop.  Then they find out they can’t go any further, although they can take a bus from West Trenton station to the Trenton Transportation Center, and go to New York from there.

  I seldom rode the train during my childhood, although I often saw them from our car while stopped at the crossing.  Later, while I was a student at Temple, I rode daily and became familiar with the line.  I continued that routine for about four years  while going to school and later working in Center City.  I rode the train at all times of day, with the well-dressed professionals going downtown in the morning, and when they returned in the early evening.   I rode with the reverse commuters who took the late afternoon and early evening trains into the city.  I rode late at night with students, and those who liked the city nightlife and different events, such as concerts and Phillies games.  Not to mention the rowdy Friday and Saturday night crowds coming from the nightclubs and parties downtown (and other stops along the line), and taking the celebration with them onto the train.

  I also spent a lot of time waiting for trains there at Langhorne and several other stations.  I have sat through the heat of summer, cold of winter, and in rain, sleet, and snow. Sometimes trains ran over an hour late, sometimes they were cancelled.  I spent a lot of layover time at different stations waiting to switch trains, mostly in Jenkintown, about 20 minutes down the line from Langhorne.  However, I was always glad that train and bus routes were accesible to me.  It is definitely quicker and more convenient to commute by car, but there is an advantage to not having a car if all my needs could be met without one.  And although it has gotten expensive, the train is still my preferred way to commute to Center City.

 

Open and Shut : The Burlington Bristol Bridge

The Bridge in normal position, obscured by the trees

Bridge opening

Bridge open

    I went to the Delaware River in Bristol in early April, and got some pictures of the Burlington Bristol Bridge.  Unlike the previous times I saw the bridge opening, I remembered to bring my camera and took pictures of the bridge in the open and closed positions.  At the time I took these pictures, it was just short of its 80^th anniversary.   It’s not my favorite bridge to drive over, but it was built in a different day and age, for different cars that drove on narrower roads. 

  I usually drive over it twice a year, coming to and from Long Beach Island.   It’s kind of a gateway to the Jersey Shore for me.  The road going to the bridge veers outside of the town of Bristol, and through a wooded area on property that is now owned by Dow Chemical.  From time to time, Dow will fill Bristol and the area around it with the smell of melting plastic.  Some of the area the road goes through may also be owned by Coyne Chemical.  I don’t know if the riverfront property right at the bridge is public or owned by one of the chemical companies it borders. 

  The bridge clears the way for passing ships by a vertical lift, rather than opening up in halves.  The main span moves up along the twin towers until it reaches the top, and then lowers back down.    I have never been driving on or near the bridge when a ship came, but there is a siren alerting approaching vehicles when the bridge is opening.  I can just faintly hear it from the riverside park in town.  Also, there is an old sign at the bridge entrance with neon letters “STOP: BRIDGE OPENING”, that is probably still lit up when the time comes.

  There have been proposals to replace the bridge with a wider highway span, similar to the nearby Turnpike Bridge.   Actually, the earliest goes back to the sixties.  However, those plans all involved condemning the historic districts of both towns to make way, which did not appeal.  As of right now, I don’t know of any serious plans to replace the bridge, but since it is old, I’m guessing that ideas are being discussed.

Pictures of Fallsington

Gazebo in the park

Legion Post

Looks like World War II era, probably replaced the cannon

Battleship Gun

I took a few pictures of Fallsington earlier this week.   Although Fallsington is surrounded bordered by Levittown and Fairless Hills, it remains a small village with about four streets of residential houses.  There is a tavern, a firehouse, and a legion.  There are also the Pennsbury School District offices, in what looks like it used to be a school building, with the schoolyard still there.  I don’t think I saw a traffic light in that small area. It is all sandwiched between Tyburn Road the Business Route 1 Bridge over the railroad tracks and the tracks theselves, which lead to the former U.S. Steel mill.

  I just remember this place because I drove near it a lot.  I knew where it was, but never actually went there until last October, when I visited their annual Historic Fallsington Day.  My brother’s wife grew up right near there, and it’s within walking distance.  Her parents live right across Tyburn Road from the village.  Although they live within walking distance, it’s not the safest walk.   Tyburn Road is a huge obstacle.  It is not pedestrian friendly, and is like a highway where they live. 

  I will try to get back to Fallsington and take some more pictures soon, to add to these.  I also want to get back there  in October for the Historic Fallsington Day.

Carousel Village and Rides for Sale

The train ride under wraps

Cars of old 20's?, 30's?

Ride the Red Baron

The tree farm, and a setting that looks like it comes from an old children's story

  The journey I took today was one I took frequently, up route 413 in Bucks County, in a northwesterly direction.  I have been up and down that road many times since my childhood.  Mostly, it was the back way up to our relatives in Carbon County, through the farms and small towns of Bucks County.  Today, I stopped somewhere I don’t go much.  I went through a place called Carousel Village at Indian Walk to take these pictures.  It is kind of like a country shopping center, with a home and garden center, an antique shop, and a restaurant.  There is a tree farm in back.  There are also several kiddie rides, which make it somewhat like a miniature amusement park.  They look more like travelling carnival rides, but are stationary and don’t get disassembled and reassembled.  They looked fairly well maintained, but also appeared as if they haven’t been used in a while.  The rides all looked old and it seemed they now served as a visual display, a tribute to a bygone era. 

  It turns out they hadn’t been used. As I was making my way back to my car, I heard someone calling “Sir, sir”.  It took a second to realize that he was talking to me.  He saw me taking pictures of the rides, and I then thought maybe they didn’t want people doing that.  However, what he wanted to know was if I was interested in buying the rides, or knew anyone who was.  Since I’m just a curiosity photographer, I didn’t know of any person or place that would be interested in them.  I certainly didn’t have the money or a place to display them.  Perhaps the Mercer Museum in Doylestown would be the first group to ask, but I’m guessing they already tried that.  If anyone coming across this blog is interested and happens to be in a position to purchase these rides, their main phone number is 215-598-0707.

Sign of the Times

Another view of Lake Luxembourg

Do the duckwalk

  The pictures I took here are not the subject of this blog entry.  I’ve posted many pictures of this lake before.  Something happened while I was out taking these pictures.   I saw a man walking by who I recognized as one of my former co-workers.  I felt awkward about approaching him, just in case it happened to be someone who looked like him.  But I did make the approach, and indeed it was him.  I didn’t really know him, but we saw each other all the time, usually in the kitchen.  He ate healthy, and I would always see him washing off his vegetables.  Since I didn’t really know him, I largely forgot about him after I was let go in December of 2008, when the company downsized in the aftermath of the Wall Street meltdown. A large number of employees were regretfully sent packing, and I was one of them.  And they were by no means finished, as more jobs would be eliminated in the upcoming months. 

    I found out his name is Bob, which I didn’t know until today.  My first thought was that he was just taking a day off and enjoying a nice day at the park with his wife.  However, I remembered that hardly anyone who worked with me is still at the company, and indeed, Bob told me he was no longer there.  He survived that first wave of pink slips, but was let go four months later, with a smaller group of workers.  He found another job in the two years since then, but lost that, too.  Apparently, his new employer had to tighten their belts as well, and he was out the door once again.

  Bob’s situation brought two things to mind.  I remember riding with my father during the midafternoon, while the roads filled with cars.  He asked “doesn’t anybody work anymore?”  This was in the late 90’s.  But that would be a more fitting question today.  Most of the people in the cars that passed by us in the 90’s were almost certainly working.  They were either off, or worked a different shift.  Today, I’m not so sure.  Although it doesn’t seem like there are more cars on the road, or more people in parks than before, many of these people I see are probably there because they are out of work. 

  Another aspect of what Bob told me comes to mind.  He found another job after being let go, but he ended up being downsized from that place, too.  That is not the first time I heard about this. I have read several stories like this on the internet, of people who found a new job, but the new job didn’t last long.  They worked for a brief time, and then were told that their employers couldn’t afford to keep them on.  I personally know someone who experienced this not once, not twice, but three times in the last two years.  Another friend of mine told me that he started a new job, and just one week into it, his position was eliminated and he was escorted out the door.  It goes without saying that this must have been crushing.  These people thought they were finally back on their feet again, and that their troubles, at least with unemployment, were over.  But they had the rug pulled out from under them before their probationary period was done, and now they’re right back where they were before.

  There are some things that are just beyond everyone’s control, and I guess this is one of them.  It seems to me, with my limited knowledge, that this can only change through a long and slow process.  I have heard all the opinions about why things are the way they are.  Some people will say that there is too much control on business, too many taxes, too much regulation.   Others say the problem is just the opposite, that there is not enough control over business.  But whatever is causing things like this to happen, I hope and pray that the day comes where there will be no more stories like this one.

A Trip to the Mountains Within the City Limits

  The Wissahickon Creek is just a small stream.   It runs about 23 miles from its source near North Wales, Pa, to its mouth in Philadelphia, where it is received by the Schuylkill River.  It’s a familiar sight to most people in the Philadelphia area.  What I liked about hiking along this creek is that although it runs within the city limits, the area surrounding it is preserved for parkland.  It also runs through a deep gorge that makes the park resemble the Pocono Mountains.  I heard a SEPTA bus go by shortly after we entered the park.  So, if you just stretch your imagination a little, it’s like a trip to the Poconos that can be made by public transit.

  We parked our car in a residential street in Chestnut Hill.  The trailhead was right there, as there was a strip of park property between two houses.  There is ivy streaming down the hill from the backyards that border the park property.  Moving further down, it began to resemble the trails we sometimes hiked in the Poconos.  The terrain itself seemed mountainous, going downhill to the creek.  The downhill descent along the trail resembled the hikes I have taken in the mountains, as well as the algae green color of the water.  It was early in the trout season, so there were plenty of people along the banks fishing, and also standing waist-deep in the water. 

  I’m trying not to sound like a travel agency.  I won’t make any money by promoting a public park.  However, if for some reason you want to go to the Poconos, but can’t leave the Philadelphia area, this is a nice place to go, although there is no skiing here, as far as I know.

Levittown : Same Place Different Time

The house on the right is a ranch.  The house on the left is about three times its original size

These were probably built as Jubilee homes

A jubilee house that looks generally the same as when it was built

  I took these pictures today, in three different sections of Levittown, Pa.   Although it looks different today, Levittown served as the template for suburbanization in America.  For several decades after its construction, the streets were lined with rows of cookie-cutter houses that epitomized suburbia, although, as can be seen in these pictures, that has changed.   There is a back story to this that has been the subject of many articles and some books. I'm not an expert, but I'll try to summarize this as I understand it.

  The original design Levitt used was based on Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ranch house (the Levittowner and Jubilee designs would also appear later).  The Ranch was a house in its simplest form.  All features Wright saw as unnecessary were eliminated.  That included porches, basements, attics, and second stories.  Using this basic blueprint, Levitt built rows of these Ranch homes using the techniques he learned building army barracks during World War II.  He developed an assembly line technique of building houses similar to the way that cars were built in Detroit.  Only in this case, the houses remained stationary and the workers moved from house to house.  Thus, the houses could be built quickly and effectively, and eventually over 17,000 were built.

    Of course, over a period of fifty or sixty years, things tend to change.  In the earliest days of Levittown, alterations to houses were not allowed.  Neither were fences or clotheslines.  These rules were either forgotten, lifted, or just proved too difficult to enforce.  The sections of Levittown generally look the same from the outside as they did when I was in school, but the houses now look very different.  Some have been altered radically, bearing little or no resemblance to the original design.  Often, no two houses look the same anymore.  To get a better idea of how the houses have changed over time, I recommend joanklatchko.com.  Joan Klatchko is a photographer raised in Levittown, and although she has travelled the world, her hometown is often the subject of her work.

Pictures of Newtown, Pa

Court Street

Victorian House in Newtown

State Street in 2008

  One of my favorite nearby places to stop is Newtown, Pa.  I have posted some pictures from the Newtown area before, but here are a few shots of the main street downtown.  I visited here a few times as a child, but didn’t really grow to fully appreciate it until I was a student at Bucks County Community College.   BCCC was not right in the town, but was nearby, and sometimes I would go through the center of Newtown on my way to and from classes.  State Street is the main street running through the center of town, filled with cafes and specialty shops.  Sycamore Street also has shops and cafes, but it is less pedestrian friendly than State Street.  On the other streets in town are the old small town houses, many of them Victorian in appearance. 

  Many of the stores I remember are now gone from State Street, although it seems most of the shops are filled.  The small town main street and the Mom and Pop type stores that lined it largely became a thing of the past in post-World War II America, although it didn’t entirely go away.  They were largely replaced by supermarket centers and shopping malls, as suburbanization and the car culture reshaped the land.  However, in Newtown, there was a Rexall Drug store (now a Starbucks), there was the Colonial Five and Ten (now an art supply store), and Blum’s Department Store (now a Gap).   All of these stores were still lining State Street until at least the late 1980s, although they are long gone.   Some of the other small town businesses have managed to remain to this day.  One is the Newtown Theatre, which is known for its antiquity. I haven’t seen a movie there since I was a child, but it remember it stood apart from the movie theatres I was used to going to. The exterior is still maintained as is in its classic form, and probably the interior as well.  Another such business is Ned’s Cigar Store, which maintains the appearance and smell of an old cigar store, or what I imagine one was like.  It still has wooden doors and wooden floors.  I don’t remember seeing an American Indian statue in there, which is a common feature of cigar stores.  But this is the age of political correctness.  Almost directly across the street from Ned’s, there is now a Tobacco Leaf store.  I have seen a few of these in shopping centers and strip malls.  I don’t know how the old cigar store is faring against the direct competition.

  Many things have changed in and around Newtown over the years.  Up until the early 1980’s, most of the area surrounding the town was farmland.  After that, the area built up quickly and the farms were almost instantly replaced by housing developments and a few new shopping centers.  But the borough itself has managed to stay the same, at least in its general appearance, and continues to draw people in from all over. 

 

 

Trenton Skyline

Calhoun Street Bridge



State Capitol



"Trenton Makes" Bridge

More of downtown Trenton

  I took advantage of the nice weather on Thursday and got some pictures of the Trenton skyline.  I had been thinking about doing that for a while, and now that the skies were sunny and the humidity low, I decided that this was the time.  There is a levee in Morrisville, Pa with a walkway on top.   It’s an ideal place to take a walk and get the pictures.   It stretched between two older iron bridges, which took travelers directly into stop-and-go city traffic.  On the north end was the Calhoun Street Bridge, and on the south the famous “Trenton Makes” bridge, its big letters visible to travelers on the nearby U.S. 1 and railroad bridges.  As far as I know, they are the last two toll-free bridges spanning the Delaware, which is fairly broad at this point.  The rocks in the river and the low bridges show that it is not navigable here.   A few miles downstream, the river bottom drops off significantly, allowing it to float ocean-going freight ships and thus requiring higher bridge spans which those vessels can clear.

   “Trenton makes, the world takes” was once a literally true statement.  It was the city’s slogan as a manufacturing center in the early 20^th century.   Like most American cities, the manufacturing left as the economy went global.  Since Trenton has been the capital of New Jersey since 1790, that left the state government as the largest employer for the city.  The gold dome in the pictures makes it obvious which building is the capitol.  Other than that, I remember hearing sometime in the 1990s about Trenton possibly becoming “Hollywood East”.  I don’t think anything came of it though, and as far as I know no movie studios were constructed there.  If that came about, I guess that would have also increased tourism in Bucks County, since movie stars would be living not only in Princeton, but also in Yardley and Washington Crossing on our side of the river.

  Personally, I have not been in Trenton much.  I mostly remember seeing it from Morrisville, where my father worked.  It looked similar to these pictures, but this was in the 1980’s, before some of those buildings went up.  I would go through Trenton once in a while when I worked in Princeton, usually if there was a problem with I-95, or if my car was down and I needed to take the train to work.  I have been in the city twice in the last two years.  The company I have been temping at for the last few years has an annual banquet at Katmandu, a little south of where these pictures were taken.  Other than that, it is a layover point whenever I travel to New York City, which is rare.

Bigfoot's Enduring Popularity

Bigfoot marches alongside the fire engines

    Watching the Memorial Day parade in front of our house on Monday, I saw a Sasquatch walk by.  I missed getting a picture, but a few minutes later, another one came by.  There he (she?) was, walking out in the open, alongside the parade in front of hundreds of people, and right in front of our house.  This time I did get a picture, but from behind, and posted it above.  

 
  In truth, this is nothing new.  Bigfoot had already made the transition from folklore to popular culture decades ago.  There is the famous super 8 film of Bigfoot making his way through the woods (later refuted by an actor claiming it was actually him in a gorilla costume).  Since then there have been countless documentaries, and Bigfoot actually starred in a Saturday morning TV series on ABC (The Adventures of Bigfoot and Wildboy).  Lately, the Sasquatch has been seen in numerous TV commercials and music videos, sometimes even talking.  Bigfoot is everywhere.

   Although the legends and sightings originated with the folklore of the Pacific Northwest, the Sasquatch has been seen all over the country.  In fact, Bigfoot has been spotted in every state except Hawaii.  Washington and California lead the list, but there have been over 100 reported sightings in Michigan, Illinois, Florida, and Texas.  In Ohio, there have been 215 sightings, only 8 less than Oregon.  What is the source of all this data?  The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (bfro.net).  Pennsylvania, where this picture was taken, has 94 reported sightings.  At least two walked by in this parade, so if we add them to the list, that would make 96.  Just four more Bigfoot sightings and Pennsylvania will become the tenth state to top 100.