55th Anniversary of Rochester's Darkest Day

This article was scraped from Rochester Subway. This is a blog about Rochester history and urbanism has not been published since 2017. The current owners are now publishing link spam which made me want to preserve this history.. The original article was published June 30, 2011 and can be found here.

As we look back on 55 years without our subway, the U.S. Highway System     celebrates its 55th birthday

. Coincidence?

Some old photos of Rochester's lost subway after the jump...

   On September 12, 1923, Mayor Clarence Van Zandt led a party of business men and city officials on the first official inspection of the completed portion of the new subway construction areas. A photograph from that visit was printed in the Rochester Herald, September 13, 1923.

   An image from the Stone photographic series, "Men who built the subway". This is Ernest Marshall, an expert steam shovel operator on the site of the great subway construction project. Printed in Rochester Herald, December 2, 1923.

   This is the grand opening of the new "subway street" (Broad Street bridge). Mayor Van Zandt (not identifiable in the photo) has just opened the gate at the South Avenue end of the bridge. A parade is crossing the bridge as a crowd watches from both sides. Written on a large bill board at right is "Bengas starts easier, goes farther, try it". Similar to other photographs printed in Rochester Herald, August 15, 1924.

   A bustling subway station scene, showing people crowding the platform, and passengers lining up to leave the subway car. The scene is the underground City Hall station located at Broad and Exchange Streets. The eastbound car is heading for the end of the line at Rowlands.

   The Rochester City Hall building, as seen looking north from S. Fitzhugh Street and showing the subway entrance on Broad Street. Notice the gas station across the street from the subway entrance.

   Children pose on the steps of a footbridge over the Rochester Subway, just west of the Monroe Avenue Station near Adwin Place. September 22, 1950.

   A view looking east along the Rochester Subway bed from the Monroe Avenue bridge, showing the stairway leading from the bridge to the Monroe Avenue subway station. The station has been partially dismantled, in preparation for the construction of Interstate 490 in the subway bed.

Now a moment of silence.

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See also:
    Rochester Subway History