Seeing Things: Elephants, San Francisco Subway Cars and Upstate New York

In Oh Albany!, William Kennedy describes an "elephant crisis" in 1950's downtown Albany.

I thought Oh Albany! had a story about an intoxicated Times-Union reporter telling his newsroom colleagues he saw elephants on Broadway and having his announcement dismissed as a hallucination.  When someone went downstairs, there were elephants - - walking from a railroad siding to the circus.

When I returned to the book, I found the elephants, but not the reporter.

In the 1950's, before construction of a riverfront Interstate paved over most railroad tracks, the Ringling Brothers circus unloaded on sidings in downtown Albany.  

Before one circus, Kennedy wrote, "the elephants got loose and wandered around Downtown." "An intrepid Times-Union photographer," Kennedy continued, "snapped them on their spree."  Imagine, being an office worker and coming out of your building to see elephants at large.  

The paper ran a publicity photo of elephants the day before.  When Barney Fowler, the city editor, asked news editor Ed Nowinski to run the "spectacular photos" of the elephants on the loose, Nowinski did not run them, saying "We had elephants yesterday."

On a recent afternoon, driving on Route 20 in suburban Guilderland, NY,  I was reminded of Kennedy's elephants. 

The Sunday evening before the afternoon, my wife Dorothy and I watched an episode of Michael Portillo's Great American Railway Journey, on  WMHT, our local PBS station.  In this episode, Mr. Portillo was riding a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train from downtown San Francisco to a stop near University of California - - Berkeley.  

The BART system is one of several wonderful rail-based transit systems in San Francisco.  It allows a hassle-free trip from the region's airports to downtown and its trains are pleasant to ride.

Given how integral BART is to the Bay Area and given how I had seen one of its trains on television the night before, you can imagine my surprise and amazement when I saw a BART coach on a flatbed truck, driving west on Route 20!  It was such a surprise that I half expected to see elephants next. 

After seeing the car, I contacted BART and spoke to Jim Allison, the agency's Media Relations Manager.  Jim told me that BART "has contracted with Bombardier Transportation to build 775 new cars to replace our aging rolling stock."  "These new cars," he continued, "are called 'The Fleet of the Future.'"

A BART car being loaded on a flatbed truck in Plattsburgh, NY.
Photograph courtesy of M. Roberts

When Jim and I spoke, Bombardier was building the cars at its plant in Plattsburgh, New York, near the Canadian border.  A few days later, Maryanne Roberts, Bombardier Transportation's Spokesperson, advised me that Bombardier is moving its assembly line for The Fleet of the Future to Pittsburg, California over the next several months.  However, Bombardier will continue to undertake rail work for other customers in Plattsburgh.

A week after seeing the BART car on Route 20, I saw another truck carrying a BART car, ready to make the turn onto Route 20.  Then, yesterday, I saw a flatbed with a BART car - - this time traveling east!

This is not the first time I have seen rail cars from elsewhere in the neighborhood.  My fishing friend, the late Bryce Butler, loved to fish the West Branch of the Delaware River and the ride there included Route 20 and Interstate 88.  

One one trip with Bryce, I saw a flatbed trailer in a safety parking area with a New York City subway car on it.  On another trip, I looked out the passenger window and saw a Canadian Pacific (CP) freight train, hurtling south on the right of way of the former Delaware and Hudson Railroad  In the middle of this train was a consist of Amtrak's new Acela electric locomotives and coaches.  Perhaps Bombardier was moving them to Amtrak's Northeast Corridor with the freight cars as protection on the way to Amtrak's busy Northeast Corridor.

Seeing three San Francisco-area subway in upstate New York is a marvelous, magical sight.  It's also a reminder that even on what a person thinks is the most routine of drives that something new and wonderful may be coming around the next corner.

Unexpected sights such as elephants on Broadway, a BART coach in upstate New York, or large dinosaurs along "The 10" in Cabezon, California are gifts to lift people from the drudgery of travel.  I hope that you have a magic moment of this sort - - with no traffic safety problems  - - sometime soon.

[Thanks to Paul Grondahl and William Kennedy for squaring away my imperfect memory of elephants and Albany!]

New Wild and Scenic River Stamps

Recently, at the Guilderland, New York Post Office the staff told

me about  a wonderful new pane of commemoratives, celebrating

the Federal Wild and Scenic Rivers program.  

Ever since I can remember, I have loved rivers.  Some of them

have been working rivers, others have been wild and scenic.

My father used to read to me about the New York Central’s

passenger trains rushing down the east side of the Hudson River

on the way to Grand Central Terminal.  We lived for several

years on Grand Island, New York, with the Niagara River

flowing inexorably towards Niagara Falls. And I’ve enjoyed

fishing and boating on countless rivers ever since.

The Federal Wild and Scenic Rivers system includes river

segments with outstanding fish and wildlife, geology, recreation,

cultural or historical values. They flow freely through natural

settings without man-made alterations.   

According to Marti Johnson at the U.S. Postal Service,

“Some 200 river segments — 13,000 miles of approximately

3 million U.S. river-miles — are in the Wild and Scenic Rivers

System, launched in 1968.”

“With this pane of twelve stamps,” Johnson continued, “the

U.S. Postal Service honors these American treasures, represented

in a portfolio of exquisite river photographs.”  The photographs

in this series were taken by Michael Medford, Tim Palmer and

Bob Wick.

The Postal Service chose Wild and Scenic Rivers from across the

United States and from Alaska. The rivers and photographers

are listed on the Postal Service's website and the stamps may be

purchased there if they are not available at a local post office.

After using up an entire pane of the stamps, I became curious

about what it was like to  photograph a river. 

When I asked Marti about this, she introduced me to Bob Wick,

a photographer and Wilderness Program Manager at the Federal

Bureau of Land Management.  Three of Bob’s photographs are

in this pane: Steelhead Falls on the Deschutes River in Oregon,

the White Cliffs on the Missouri River in Montana and an early

morning view of the Clarion River in central Pennsylvania.

Bob shared great anecdotes about nature photography generally

and the photographs he contributed to this stamp series.  

His most important photographic secret weapon “is a loud

alarm clock. “ Bob scouts locations during the day and 

photographs “before dawn and again in the evening to

capture the golden light.”

“Rivers in canyons,” he continued,  “are a bit tricky; if

they run north and south, one side of the canyon will be

in shadow in morning/evening.  I usually look for stretches

that run east-west and use a sun angle table to determine when

and where the sun will rise and set.”  

Here are some specific observations Bob shared about each of

his three photographs:

“In situations like the Deschutes River at Steelhead Falls, I had

no choice about picking an angle of light. I just made sure

I was out early in the morning when most of the canyon and the

entire falls would be in the shadows so the light would be even. 

This also allowed me to take a very slow exposure on a tripod

(about 2 seconds) so that the moving water has that

blurred, silky moving look.”

Another bonus of photographing rivers early in the morning or

towards evening is that fog and mist are often present and, Bob

observes, this gives “the image more interest .”   The mist adds

realism, as many river lovers have been on the water at a time

when the mist is rising. 

There’s a trick in the Clarion River photograph.  The reds in the

trees may cause the viewer to think this photograph is an autumn

view.  However, Bob revealed, “The shot is actually a cool spring

morning -- everyone thinks it’s fall but the red is from early buds

on the trees.”  

“This photo of the Upper Missouri,” Bob said,  “is quite orange;

there were fires burning in Western Montana at the time and they

created a haze.”  “By taking the image looking towards the sun

(compared to having the sun behind me),” he continued, “I was

able to maximize the diffraction of light through the haze.”

“The Upper Missouri River,” Bob said, “is one of my favorite

river segments.  There are several stretches that you can float in a

three to four-day canoe trip where the canyon is entirely roadless.” 

“Lewis and Clark wrote about the White Cliffs in their journals

and it is easy to become immersed in the landscapes they

experienced, since the corridor is undeveloped.  The big

difference is that they were working their way upriver

while most people today float downriver with the currents!  

“Their voyage of discovery also led to the designation of the

Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, which overlays the

wild and scenic river designation on this part of their route.  

“About 50 miles from the White Cliff,  at a place called Cow

Creek, the Nez Perce Tribe crossed the Missouri just 70 years

after the Lewis and Clark expedition as they fled from the

pursuing US Cavalry. They made a fateful decision to stop and

rest after crossing, which led to their capture and surrender north

of the River.  

“This area truly represents an amazing slice of US history with

ambitious western expansion side by side with Native American

loss and sorrow.”

The Federal Wild and Scenic Rivers program has inspired many

states to create their own programs to protect rivers that are

considered wild, scenic or recreationally significant.  Finding

these programs is a hit or miss proposition. On some state

websites the program is easy to find. On others, it’s not.  

There's many ways to enjoy America's rivers, from putting

one of these stamps on a letter to a wilderness whitewater

trip. However you experience rivers, I hope you can

get out there and enjoy them soon!

USS Missouri: An Update

My last post was about a new postage stamp celebrating the

commissioning of USS Missouri.  

After the post was up, my friend, Bob LaRoche, wrote and

said, "My dad served on the Missouri during World War II." 

"He was," Bob continued, "on it when Japanese surrendered."

Bob's father, a Seaman First Class, served in Missouri’s fire

control team and "was at the top of the ship, giving

coordinates to the big guns for shore bombardment."

Missouri was built in the US Navy Yard New York, also

known as "The Brooklyn Navy Yard."  In a variation of that

amusement park rule, "you must be this high to take this ride,"

the naval architects who designed Missouri and her sister ship

Iowa. were constrained by the height of the Brooklyn Bridge,

which spanned the East River, between the Navy Yard and

the ocean.

As a work around, the antenna array atop the fire control tower

was hinged so the ship could pass under the bridge.  Of this

design, Bob said, "My dad told me he was up in the tower when

the ship went under the Brooklyn bridge, not much space." "He

was," he continued, "also in the tower when the ship went under

the Golden Gate Bridge, lots of room under that bridge!" 

Bob's father "owns a plank" on the ship and he had a yearbook

covering the years of his service on Missouri.  . 

Bob LaRoche shared this head-on photograph of Missouri from
a copy of the ship's yearbook that his father had.

According to Bill Gicker, my Postal Service contact, when Dan Cosgrove, the stamp's artist, was researching Missouri, he could not find an image of the ship steaming straight on.  Bob found such an image in his father's yearbook and shared it.  In addition to finding an elusive image, Bob's research confirms the accuracy of  Cosgrove's artwork.

If you would like to get copies of this stamp, the stamps still seem to be available at local post offices.