Postcard of the Day No. 74 – Street-running in Syracuse

The arresting spectacle of full size trains muscling their way through city streets is still to be seen in a number of American locations from Tampa to Oakland. For over 75 years it was a commonplace in the heart of the city of Syracuse until it came to an end in 1936 when an elevated railroad was constructed. Flagship New York Central trains such as the Empire State Express and the Twentieth Century Limited cruised slowly accompanied by a continuous warning bell chime along Washington Street across Salina Street offering passengers uninterrupted views through downtown first floor windows. We have three postcards recording this unusual sight plus a view of the New York Central Railroad Station. The last card shows the Erie Canal where it passes through Syracuse with its warehouses, swing-bridges and loading docks around the time the old song “Fifteen Years on the Erie Canal” was written in 1905. A century later Bruce Springsteen thundered his way through and left it for dead on the album, “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions”.