Below you will find Video Documentaries relating
to the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel and BHRA projects. At the Bottom of
the page there is a new section we added with videos relating to BHRA,
but not featuring us: Other Videos on topics
such as Streetcars and
Transit in New York City.
If there is any problem viewing these streaming videos,
you may need to
upgrade your Flash Player, click here to get Adobe
Flash
Also, if you have a slow connection and the videos keep stopping try
this method:
click the play button to begin streaming a video,
hit the pause button (then wait for the video to load),
hover mouse pointer over video bar curser (time should show where
curser is paused like 00:07),
drag curser to left (to beginning of movie),
hit the small play button at bottom left corner of video window
BHRA's
Red Hook Streetcar Project started all the way back in 1993. We even
trained local kids from the PJ's to perform restoration work on our PCC
cars, and inspired them to continue their education. Many of these
volunteers went on to study at Transit-Tech High School in Brooklyn,
NY. While the Red Hook streetcar project was a purely "private
enterprise initiative", it was a smoothly run, highly efficient
operation. Its downfall was unavoidable after NYC DOT became involved:
immediately highjacking our project for their political cronies,
revoked our permits, refused to continue being the "Sponsoring Agency"
(for continued federal funding) and finally, physically destroyed the
track and overhead wire we built, along with 14 PCC streetcars, and all
the materials and equipment BHRA privately collected for this project.
If you have been to one of our Tunnel Tours, you may recall that Bob
mentioned an aborted effort to unearth the buried 1830s
locomotive back in 1991. This is a compilation of several TV news
stories about it. These aired on Oct 25- Oct 26, 1991. The odd
thing, was that the
DOT issued us Permits and arranged for a construction company to
volunteer its work. Eleven hours later, the DOT pulled the plug
on the
expedition already in progress with absolutely no explanation. The DOT
even threatened the contractor (that they recruited) with a $50,000
fine.
Back
in 1987, long before BHRA's Red Hook streetcar project, and with the
active support of then NYC Mayor Ed Koch, BHRA presented "Trolley Day"
in the "DUMBO" section of Brooklyn Heights. We operated our 1897
# 3 trolley on original street railroad track we had uncovered that
summer.
Back
in the late 1950's General Motors was found guilty in Federal court of
purposely destroying the entire U.S. streetcar industry. Their very
first victim, was Manhattan's streetcar system, with then NYC Mayor
LaGuardia acting as their paid stooge/facilitator (said to have been
"gifted" company stock under his wife's name).
In true old-school investigative reporting style, this CBS-TV 60
Minutes piece (from Dec 6, 1987) on the destruction of the L.A.
streetcar system provides an in depth overview of precisely what
conspiratorial General Motors, and the misguided, passive- aggressive
administration of Dwight "I'd rather play golf than serve as President"
Eisenhower did to wreck the sustainable transportation capability of
the U.S.
Here's a great look at the
bad old days of the NYC subway system circa 1980's: graffiti coated
subway cars (Red Birds, R-44's), ghetto blaster radios, gangs prowling
the subways and mugging riders, - and the famous NYCT Transit Police
"Entrapment" Decoy Squad! Appeared on WCBS-TV 60 Minutes, Dec 6,
1987
Video Documentaries and Streaming Video
