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Staten Island Anchorage, Verrazano Narrows
Bridge, 1992. The anchorage of the longest
suspension bridge in the U.S. is located within
Fort Wadsworth, and you have to pass through
military checkpoints to get to it. It looks and feels
like the inside of a giant piano, since the cables
are strung on both sides and the whole room
vibrates from the traffic overhead.
This photo was taken sometime during the 1950's. The photo reads "Business Section & Railroad Station, New Dorp. Staten Island N.Y." This could very well be New Dorp Lane! Man... how things sure have changed. There's not a traffic light in sight...
How about this for transportation... The year was 1908... and this trolly that was owned and operated by the Richmond Light & Railroad Company ran from Port Richmond to South Beach... how cool is this...
This is what's known as a Trolly Bus. The first ones to be used in New York were on Staten Island in 1921. They replaced the original Trolly's after another Trolly company went out of business... The Staten Island Midland Railway company. In 1948 the Trolly bus was also introduced in Brookln & Queens. I'm expecting to see Ralph Kramdon to exit the bus any second!
Take a guess what you're looking at here... This is 4 corners sometime between 1905 & 1915. You are standing on Victory Blvd looking towards Slosson Ave. That's Manor Road right there in front of you. So the gas station is now on the near corner to the right. The Post Office would be down Manor Road to the left. Remember Bill's World Of Sports & Guido's Bar was up on the righthand side... Northfield Bank is up Victory to the left. Man I look at this picture and I just think back to how many times I' ve driven through this intersection... isn't it just unbelievable...
This is a little hard to imagine... but this was Midland Beach back in 1908... Look at all those people... Eventually the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Boardwalk was constructed in 1935 that spanned from Midland to South Beach.
The year was 1910... and you are now looking at one of the most famous amusement parks on the East Coast at the time... This is the Happy Land Amusement Park in South Beach... It first opened in 1906... Can you believe that something like this was actually in South Beach... Man... all we ever got was the San Genaro Feast once in a while...
This is a pretty cool photo of the inside of Fort Wadsworth... Pretty neat huh... I've never actually seen the inside of the fort until I came across this photo...
Look at these two beauties... this my friends is Port Richmond High School today...
Just look at how beautiful these fields are... Remember when we played on them... they were horrible! The baseball field now resides where the running track used to be... remember that... I can't count how many bad-hops caught me in chest and face when I played there. And how about playin' touch football during gym class... Mr. Bilotti would call a penalty on you from Richmond Terrace for Christ's sake... he was great... Boy... a lot of memories on these two fields huh... I saw both my brothers play here along with so many friends... it's pretty cool! But the one thing that can never happen again is for someone to hit a homerun into the football stands. I was lucky enough to be at a game with my dad while my brother Joey Mondello was playing. Steve Grumino stepped up to the plate and pulled a shot to right and it landed in the goddamn football bleachers... what a shot... that was an unbelievable homerun!
And Robyn... everytime I read your entry in the guestbook I can't help but smile! Knowing that your son got to hear an incredible memory of his uncle Steven makes this whole website thing so worth every moment spent on it...
Time can never outlast the memories we have of the people we love!
