Polo Grounds [IV] / Brush Stadium (1911-1963)

[tdinan]

This shot looks straight down at the Polo Grounds. Looks like the Brush stairs on the far right.

Cool shot. Using the still-existing buildings from Edgecombe Ave. as a reference point, the direct overhead proves that the plaque is indeed an accurate, if not almost-exact, marker of the location of home plate.

[mandrake]

This shot looks straight down at the Polo Grounds. Looks like the Brush stairs on the far right.

Who took this picture, the pilot of the Hindenburg (or another airship?).

[tdinan]

Who took this picture, the pilot of the Hindenburg (or another airship?).

Barry Howe.

[DiggerODell]

Cool shot. Using the still-existing buildings from Edgecombe Ave. as a reference point, the direct overhead proves that the plaque is indeed an accurate, if not almost-exact, marker of the location of home plate.

Cool shot indeed! Only problem is tdinan, the plaque for the Polo Grounds is on the other corner of the building. It don't look like much from this overhead shot, but I'll bet it's about 50 feet from corner to corner on that building.

I'm also curious, are you sure both photos were exactly scaled the same?

digger

[brooklyndodger14]

Polo Grounds 1933 & Present Day overlay

It's by no means scientific or exact, but here are the 2 shots overlayed.



The reference point I used to scale the shots together are the apartment buildings that line the right side of both frames.

As you can see, the 2 red reference lines are slightly apart, but the Brush Staircase appears as a reversed capital "L" laying on the upper red line immediately to the right of the word "Drive". It is lost in the trees in the modern picture.
Does that mean the home plate marker is actually positioned as a guess since it appears that home would seem to be
located possibly within that apartment tower?


Dennis
BrooklynDodger14

[tdinan]

Does that mean the home plate marker is actually positioned as a guess since it appears that home would seem to be
located possibly within that apartment tower?


Dennis
BrooklynDodger14[/QUOTE]

I would imagine so. I think the same was done with Forbes Field, as I believe the exact location of home would have been in the ladies restroom of the building that now occupies the site.

[Lpeters199]

Two men on the Polo Grounds roof:

[mandrake]

How did they actually take that 1933 photo???

Barry Howe.

How do you think Barry Howe or whoever took this picture in 1933 ???? There are only two possibilities: either a slow moving airship, or a 1933 style airplane (the kind shown in the 1933 version of King Kong). In 1933 there were no other ways of taking an arial picture.

Interestingly, the US built an airship the USS Akron that flew several times over NYC taking photos in 1932 and 1933 and that airship ended in a tragedy far deadlier than the Hindenburg disaster:

USS Akron was caught in a severe storm and flown into the surface of the sea off the shore of New Jersey on 3 April 1933. It carried no life boats and few life vests, so 73 of its crew of 76 died from drowning or hypothermia

File:Uss-akron-manhattan.jpg From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia(there is a fantastic photo of the airship over lower Manhattan)


Now, wouldn't it be amazing if this photo of the Polo Grounds from high in the air was from an airship that then crashed?? (The USA only built 3 airships and they all crashed)

[tdinan]

How do you think Barry Howe or whoever took this picture in 1933 ???? There are only two possibilities: either a slow moving airship, or a 1933 style airplane (the kind shown in the 1933 version of King Kong). In 1933 there were no other ways of taking an arial picture.

Interestingly, the US built an airship the USS Akron that flew several times over NYC taking photos in 1932 and 1933 and that airship ended in a tragedy far deadlier than the Hindenburg disaster:

USS Akron was caught in a severe storm and flown into the surface of the sea off the shore of New Jersey on 3 April 1933. It carried no life boats and few life vests, so 73 of its crew of 76 died from drowning or hypothermia

File:Uss-akron-manhattan.jpg From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia(there is a fantastic photo of the airship over lower Manhattan)


Now, wouldn't it be amazing if this photo of the Polo Grounds from high in the air was from an airship that then crashed?? (The USA only built 3 airships and they all crashed)

I was kinda joking. I really have no idea.

[Smirkman]

Aerial photography from airplanes has been in use since 1911. I am sure this picture is one in a series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthophoto

[mandrake]

1933 over Manhattan

[Lpeters199]

I enlarged some pictures and pieced them together. Coogan's Bluff was in a poor neighborhood, but it had a million dollar view.

From: http://www.nypl.org/

[Lpeters199]

Three similar pieced together shots:

[Lpeters199]

More from NYPL:

[Lpeters199]

More NYPL enlargements. End of the line for the EL. I love the way the tracks curve around the corner of the Polo Grounds.