1939
1939. Anacostia High School, Washington, D.C. “Carpentry shop.” 5×7 nitrate negative, National Photo Company Collection. From Shorpy’s
Geez, I don’t know where to begin with this image. Times like this I wish I was were was a writer and could form my opinions into a well crafted paragraph. Since I’m not forgive me while I rant.
Looking at this shot I can honestly say they lived in a more sensible era. Look at the projects they are working on, very complex wooden boat models. Having built a few wood boats I can understand the difficulty.
Industrial tools, being used with respect. Notice the lack of safety glasses, and yet we didn’t suffer a generation of one-eyed victims. Today they would all be bogged down in safety gear with sirens on their heads. The exposure to the equipment would instill a strong life long respect for the tools they will use.
This generation grew up as the first generation of model railroaders, and seeing an image like this you can understand how come that generation spawned so many craftsmen. What is impressive today, was common knowledge back then.
No dress code required.
-T.
Under the Tracks
Yonge Street, under the rail lines last weekend. I was quite surprised how the colours in this space showed up in the images. This isn’t an HDR image, just tweaked the lighting a bit to coax the colours out of the shot.
-T.
The World’s Tallest something or other….
click on imagery for larger versionry….
The CN Tower, as seen from the turntable of the John St. roundhouse in downtown TO.
This is the Worlds Tallest Building, Worlds Tallest Structure, Worlds Tallest Freestanding Structure, Worlds Tallest Phallic Symbol. Up until 2007 it used to be called the worlds tallest freestanding structure as it technically isn’t a building, but it was eclipsed by that big building in Dubai that we are all paying for with our gas money.
If you make it to Toronto its well worth the visit. At 147 stories tall (1815 feet) it offers an impressive view of the city. Visit late in the day to watch the sunset and the city lights come on, quite spectacular. Its even better on a windy day as it moves around quite a bit up there, and looking straight down from the glass floor reveals the nicely cracked concrete.
The glass elevator ride up is worth the price of admission! Its pretty much like riding a rocket at it reaches the top in about 90 seconds. The main floors house the observation decks, including one outside (its well caged). There is also a revolving restaurant that is pricey, but worth it as it takes about an hour to give a full 360 degree view of the city.
A section of the floor has been replaced with glass that the brave can walk out onto and look straight down, 1500 feet. It is quite a thrill! Especially when a little fat kid belly flops onto the glass right beside me.
For a few bucks more you can take another elevator even higher to the “Space Pod”, which is the bulb almost at the top. That is quite a view!
Looking up into the glass floor of tower with a 300mm zoom lens.
Cropped view of the glass floor.
The “Sky Pod”, although I am not sure if they still call it that, is the highest elevation in the tower, worth the extra few dollars to go.
Click on the image above for a very large panorama of the city side view from the tower. I feel the best view is opposite this one, looking down onto the former rail yards, although there isn’t much left. I recall looking down from the tower in the 1970’s onto the two roundhouses that were once there.
Wikipiedia has a good bio on the tower.
-T.
