Vintage Photograph of the Brooklyn Bridge and a Garbage Barge from The New York Times in 1949

on
at on
Feb. 18, 1949: Garbage was dumped onto a scow at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, on its way to Staten Island, where the city had high hopes to reclaim nearly 2,000 acres of marsh for a parkway or even an airport. “We go everywhere against opposition and deep-rooted prejudice,” said Henry F. Cunningham, a World War II naval commander who oversaw the fleet charged with taking trash to Fresh Kills landfills. “We take a swampy area full of mosquitos and odors no better than those from refuse and transform it into fertile soil that can be made into beautiful parks,” Mr. Cunningham said.
Feb. 18, 1949: Garbage was dumped onto a scow at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, on its way to Staten Island, where the city had high hopes to reclaim nearly 2,000 acres of marsh for a parkway or even an airport. “We go everywhere against opposition and deep-rooted prejudice,” said Henry F. Cunningham, a World War II naval commander who oversaw the fleet charged with taking trash to Fresh Kills landfills. “We take a swampy area full of mosquitos and odors no better than those from refuse and transform it into fertile soil that can be made into beautiful parks,” Mr. Cunningham said.
Photo: Meyer Liebowitz / The New York Times
(photo back)
(photo back)
Photo: Meyer Liebowitz / The New York Times

The Lively Morgue is a daily photo blog from the New York Times in which an original photo from the newspaper's archives is reposted along with tidbits of information gleaned from the historical article it accompanied.

Along with a rescan of the original photograph, the backs of each photo are also scanned, giving a behind-the-scenes look at the editorial process of one of the world's best newspapers.

Today's post features a garbage barge being loaded from the base of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1949.

Feb. 18, 1949: Garbage was dumped onto a scow at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, on its way to Staten Island, where the city had high hopes to reclaim nearly 2,000 acres of marsh for a parkway or even an airport. “We go everywhere against opposition and deep-rooted prejudice,” said Henry F. Cunningham, a World War II naval commander who oversaw the fleet charged with taking trash to Fresh Kills landfills. “We take a swampy area full of mosquitos and odors no better than those from refuse and transform it into fertile soil that can be made into beautiful parks,” Mr. Cunningham said.

via The Lively Morgue

Brooklyn Bridge
Matt Coneybeare

Matt Coneybeare

Editor in Chief

Matt enjoys exploring the City's with his partner and son. He is an avid marathon runner, and spends most of his time eating, running, and working on cool stuff.

Something wrong with this post? Let us know!

If You Liked This, You May Enjoy…

“A street-cleaning cart in New York City, where there were said to be 450 of them in 1915. Earlier that year, The Times reported on other improvements to the city’s streets, at a meeting held at Columbia University by the three borough presidents and John T. Fetherston, street-cleaning commissioner. The four men “discussed the planning, construction and maintenance of public highways and public works and street cleaning before an audience including many of the prettiest young women students in the university,” The Times reported. The audience was attentive, “but the women particularly became enthusiastic when President Marks told them of his fight for free public markets,” the report continued. Alas, that topic was not on the agenda. Boasting about the borough with the most asphalt (Brooklyn), however, was.”
This Vintage Photograph of a Horse Drawn New York Street Cleaning Cart Circa 1915
“A street-cleaning cart in New York City, where there were said to be 450 of them in 1915. Earlier that year, The Times reported on other improvements to the city’s streets, at a meeting held at Columbia University by the three borough presidents and John T. Fetherston, street-cleaning commissioner. The four men “discussed the planning, construction and maintenance of public highways and public works and street cleaning before an audience including many of the prettiest young women students in the university,” The Times reported. The audience was attentive, “but the women particularly became enthusiastic when President Marks told them of his fight for free public markets,” the report continued. Alas, that topic was not on the agenda. Boasting about the borough with the most asphalt (Brooklyn), however, was.”
Vintage Photograph of a Horse Drawn New York Street Cleaning Cart Circa 1915
A nightmare for the city’s sanitation workers and mysophobes as The Times reported that a “survey of the areas flanking the New York Central Railroad elevated structure along Park Avenue, where Harlem merges with the Upper East Side, revealed side street conditions even more foul than those that can be seen daily by thousands of railroad travelers.” The commissioner of housing and buildings, fretting about a citywide problem of accumulating refuse, said it was “almost unbelievable what piles up overnight.””
Vintage Photograph of a Sanitation Worker's Nightmare in Harlem, 1948
55-foot-tall mountain of waste, an accumulation of a single day of New York City garbage.
1972 Photograph of a 55-Foot-Tall Mountain of Trash, a Single Day of City Garbage

Brought To You By…

© Viewing NYC, all rights reserved. Viewing NYC is owned and operated by Urban Apps, LLC. Made with in NYC