Carl W. Condit
The Port of New York: A History of the Rail and Terminal System from the Beginnings to Pennsylvania Station.
The University of Chicago Press, 1980. First printing. 0226114600 xvii/456 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 7.25" x 10", is bound in black cloth, with stamped silver lettering to spine. Book is in fine condition, with firm binding, clean and bright interior. Dust jacket displays very light shelfwear. Illustrated with maps and b&w photos/drawings. This edition includes tables, endnotes, bibliography and index. Jacket is preserved in mylar cover.
""New York," writes Carl Condit, "is probably the world's supreme example of a city shaped by what is equally regarded as the quantitatively supreme example of an urban circulation system." And in his masterful work, illustrated with ninety maps and halftones, Condit demonstrates how the development of New York's railroad and rail terminal system determined the form, shape, and texture of the city. His study takes us from the incorporation of the New York and Harlem Railroad in 1830 to the construction of the Pennsylvania Station.
Combining two largely unexplored areas of technical history, the material and technological base of the city and the building of the railroad network and terminals, Condit provides a comprehensive history of New York's railroad lines, its passenger, freight, and rail-marine terminals, its railroad electrifications, and its ferry, carfloat, and lighterage service. He focuses special attention on the chief buildings of the terminal system, which, from their conspicuous architectural features to their hidden operating elements, possessed a power and grandeur that placed them in the front ranks of modern technico-artistic achievement.
As the most exhaustive study of the world's most complex urban transportation system, "The Port of New York," will be welcomed by architectural and urban historians as well as by technology scholars and railroad buffs."