Friday, February 25, 2022

West Shore R.R. depot, West Point, N.Y. 1895, a location used in the motion picture “The Long Gray Line” filmed by John Ford as graduates, in campaign hats and boots, departed during World War I.


 this cool piece of historic architecture (in the Queen Anne style I posted about last year http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2021/01/1959-photos-opf-fond-du-lac-train.html)

 was replaced with a building that wouldn't burn down in 1926

https://www.shorpy.com/node/25936

In 1926, about the time that the Hotel Thayer was replacing the original West Point Hotel near the Plain, the current station was completed. So the station used in “The Long Gray Line” was not the actual station used during World War I, but the newer (and current) station. It was also about this time that West Point (and all the boats passing on the Hudson River) lost a landmark. To widen the road to the station, it was necessary to remove some of the cliff near the station. Along with the rock outcroppings were lost the huge letters, “Bunker Hill, June 17th, 1775” that had been carved there in 1857

history of this station is at https://www.westpointaog.org/page.aspx?pid=3879

1 comment:

  1. When you are near the parade grounds and concert area, you can see the West Shore Line snaking along the shoreline of The Hudson River. At night you can watch the headlight of the locomotive as it meanders. The West Shore Line was completed in 1870. Bankruptcy followed and it was acquired by another company in 1877. Today it is part of a major shipping route that accesses the east-west rails that parallel the old Erie Canal and head westward. It runs through even hoity-toity towns because the railroad was there before they became upscale, such as Haworth, NJ.

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