Proposed Staten Island Ferris Wheel and Visibility Experiment

  In the above map, I used GRASS 6.4.1  Terrain Analysis feature it see what the visibility would be from the highest point on the proposed ferris wheel (625 Feet, 190.625 Meters) to the street surface.  I brought in our New York City Elevaton file (legend to the left) and a subway stop and line vector file.  The proposed location of the Ferris Wheel is near the St. George Terminal of the Staten Island Railroad.  I do not have an exact location and my program will allow me only to make a projection of 200,000 meters.  The result is the bluish circle near the tip of Staten Island.  A passenger in a cab at the highest position (625 Feet) would be able to see the street surface in Bay Ridge Brooklyn up to 4th Avenue.  In Staten Island, the passenger could not see much of the street surface south of the wheel because the elevation south of the proposed ferris wheel is quite high.  For the ferris wheel, I used coordinates x= 961859.25, y=175189.3 which is using the same projection as the elevation file.  This is only an experiment.

In the above map, the range was increased to 200,000 meters.  The blue area are those areas where the street surface is visible from the top of the proposed ferris wheel which will be located in the St. George Section of Staten Island (at the center of the circle).  Notice that big sections of Bay Ridge and Sunset Park in Brooklyn will have their surface areas visible including lower Manhattan and even parts of Boro Park near the Washington Cemetary.  The area south of the ferris wheel will not be visible but areas to the west will be visible because of lower elevations near the north shore of the island.  Perhaps in the future, a passenger on the elevated "F" train (culver line) will catch a glipse of the wheel when the train approaches the Bay Parkway station.

Elevation of Staten Island Railway Stations at Street Level

  Staten Island has an interesting railway that shares many characteristics with its' relatives across the bay in the other boroughs of New York City. Almost 100% open air except for some small tunnel segments, this two track, third railed powered line operates subway like equipment very similar to the R-44/R-46 class. In the 1920's, there were plans to build a tunnel under the narrows to join the Staten Island Railway with the BMT Fourth Avenue subway in Bay Ridge Brooklyn.  Except for some shafts, nothing much more was built.  The elevations shown are at street level at the station location.  Some smaller segments on the eastern side of the line closed in the 1950's and they are not shown on the map that was produced in ARCGIS.  There are some plans to activate the North Shore Line (represented as a railroad) but from what I was told, it is not likely to be light rail or rapid transit.  The Staten Island Railway used prior to the R-44/R-46 class cars equipment that was very simlar to that of the BMT Steel "BMT Standard" cars.  In fact, a group of these cars, as a result of trackage abandonments on Staten Island in the 1950's  found their way on various BMT southern division lines.

Both photos above are from the George Conrad Collection located at the http://www/nycsubway.org website.  The first photo is that of former SIRR cars on the Culver Line at Fort Hamilton Parkway just about to make a left turn to the incline towards the Ninth Avenue Station probably in 1955.  The second photo is also from the same source and was shot on 11/12/1955 showing a train equipped with SIRR equipment.  This is a north bound Culver Line train at the 13th Avenue Station.  The Flatbush Industrial Building is in the background and it is still standing.  It had its' own spur to the South Brooklyn Rail Road with trolley wire.  These cars were very interesting in that the middle doors were BMT Standard like and the end doors were like IRT Lo V doors.  Destination signs were metal plates.

In the photo above, a SIRR car rests on the Culver Line at the Ditmas Avenue station.  This photo, which is from the collection of David Pirmann is interesting because to the lower left of the car at street level is the Kensington Loop of the Church Avenue/McDonald Avenue trolley line with the wires and poles visible.  You can see the Flatbush Industrial Building to the far left and perhaps you can make out the overhead wires on the Cortelyou Road-16th Avenue trolleybus line also at the far left near the 38th Street Park.