Brian Abbott’s Blog

David Pogue featured these photos in his blog at the New York Times last week. It’s a fascinating look at something routine: people passing through subway turnstiles.

More Turns by Bill Sullivan

I was excited about posting this last week, but I poked around on the artist’s website and found a link to a site selling materials based on the notion that the Moon landings were a sham. This caused me to lose respect for the artist, but I’ve since decided that the art deserves to be judged on its own.

• More turnstile photos

Took a walk to the Morris-Jumel Mansion and Sylvan Terrace today. The mansion was built in 1765 and served as Washington’s headquarters as he and our fledgling army was being driven from New York. It is the oldest house in Manhattan.

Morris-Jumel Mansion at 160th Street and Edgecombe Avenue, the oldest house in Manhattan.

The Sylvan Terrace was built upon the mansion’s carriage drive in 1882. A narrow drive separates two rows of small, wooden houses. Chatted with one man who was sweeping the snow off his steps. He seemed to like living on this quaint block.

Sylvan Terrace, a short block of identical wooden row houses built in 1882.

Sylvan Terrace looking to the Morris-Jumel Mansion at the end of the short, narrow street.

A row of brownstones on 160th Street between Jumel Terrace and Edgecombe Avenue. I love the old checker cab parked in front and thought about taking the shot in black and white, but found the snow-covered black car and the various shades of brown houses too wonderful to relinquish to black and white.

As many of you may know, I’ve taken up mapping the New York Subway in an effort to learn about Google Earth and its markup language, KML. I will be the first to admit that this was ambitious on my part, but I did get my feet wet and finished the first version in June 2006. Then, last October I released version 2, which included web links and abandoned stations.

Many people have downloaded the KML file and several dozen have even sent me very nice e-mails. I’m glad people find this useful. Just last week the mashup was featured on GUSuser.com, and I’ve also discovered someone who has incorporated it into a tool that geotags craigslist entries, which would be very handy when searching for apartments, jobs, and even those lascivious entries, I suppose.

Today, I’m releasing version 3 (download). This version is generated automatically from a database (smart thinkin’, huh?) and includes additional data like the opening date, right-of-way information, and improved web links. Oh, and each train’s symbol is included also (no lawsuits, please).

• Download the latest KML file
• Screenshots
• Web page