Focus on the Train!!

The train you are looking at on the front of this post card (bottom right-hand corner) is a New York Central train running on the River Subdivision. Today it is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York. The line runs from the North Bergen Yard in Hudson County, New Jersey, north to Ravena, New York, along the alignment of the West Shore Railroad, a former New York Central Railroad line. This information is from Wikipedia. The post card is not focused on the train, however. It is focused on the Storm King Highway - I know, What is wrong with them? This website gives us information about the highway: https://www.bing.com/maps?q=Storm+King+highway&form=ANNTH1&refig=e722dc6ff90e4ea4acb6441c88a628c0 The Storm King Highway is a three-mile segment of New York State Route 218 between Lee Road in the Town of Highlands at the south end and the Cornwall-on-Hudson village line in Orange County, New York, in the United States. It was built in 1916 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 in recognition of its accomplishment in civil engineering.

The post card was published by Ruben Publishing Company out of Newburgh, New York. This website catches us up on the information about Mr. Ruben and his publishing company: https://www.doaks.org/research/library-archives/dumbarton-oaks-archives/collections/ephemera/names/ruben-publishing-co The Ruben Publishing Co. (also Ruben's, Newburgh, N.Y. and J. Ruben, Newburgh, N.Y.) was founded by Jacob Ruben (1882–1974) in Newburgh, New York. Ruben opened a stationery business there in 1906, although his publishing business is listed at various Newburgh addresses, including 13-15 South Johnson Street, 39 Johnston Street, 95-97 Ann Street, and 76 Broadway. Ruben was a Russian-American émigré who became a well-known commercial photographer in the Hudson River Valley area near Newburgh for over four decades until after the Second World War. He was especially well-known for his tourist photographic postcard sets, which he published under his company name. He also photographed new real estate developments, bridge and road building projects, and other civic projects.

Still Picking Up Passengers Today

If you look carefully, you will see a passenger train crossing the river.

From what I could find on line, the train tracks in the picture on the front of this post card are owned today by CSX. Today, the Amtrak station is just to the northeast of the falls and Amtrak runs on the lines owned by CSX. The following information about Rochester and the falls in the picture is from Wikipedia: At Rochester, New York the Genesee River cuts through the Niagara Escarpment exposing limestones and shales of Silurian age in the rock column. The river provided the original power for the Rochester area's 19th century mills and still provides hydroelectric power for downtown Rochester. If "not for hydropower, the flour mills, clothing mills, and tool fabricators would not have located in Rochester", and the 1825 Erie Canal allowed the mills to ship products to New York City. Believe it or not, the best information that I could find on the internet about the Upper Falls of the Genesee River in Rochester, New York was on “Trip Advisor”. Here are a few excerpts from what I found: This is a striking waterfalls, most impressive perhaps because it is located in a downtown area rather than in a natural setting like a forest or a glen. It is easily viewable from a parking lot, or from a foot bridge that passes over the river. You can also eat at the Genesee Brewery and have a spot on the balcony where you can admire the falls. This is a nice waterfall right in the middle of Downtown Rochester. It’s a great place to take a walk or to stop for pictures. They have nice informational boards about the history of the falls and surrounding area. To be able to see a waterfall in the middle of a city is unusual and breathtaking. There is a long bridge, Ponte de Rennes, to walk on to get a perfect view of the falls. There are plenty of benches throughout so you don't need to feel like you have to walk to the center right away if you have issues with long distance walking.

The post card was printed by Miller Art Co. That little blue coffee cup at the bottom-middle is their trademark. They published view-cards of the Northeast in halftone lithography. Many of their cards suffer from very crude retouch work. They issued better quality holiday cards and a large set of New York World’s Fair cards in 1939, many with decorative borders. They existed from 1922 to 1941 in Brooklyn, New York. They printed the card for Scrantom’s Incorporated in Rochester, New York. That is the name printed on the left of the card. Henry Scrantom and Lansing Wetmore founded the company in 1868 with a store at 10 State St. The business originally carried both men's names. The store moved around downtown before landing in the Powers Building at Main and State streets in 1889. A second store, which proved to be Scrantom's longest-lasting, opened at 334 E. Main St. in 1924. Scrantom's was one of Rochester's oldest businesses and the place to go for office supplies, gifts, books and stationery for more than a century. At its peak, Scrantom's operated 11 stores in the area and ran a wholesale-supply business throughout New York and parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states. The end came in the early 1990s. Scrantom's Book and Stationery Co. — which opened its first store in downtown Rochester just a few years after the Civil War — declared bankruptcy and closed up shop. The demise was blamed in part on a recent flood of big-box competitors, as described by Cliff Smith in a Times Union story from August 1992.

Where Are We?

This week we are going to a part of the United States that I don’t think I have blogged about yet. We are going to the very southwest tip of the state of Virginia. We are going into the Appalachian Mountains near the town of Duffield in Scott County. This post card is a picture of a train coming out of a tunnel. “Not unusual,” you say. “There are lots of tunnels on railroads in the United States.” You are correct; but, this tunnel was made by natural forces. No one had to use a blasting cap, dynamite, nitroglycerine or other explosives. No one had to risk a life to make this tunnel.

It was first written about by a Lt. Col. Stephen H. Long who explored the area and the tunnel in 1831. He later published an article in a geology journal in 1832.

The tunnel is more than 850 feet long and as tall as 100 feet high. It was carved through a limestone ridge over thousands of years. William Jennings Bryan, one of the lawyers involved in the “Scopes Monkey Trial”, a great orator, and the forty-first Secretary of State (under Woodrow Wilson) called it the "Eighth Wonder of the World."

A railroad was constructed through the natural tunnel in 1893. The first train, operated by the Virginia & Southwestern Railway Company, passed through the tunnel in the following year. In 1899, the tunnel line was purchased by the Tennessee & Carolina & Iron and Steel Company. In 1906 Southern Railway acquired the tracks and created a passenger line, the Natural Tunnel Line, which took the passengers through the tunnel. Today, the line is still in use but it is now run by Norfolk Southern and CSX and is only used to transport coal.

The size of the picture on the front of the post card should give you a hint about the age of the card. See last week's blog for a bigger hint. As I zoom in on the picture on the front of the card, you can see that the railroad built a platform onto which passengers could disembark and gawk at the natural wonder and beauty that surrounded them. This is similar to what the Union Pacific did on the trestle that crossed over the Great Salt Lake in Utah. I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago.

I don't know anything about the photographer, the printer or the publisher of this post card. I believe that it is probably related to this Drug Store:
Bunting’s, its past and present owners said, launched in the wake of the Civil War in 1869. A city directory from 1896 lists a “Bunting & Son” drugstore at 420 Main St. – which became State Street in the early 20th century. By this time, the business was already a local institution, as suggested by an ad that ran in 1903: J.H. Winston, a lawyer, was advertising his firm with no more specific address than “over Bunting’s Drug Store.”

The post card is from before March 1, 1907, known as the Undivided Back Era.

It is a very clear example of why they would name it the UNDIVIDED BACK era. There is no line down the middle of this post card!