Everything You Need to Know About the Roosevelt Island Tramway in NYC

Trains Are Awesome!

Date of filming: January 2, 2024
Camera: iPhone 15

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Including Pig from Barnyard at 7:04...truly a man of culture! That Trader Joe's used to be Food Emporium that opened in 1999, but it closed in 2015 and became a Trader Joe's in 2021! It honors how that space was first used as a market when the bridge opened in 1909 and lasted until 1933. Worth mentioning that the streetcar station on the Manhattan side isn't the only thing preserved regarding the streetcars that served Roosevelt Island, as the Roosevelt Island Visitor Center next to the aerial tramway's station on the Roosevelt Island side is inside a former streetcar kiosk that once stood on the Manhattan side as well, it was moved to RI and became the visitor center in 2007. Like that Trader Joe's, the visitor center is one of the places in NYC you can find Guastavino tiling, a version of Catalan vault. Guastavino vaulting is a technique for constructing robust, self-supporting arches and architectural vaults using interlocking terracotta tiles and layers of mortar to form a thin skin, with the tiles following the curve of the roof as opposed to horizontally (corbelling), or perpendicular to the curve (as in Roman vaulting). The recognizable tile arch system, created by Valencian-born Rafael Guastavino and implemented by him and his son can be found all over New York City, including the Grand Central Oyster Bar, Ellis Island, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and the decommissioned City Hall Loop subway station.

The Red Bus is free and does continuous loops around the island, as well as a Shopper's Bus for seniors and those with disabilities to Costco in Astoria. The Q102 bus serves the island as well, connecting the island with Astoria. The tramway was actually the last in NYC to stop using tokens, as they still accepted them until March 2004, and during the NYC transit strike in 2005, it transported three times its passenger count! And to add on to what you mentioned in the 1960s, they didn't just want residential housing, but a master-planned TOD community centered around the subway station, as the island's unique circumstance gave them a blank slate to build a car-free community (mostly; they allowed cars later on because the hospitals needed vehicular access), which is why they wanted the subway to serve it! Besides the TOD proposal, the American Institute of Architects' NY chapter proposed that the island instead become a park (eventually the southernmost point became a state park in 2012), while another plan called for the island to become housing for United Nations staff. And they were able to achieve TOD because the NY government's New York State Urban Development Corporation leased the island from the city in 1969. Like the MTA, the RIOC is a NYS public-benefit corporation! The Octagon designed by Alexander Jackson Davis (who worked on the former 1833 North Carolina State Capitol, Litchfield Villa in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, and the Lyndhurst mansion in Tarrytown), a remnant of a hospital made famous by Nellie Bly, has since been incorporated as part of a large apartment complex! The TOD plan called for two neighborhoods named Northtown and Southtown, separated by a common area. With services such as parks and schools near every residence, and a pneumatic trash collection system which was the second AVAC system in the US after Magic Kingdom's Utilidors. Their AVAC system is one of the largest in the world, and trash is collected from each tower to the Central Collections and Compaction Plant at up to 60 miles per hour.

[spinlok]

Just be sure to watch out for the green goblin when you ride that thing.

[davidburrow]

It's also nice at sunrise, and going toward Roosevelt Island early in the day it's not crowded at all.

[briansivley]

"The itsy bitsy Spider climbed up the waterspout. Down came the Goblin and took the Spider out!"

I remember seeing this on Spider-Man and The Green Goblin singing this lololol😂😂😂😂😂. It’s so corny and campy like The Adam West Batman Series of the 60s.

[Unmannedperson]

One other selling point of going with an aerial tramway: the East River has to be navigable to large ships per Coast Guard requirements (not sure the exact name), so whatever went in to connect Roosevelt Island and Manhattan would need to either go way up high, under the water, or be movable (such as a swing or lift bridge). Under the water is expensive and takes forever (as seen with the eventual subway connection) and movable bridges have their own set of issues (see the Gateway bridge in New Jersey).

Going way up high usually has the issue that you can't take wheeled vehicles up and down steep slopes, requiring extensive landings on each side to bring the transit vehicle back down to grade, but an aerial tramway or gondola system sidesteps this by allowing the vehicle to rise up quickly to go over the river and maintain that clearance. This is the reason why the leading alternative for a new Oakland Estuary crossing between Oakland and Alameda in the SF Bay Area is a gondola. BART would be better, but more expensive and take forever. And surface-level buses or light rail would also provide better service, but would conflict with Coast Guard requirements. So gondola it is.

[SchneiderGeorge]

I lived in Manhattan for many years but left before the tram opened. I'll probably never see NYC again, so this was really interesting. Thanks as always!

[TravelsByTransit]

I literally just rode it yesterday! Nice that it is compatible with OMNY and that I got a free transfer from the subway.

[kevinb]

Thom, a Trader Joe's under the Queensboro Bridge, that's slick!!!

[terryrobertson]

Should you ever get the chance to be in Albuquerque NM, I highly recommend riding the Sandia Peak Tramway. It is 2.7 miles long and rises about 6000 feet. At one point on the trip you are nearly 1000 feet above the terrain. At the peak on a clear day you can see around 11, 000 square miles of land. It is awe inspiring.

[GarethKavanagh]

I used to take this every day.

One of the safest ways to travel during covid as they had a person on board making sure we were all masked!

Thanks for the video.

[mikeherr]

If you want a magnificent view of New York, take the free Staten Island Ferry back from Staten Island at sunset!

[northernidaho]

I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to ride the aerial tramway when I visited NYC last year, but I have ridden similar systems in Portland, OR and Estes Park, CO. Definitely on my list for my next trip to NYC

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

To go further into detail on the streetcar/trolley history of NYC that you mentioned: The Park Avenue main line, now used by the Metro-North Railroad, was initially a street railroad built by the New York and Harlem Railroad and ran to what is now Lower Manhattan. In fact, the New York and Harlem Railroad was the WORLD'S first street railway! In 1907, the streetcar operator New York City Railway went into receivership. The New York Railways Corporation converted the line to bus operation in the 1930s. The Murray Hill Tunnel now carries a lane of road traffic, but not the buses. The Park Avenue main line was gradually truncated through the 1860s, until Grand Central Depot was opened at 42nd Street in 1871. The line was placed in a grade-separated structure in the late 19th century as part of the Fourth Avenue and Park Avenue Improvement projects and was electrified in the first decade of the 20th century as part of the construction of Grand Central Terminal which opened in 1913.

The Steinway Tunnel now used by IRT Flushing Line trains was also meant for streetcars. The Steinway Tunnel is named for William Steinway, and during the 1890s, Steinway began a project to construct a tunnel for trolleys under the East River to link Manhattan to his company town, Steinway Village, in Astoria. The dirt removed from the tunnels was formed into a small island in the middle of the East River, now called U Thant Island after the third secretary-general of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971. Steinway died in 1896 before the tunnel was completed, and the project sat dormant for several years, before the Interborough Rapid Transit Company acquired the tunnel, resumed work in 1905, completed the tubes in 1907 and was briefly opened for trolley service that September. Due to legal disputes, the tubes closed within a week and did not reopen for another eight years when the IRT converted them to subway use and opened as part of the Flushing Line in 1915. Trolleys were once such a part of the Brooklyn scene that the local baseball club was named the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers, which of course was shortened to the Brooklyn Dodgers! An urban explorer Bob Diamond dreamed of reviving the Red Hook trolley line that ran to Atlantic Terminal and Downtown Brooklyn. Diamond was the one who discovered the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, believed to the world’s first underground transit tunnel. The NYCDOT supported the project, new tracks were built by the waterfront, PCCs from Boston were acquired, but then the DOT withdrew and ordered most tracks removed.

[guyfaux]

From the Tramway looking North, you can see the Sydney Harbour Bridge prototype, the Hell Gate Bridge, a railroad-only bridge used currently by Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and in a few more years (hopefully not longer than that) the Metro North New Haven Line.

[NOHOLOCO]

Thom— this is an EXCELLENT VIDEO! You are a great Travel Guide / Host on YouTube… and other social media platforms. The other “hosts” will only TALK and TALK and be on video— almost ALL the time on-screen! You show MORE EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INFORMATION— without your face in front and center! That’s what an experienced video host should present!

Your beautiful, high-resolution, expertly shot, ORIGINAL video scenes were the “icing on the cake!”

I really enjoyed this, it was impressive! ⭐️🌟👍😎

[haj]

I recall the Namsan cablecar as an example of these kinds of systems in a megacity. But from this video, I can agree that this system has a really rare feature that it runs in right ahead of the city center.

[jeroenl]

I took the Roosevelt Island Tramway a few months ago when I first visited NY. It it the perfect way of going to Manhattan for the first time! Luckily it wasn't so busy as when you rode it...

[scrappytracy]

I've taken this a few times while in NYC. Love it at sunset.

[AlexandraZacharias-yf]

When the F Shuttle was running, this thing was crammed... Love Roosevelt Island, you should do a video about the Roosevelt Island bus network, which is very frequent.

[MrRezRising]

Hi.
My family moved to Roosevelt Island in 1976. I've been riding the Tram since it opened. My kid loves it when we go visit her grandmother.
I have to say, I've _never_ seen both trams moving independently of each other! Back in the day they were on one cable.
This was something new. Thanks!