Saturday, December 05, 2015
Cave gas
During the week of shivery darkness I accumulated a need to MAKE.
Nothing in the electronic realm struck my fancy, so I returned to a graphics project that had been waiting for a long time. Continuing a series enshrining obscure landmarks that nobody else seems to have noticed.
This is a gas station in a cave. I explored it in 1965 when I was wandering around Manhattan. At that time the bluff had already collapsed the inside of the structure and was starting to override the front, so I doubt that it lasted much longer. From the style, and from a few car parts that were visible on shelves inside, I guessed it had been built in the '20s.
The station was near the south end of a bluff along (what is now) Rosencutter Road, about 3 miles SW of Manhattan. This road had been a fairly important entrance to Manhattan from the south, justifying a little community near the bridge with a few businesses. After the '51 flood broke the bridge and ruined several buildings, the community faded. The station's condition in '65 seemed consistent with abandonment in '51.
A blinkyGIF made from two USGS topo maps. The older one (contours all red) was nominally dated 1950, which seems about right from street details in town. The bridge was present on this map. The newer one (contours red and green) was nominally dated 1955, but its streets and houses are somewhere between 1965 and 1970. Bridge was gone, and road beyond the bridge was also gone. When I explored in '65, the bridge structure was still there but closed and unusable. The newer map was drawn more carefully, showing more of the houses and landmarks that had always been there. It shows the cave gas station. (Brief arrow.)
In my digital version I've tried to 'liven up' the station with a couple of fictional additions. The doors and windows and pump island are drawn from memory, or as close as I can get after 50 years. The arch is purely imaginary. Arches are typical of well-built cave structures, which this one wasn't. There may have been some kind of arch that had already collapsed; more likely the structure relied on a heavy straight-across lintel like a mine adit. I've also included an office room and greasepit ... and I've used warm colors for a completely non-mysterious reason!
Jan 24: Finally released the set in Poser form, on ShareCG.
This is a gas station in a cave. I explored it in 1965 when I was wandering around Manhattan. At that time the bluff had already collapsed the inside of the structure and was starting to override the front, so I doubt that it lasted much longer. From the style, and from a few car parts that were visible on shelves inside, I guessed it had been built in the '20s.
The station was near the south end of a bluff along (what is now) Rosencutter Road, about 3 miles SW of Manhattan. This road had been a fairly important entrance to Manhattan from the south, justifying a little community near the bridge with a few businesses. After the '51 flood broke the bridge and ruined several buildings, the community faded. The station's condition in '65 seemed consistent with abandonment in '51.
A blinkyGIF made from two USGS topo maps. The older one (contours all red) was nominally dated 1950, which seems about right from street details in town. The bridge was present on this map. The newer one (contours red and green) was nominally dated 1955, but its streets and houses are somewhere between 1965 and 1970. Bridge was gone, and road beyond the bridge was also gone. When I explored in '65, the bridge structure was still there but closed and unusable. The newer map was drawn more carefully, showing more of the houses and landmarks that had always been there. It shows the cave gas station. (Brief arrow.)
In my digital version I've tried to 'liven up' the station with a couple of fictional additions. The doors and windows and pump island are drawn from memory, or as close as I can get after 50 years. The arch is purely imaginary. Arches are typical of well-built cave structures, which this one wasn't. There may have been some kind of arch that had already collapsed; more likely the structure relied on a heavy straight-across lintel like a mine adit. I've also included an office room and greasepit ... and I've used warm colors for a completely non-mysterious reason!
Jan 24: Finally released the set in Poser form, on ShareCG.Labels: Make or break, new toy
¶ 4:21 PM
