The mysteries of Providence, Part II
Apr. 27th, 2003 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanpaku_backupTook the Mrs. and Mini-Me down to the ferry to Long Island this morning... her mother's double bypass surgery is tomorrow. She should be back on Tuesday, then go back down once her mother gets out of the hospital, maybe for a couple of weeks. Depressing.
I decided to use the day for some errands and some urban exploration of the types of places you never see in your city because only tourists see them... so I walked around Roger Williams National Park a little. This is somehow a national park even though it is mostly a ribbon of grass between two highways. An elegant-looking granite garden area turns out to have no plaques or carvings on it. There is a granite bowl that I think is supposed to mark where the original town spring was, but when you look down inside, there's just a short, empty pit.
The creepiest was the ornate granite staircase leading down to the garden; underneath it, at the bottom, was a locked green door. A tiny window near the top had been broken, and when I peered in I could just make out... about a dozen or so large green drums. Further peering revealed that they were marked "APPLE JUICE CONCENTRATE."
Someone explain that to me, please.
Anyway, I wandered around Benefit St., to the RISD coffee shop that is never open (it wasn't), and to the Atheneum, which was celebrating a gala or something, so it wasn't open either. When I went back down to the Riverwalk, I kept going past people with sketchbooks or paintbrushes, depicting various parts of the Riverwalk. I guess they were more RISD students.
The Riverwalk has a bunch of informational signs and maps alongside it... Providence basically buried its rivers for many years, so the Riverwalk documents the different stages in the history of the city. A truly amazing amount of urban rebuilding has taken place here. So, one of the markers mentioned a tunnel, running from the old Union Station (no longer a station), under College Hill, out to East Providence. "The line, built in 1906, runs almost a mile under a residential section of the city. Both portals are now sealed, with only a rusting railroad bridge marking where the line used to run."
That did it for me. "Abandoned tunnel? Sealed entrances? I am there!" So I went back to my car and drove around the waterfront of the East Side until I spotted the location of the bridge (it's not hard to find -- it's an old drawbridge that is now in the permanently "up" mode). A large, new shopping plaza that I had just discovered a couple of weeks ago (in a vain search for passover food this side of Boston) was next to the line. Thick brush behind a wire fence seemed to make this a hopeless search, until I spotted someone carrying a shopping bag, along what looked like a trail. I parked the car, found the trail (through a lot of undistinguished, recently disturbed construction detritus), went by posts that once marked where the fence was supposed to be, and followed the rusting rail line. And there that damn portal be. I was mighty proud of myself.
Well, it felt like a big deal to me, anyway.
Of course, the ol' Intrynet already has a pretty neat article briefly describing the tunnel. There was indeed an impressive array of archaeological artifacts around the portal, including massive, rusting train car wheel sets. I wish I'd known that there was an open door in the portal, though I'm not sure I would have had the nerve to go inside.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
flw, you have to make a special trip to come out here to explore this thing with me!
The nice weather finally came and this place looks to be completely ready to justify its potential. I am going out with the dog to explore a nearby path along the Pawtuxet River... I just wish the Mrs. was here to enjoy all this with me... she could use it, I think.
I decided to use the day for some errands and some urban exploration of the types of places you never see in your city because only tourists see them... so I walked around Roger Williams National Park a little. This is somehow a national park even though it is mostly a ribbon of grass between two highways. An elegant-looking granite garden area turns out to have no plaques or carvings on it. There is a granite bowl that I think is supposed to mark where the original town spring was, but when you look down inside, there's just a short, empty pit.
The creepiest was the ornate granite staircase leading down to the garden; underneath it, at the bottom, was a locked green door. A tiny window near the top had been broken, and when I peered in I could just make out... about a dozen or so large green drums. Further peering revealed that they were marked "APPLE JUICE CONCENTRATE."
Someone explain that to me, please.
Anyway, I wandered around Benefit St., to the RISD coffee shop that is never open (it wasn't), and to the Atheneum, which was celebrating a gala or something, so it wasn't open either. When I went back down to the Riverwalk, I kept going past people with sketchbooks or paintbrushes, depicting various parts of the Riverwalk. I guess they were more RISD students.
The Riverwalk has a bunch of informational signs and maps alongside it... Providence basically buried its rivers for many years, so the Riverwalk documents the different stages in the history of the city. A truly amazing amount of urban rebuilding has taken place here. So, one of the markers mentioned a tunnel, running from the old Union Station (no longer a station), under College Hill, out to East Providence. "The line, built in 1906, runs almost a mile under a residential section of the city. Both portals are now sealed, with only a rusting railroad bridge marking where the line used to run."
That did it for me. "Abandoned tunnel? Sealed entrances? I am there!" So I went back to my car and drove around the waterfront of the East Side until I spotted the location of the bridge (it's not hard to find -- it's an old drawbridge that is now in the permanently "up" mode). A large, new shopping plaza that I had just discovered a couple of weeks ago (in a vain search for passover food this side of Boston) was next to the line. Thick brush behind a wire fence seemed to make this a hopeless search, until I spotted someone carrying a shopping bag, along what looked like a trail. I parked the car, found the trail (through a lot of undistinguished, recently disturbed construction detritus), went by posts that once marked where the fence was supposed to be, and followed the rusting rail line. And there that damn portal be. I was mighty proud of myself.
Well, it felt like a big deal to me, anyway.
Of course, the ol' Intrynet already has a pretty neat article briefly describing the tunnel. There was indeed an impressive array of archaeological artifacts around the portal, including massive, rusting train car wheel sets. I wish I'd known that there was an open door in the portal, though I'm not sure I would have had the nerve to go inside.
flw, you have to make a special trip to come out here to explore this thing with me!The nice weather finally came and this place looks to be completely ready to justify its potential. I am going out with the dog to explore a nearby path along the Pawtuxet River... I just wish the Mrs. was here to enjoy all this with me... she could use it, I think.
