Photo Gallery Streetlights
 Close-up of the
leaning snake-poles, that characterized early jet-age JFK airport.
They date back to pre-Kennedy days, when the massive airfield
was known as Idlewild. They originally had GE Form 109 mercury
bug-like luminaires, like those that used to grace 6th Avenue,
that hung beneath the tips of the pole masts. The forward motion
of the pole design sort of resembled the Boeing 707, which had
that needle thing sticking out of it's fin. That sense of forward
motion was lost, when snakehead lumes, such as the GE M400 and
M400A2's replaced the bugs and were attached directly into the
masts. The loss of the forward motion could be tolerated. The
loss of the poles, however, was intolerable. Not too many years
ago, the Port Authority of NY/NJ, which runs the airport, began
to kill off all the snakes, in favor of standard trussarmed poles.
The only survivors are clustered around the landmark TWA terminal.
Thank heavens at least they were preserved. The odd shaped bases
on each pole used to contain directional signs to terminals,
if my memory serves me. I shot these in January 1998. |