Rusting Cuplight at Cypress Hills
Photo Gallery Streetlights

One of the last, if not the last, incandescent cuplights left within NYC on freestanding poles & tapered elliptical arms. This one has been protected from crashes by being based on the overpass retaining wall. It's on Cypress Hills Ave. in Ridgewood, Queens, at the Jackie Robinson Pkwy interchange.
These photos were taken just days before the Interboro sign was pasted over with Robinson's name, in May 1997. The little "No Trucks" slash sign is not very effective. Like all NYC parkways, the hapless Robinson gets it's share of 18 wheelers wandering onto it, only to get stuck at the first overpass too low for them to pass under. This overpass is surrounded by various cemetaries and also features several mercury Disgusteds (GE M400's).
The traffic light extending over the street uses a double-guy type mast, as do nearly all freestanding NYC overhanging traffic lights. A few touristy, or retro-styled areas have special stylized traffic light poles. Some complicated intersections, like Flatbush & Nostrand Avenues, use huge truss-armed masts. In contrast, no single, or double-guy masts are used within NYC for streetlights.
This scene is in some danger of disappearing, as this overpass is scheduled for major reconstruction to begin soon.
UPDATE 11/98: Another cuplight still remains on a freestanding pole such as this, off Union Tpke and Park Drive East at the entrance to a transit authority facility. This corner has also received a set of traffic lights. The threatened reconstruction of the intersection still shows no sign of beginning.
FURTHER UPDATE 10/99: Whatever you just read from 11/98, forget. That Union Tpke cup was obliterated already. The one above you is getting to be just about the only free standing cup game in town and current reconstruction of this overpass is making its future look quite dubious.

© 1997, Jeff Saltzman.