The Wolf | NY Transit Museum (Vol III) | YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
The Wolf by Mumford and Sons caps off this week’s wolf references, I promise. This tune was on Mumford and Sons’ album called Wilder Mind. This is the 2nd tune from that album that’s been on the album, if you want to read about Thompkins Square check out Stumblin’ Along 4/2 ‘23.
I heard this song last spring and I liked the tightrope wandering line for Stumblin’ Along. As for the lyrics, this describes somebody living in fear. “You have been weighed, you have been found wanting” is rephrased from the Bible. (Source: The Bible) The moral of the line is that the person weighed or tested, and they were not up to par.
I think the lyric here might be “*wondering* for days”, but they could be going with a bit of double-entendre. Wanton means to deliberately do something with malicious intentions. No, wontons in Wonton Soup are spelled differently, the pork-filled dumplings in seasoned chicken broth have no malicious intentions.
Guitarist Winston Marshall and bassist Ted Dwayne were going through it around the time of the album. "2014 was a pretty bad year for me. Quite a lot of loss. Playing stuff like 'The Wolf' is so f--king cathartic." - Winston Marshall
According to Songfacts, Marcus Mumford played The Wolf to a friend and asked for honest criticism. "He was like 'It's not good enough, you've got to have a bridge. Write a bridge. So we wrote a bridge and it actually made the song better, that's what friends are for isn't it?”
Cool tune and fits with this Week’s Wolf theme. On to what Week to Week Notes Stumbled Along…
NY Transit Museum (Vol III)
This fine Sunday is the 3rd part of Stumblin’ Along at The New York Transit Museum. If you’re interested in Biggie Smalls or how the Subway system was initially built check out Stumblin' Along 8/20 '23. If you’re interested in getting aTalk of Indolence check out Stumblin' Along 8/27 '23. Located in Downtown Brooklyn, there was loads of cool stuff at the museum that anybody could check out on their own at $10 for adults and $5 for children. The entrance to the museum is authentic in that it’s an old subway stop.
1810
New York City (Manhattan), with 96,373 inhabitants, is the largest city in the United States of America.
In 1810, we New Yorkers surpassed Philadelphians for the largest city in the United States. Some would say that is precisely when we became The City. The only real mode of transportation back then besides getting up off your arse and walking was by horse. The speed limit you could giddy your horse up at was, “a slow trot or pace, not exceeding at any time the rate of five miles per hour.” How the hell could they tell what 5 MPH was like back then? I’m not sure, it’s what the New York Times reported.
1827
Abraham Brower begins running a 12-seat horse-drawn omnibus called "Accommodation" along Broadway between Wall Street and Bleecker Street. He charges a flat fee of 12 1/2 cents (one shilling) for a ride in this coach built by Wade and Leverich, Manhattan. Two years later, he introduced the "Sociable" with a rear entrance and seats running lengthwise. In 1831, the "Omnibus," built by John Stephenson, went into service.
This John Stephenson fellow started a coach-making business and made a killing. He built the first true omnibus on the New York City streets with the supplies that Abraham Brower was looking for. By 1835, more than 100 of Stephenson’s omnibuses would be out and about in New York City streets. Stephenson was from County Armagh, Ireland, and immigrated with his parents when he was 2 years old.
1832
The world's first street railway was opened by the New York and Harlem Railroad. Horse-drawn carriages called "horsecars" are pulled along rails laid in the street. The line operates in Manhattan between Fourth Avenue at 14th Street and the Bowery at Prince Street.
The John Stephenson Company was responsible for The First Street Car In The World. John Mason, a successful merchant and banker at the time, was funding John Stephnson’s innovation. Although horses were still used as the means of energy to move cars, not for nothing, the idea of putting tracks on roads counts for something. A fire almost ruined Stephenson’s creation but rather than sit still he moved his operation closer to Bleecker Street.
1883
The New York and Brooklyn Bridge (today's Brooklyn Bridge) opens in May and regular rapid transit service begins from Sands Street in Brooklyn to Park Row in Manhattan. A cable is used to haul the cars across the bridge.
From 1810 to 1883, the population of New York City multiplied by 20x jumping to nearly 2 million people. These cars were moved by cable. They were essentially cable cars that started replacing omnibuses and horsecars that were powered by horses, better yet horse-powered.
1884
A Brooklyn minor-league baseball team, first known as the "Brooklyn" and later renamed the "Trolley Dodgers," joins the American Association, a major league. The name was a jibe used by Manhattanites to describe Brooklynites because of all the trolleys in Brooklyn. Within a few years, the team became known simply as the "Dodgers."
It didn’t take long before New Yorkers started getting slick and gaining street smarts. Brooklyn formed a baseball team and outside their stadium was a ton of trolleys. Hence, their fans were “Trolley Dodgers” because people on foot would evade the street cablecars.
1887
The first electric trolley line in what became Greater New York City runs between Brooklyn and Jamaica along Jamaica Avenue in Queens County. It is operated by the Jamaica Road Company.
Electricity became a thing for the trolleys that were powered by cables and formerly horses, but more importantly the “Brooklyn Dodgers” became a thing. Prior to being called the Dodgers, the baseball team in Brooklyn was known as the Grays and Bridgebrooms. Neither has the same ring as the Dodgers.
1888
A severe blizzard brings down so many overhead lines for telegraph, electricity, and trolleys that the Manhattan City Council decides to bury all wires. After this decision, trolleys operating in Manhattan get power from a line running in a conduit beneath the street's surface, rather than from overhead wires.
The Blizzard of 1888 was so iconic that it forced transportation wires and cables to be buried underground. On March 13, 1888, the temperature in New York fell to 6°F during the storm—still the coldest temperature ever measured there so late in the season. At least 200 people in New York City died from the conditions alone. Between the howling Wolf wind and snowdrifts, certain parts of The City saw over 20 feet of snow. The blizzard was the first widely photographed natural disaster in U.S. history. (Weather Underground)