Riding the day line

Hudson River Day Line ticket office undated

Speaking of day trips along the Hudson by train and boat... Duncan sent along this great photo of the Hudson River Day Line building in downtown Albany from around the early part of the 20th century.

The Hudson River Day Line operated steamboats on the Hudson between Albany and New York City from the late 1800s all the way into the 1940s, and was for a time considered the classy way to travel. Its ticket office -- which still stands -- is in the foreground left. The big building in the back was the headquarters of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad (it's now the SUNY admin building).

And have a look at the Len Tantillo painting imagining the ticket office in 1910.

Comments

For folks wanting to read a little more about what it was like to ride the Hudson River Day Line, there's an essay by Don Eberle in a passenger book I created in 2009 for a Troy-Albany Riverboat Commuter Cruise.

In the piece, Eberle explains all the stops and sites one would encounter onboard the steamboat from Albany to Kingston (including Hudson). That was the thing to do on Saturday in Albany, hop the boat!

Eberle's essay starts on page 3. There is also an original essay by James Howard Kunstler on the importance of reactivating water transit in America, and a creative piece by Troy novelist Jack Casey.

This link points to a .pdf of the entire booklet. Heads up, it's 10 MB. I have another old photo of the Day Line Ticket Office in the booklet as well.

http://duncancrary.com/images/Booklet.pdf

Also of interest in the collection at the Albany Institute...

http://www.albanyinstitute.org/details/items/hudson-river-dayline-building.html

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