Tracks on Broadway

In April 1996, the City of New York began the process of repaving Broadway from 110th Street to 125th Street. The first step was to ream off the upper layers of old pavement, to provide a rough surface for the new pavement to adhere to, and to keep the future new surface from being too high for the curbs.

As their counterparts seek weathering in a sedimentary deposit, so may urban paleontologists find treasure in this sudden wearing away. The Broadway streetcar tracks, unused for almost 50 years, are now making a partial appearance before being buried again for decades to come.

And so it was that I found myself standing in traffic lanes and stepping carefully in the unknown territory of the center malls for a few days in May, camera in hand.

UPDATE, June 6-11: Broadway has been repaved.