George Matysik

Congratulations to George for being the first respondent to identify all of the first three pictures correctly.  Only one other person got all three correct: friend of It’s Our City (yes, he gets FoIOC status), Greg Heller. No one else even answered two of the three correctly.

As it turns out, my bonus picture was a stumper.  No one emailed with the correct response, though Greg emailed me with some additional information about that item after he consulted an “expert.” (Note: he turned in his answers first, so it truly is honorable mention.)

I guess I’ll just have to hold on to this random pint glass from my desk drawer (my planned prize).

So let’s go to the answers.  Masashi, who is heading back to Japan, dug up the info that you’ll see below.

You don’t have to worry about getting hit by this trolley…

Possibly the most creative subway entrance in the city:

For many riders of the subway-surface trolleys, a line which has its share of technical difficulties from time to time, this trolley is never late to its destination.

“The Class of 1956 Trolley” covers the stairs to access the subway. It takes riders to the 37th street station. It was dedicated in October 2006 by the Officers and the 50th Reunion Committee of the Class of 1956 of University of Pennsylvania. The car is a replica of the Peter Witt Trolleys which Penn students from around the region took to school.

The Philadelphia Transportation Company, which later became SEPTA, operated trolleys on Woodland Avenue and Locust Street. At that time, the noisy sound made by the trolleys often disturbed the idyllic campus life. In 1956, just as the class of 1956 graduated from Penn, the trolleys also left the campus and were relocated underground. With the trolleys gone, Woodland Avenue and Locust Street, where they had run for almost 65 years, ended up as the first pedestrian walkways through the Penn campus. The original Peter Witt Trolleys were manufactured from 1923 to 26.

Tanks but no tanks

No, it’s not a new supply station for the army of the future but you will have to beware of random acts of senseless meat…

Vin Marshall made this tank for the 2nd Annual Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby. It can fire hot dogs or water through its pneumatic cannon. Using pedal power by 6 pedalers in order to produce about 1.5 horsepower, the 2000 pounder can run up to 15 mph.

It took $3000 and 11 days to create this.

The Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby is a human powered car parade as part of the Trenton Avenue arts festival in Kensington. Its focus is not on winning. It is more of a design contest. It gives awards for Best Art, Best Costume, Best Engineering, People’s Choice, 2nd to Last, and Best Breakdown.

“Fun and ingenuity, making the wackiest, most interesting contraption is the goal.”

Coincidentally, tomorrow is the last day to register for this year’s contest which will take place on May 16th on Trenton Ave. at Norris St.

Bridge to Somewhere

Perhaps you were fooled by the reference to an “upper deck”:

The East Falls Bridge opened in 1895. It is a Pratt truss bridge:

“To anyone crossing the bridge, it is evident that the overhead segments are exceptionally heavy. This is because the original design was for a double deck bridge, but the upper deck was not built. The original plan is an early example of transportation engineering with respect to the approaches to the bridge levels.”

“The cost of the bridge was $262,000, in contrast with $102,000 for the City Avenue Bridge which was 712 feet long and had been built with private funds but was later purchased by the city.”

(info: from Workshop of the World.com)

(Masashi notes: I found this weird because it says total length is 1171 feet on the picture I took, but in Wikipedia entry it’s listed as 556 feet. Maybe it’s because 1171 feet includes upper deck?)

Gargoyles, Gargoyles, Gargoyles

The stumper, many young children probably recognize this one:

Gargoyles by Peter Rockwell in Schuylkill River Park near 25th and Spruce-Pine.

Peter Rockwell was born in New Rochelle as a son of Norman Rockwell, a legendary American illustrator. He was a student at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia (1958-61) after getting B.A. English Literature at Haverford College. Then he went study abroad to Italy. He’s had many solo exhibitions through out the U.S. and Italy.

He has several exhibitions at the Norman Rockwell Museum.

(Masashi notes: “On Rockwell’s website, the sculpture is identified as ‘1980 Monster Capital Fountain, South Street Park, Philadelphia, PA.’  So maybe the official name is Monster Capital Fountain.”)

Special thanks to everyone who has participated in the contest over the last several weeks.  And REALLY special thanks to Masashi for taking the photos and researching the subjects of his photos.  As a special treat, we have a huge portfolio of Masashi’s Philadelphia work which will show up from time to time in It’s Our City posts (watch for the Masashi Hanada photo credit!)