New York City Print, Fine Art Photography, NYC Skyline, New York Print, Giclee Art Print, Deborah Julian

The New York City that once was with the Old Roosevelt Island Tram. Although Roosevelt Island has replaced the iconic tram with a newer, faster, safer model, the icon shown here as it passes a support for the Queensboro Bridge made an entire community possible, gliding back and forth to and from Manhattan over the East River.

For decades, the old Roosevelt Island Tram, ferried passengers silently into the Midtown Manhattan skyline, nestling between buildings to reach 2nd Avenue where it docked before making a regularly scheduled return trip. For the price of a subway ride, day and night, passengers got spectacular views of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and, of course, the dense cluster of vitality known as Manhattan.

I took this picture next to the Queensboro Bridge's western pier on Roosevelt Island. The Tram that all of us living here loved as an integral part of our lives was just lifting off for another trip to the big island.

You can buy Old Roosevelt Island Tram as an 8 1/2 X 11 inch giclee fine art print, with or without an 11 X 14 inch textured white mat, and as a large 13 X 19 inch fine art poster. I do all of the prints and mats myself and sign them on the white border at the bottom.

The tram was originally built when the islands first residential buildings demanded some way to connect conveniently with the other boroughs until a new subway tunnel was built and station but online. But instead of closing when the subway opened, it was such a beloved part of life on Roosevelt Island that it was kept. The old tram, shown above, was retired in 2010, replaced by a newer model. But I still see it every day. The relic sits gathering dust beneath a parking garage across the street from me.