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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Home away from home
 
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Bad Horror movies and a couple of reknowned serial killers ruined hitch-hiking in this country. It would be great if we could have an un-official hitch-hiking network just outside the Holland Tunnel. In other words, if you want to go to mid-town, wait by the Sunoco St. Downtown, the Exxon. Upper East the Getty etc. Outbound, you could wait on Varick St. or Canal. Of course these days it would be a hard sell and it would only take one freak to ruin it for everybody. Could someone swim the Hudson......? Oh forget it.
Posted on: 2008/1/28 20:08
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Home away from home
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Actually, I just wanted to know what it was like in general. I understood it to be the first residential neighborhood in Manhattan, and then it became occupied by artists and actors mostly. So I was sort of wondering what the store front facades looked like, whether it was more tidy or anything else more particular. Quote:
Posted on: 2008/1/28 17:20
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Home away from home
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I hitchhiked out of the city through the Holland Tunnel when NYC had the big blackout a few summers back. I made sure to ask the cops on the NYC side of the tunnel first if it was ok, because under different circumstances I think I would have been arrested trying to get a ride there. I got dropped off where 139 breaks off from 1&9 and walked a couple miles home. It turned out to be way faster than my plan B which was to catch the ferry.
Posted on: 2008/1/28 16:46
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Not too shy to talk
 
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Quote:
Justjoe, your story is the stuff of legends. However, from my train trolling days of yore, I experienced how conventional trains can indeed creep up on you. A friend and I were walking on tracks in Pittsburgh in the same direction a locomotive was headed. Lost in our conversation, we were oblivious to the train approaching from behind. We were not checking behind (like fools) or stopping periodically to feel the tracks because we figured we'd hear the train long before it reached us. This was not the case. One of us perceived the train out of our peripheral vision and motioned the other to jump from the tracks. We narrowly avoided dismemberment. It was almost as if the train was silent until it reached us. Stand By Me is one of my favorite movies and songs of all time. It's very non-Stephen King like, so I don't think a dislike of other Stephen King works can justify not seeing this movie... especially to rekindle what it felt like to be 13 agian.
Posted on: 2008/1/28 13:54
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Just can't stay away
 
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i spend every day on railroad tracks, and i can tell you those things can really sneak up on you, especially at 70 mph. maybe freight trains are running on multiple-mile track circuits, but the real dangerous ones run with insulated joints every 1000 feet or so, keeping the vibrations out until the train is just about on you.
as far as hitting tunnels goes, the PATH train is pretty much impossible these days. however, the NYC Subway tunnel club is alive and well.   
Posted on: 2008/1/28 7:59
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Home away from home
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are you talking about the kid with his leg stuck in the tracks over a bridge? i remember those awful videos.........especially the scene where the kid gets crushed...ouch.
Posted on: 2008/1/28 5:47
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Home away from home
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JustJoe brought back a lot of memories for me. Although I am a bit younger I remember that growing up in East Orange our school would show movies about why kids should not walk on RR tracks. There was always that one kid struggling to free his leg, which had become stuck in the track, as the train was bearing down on him. We would sometimes walk the freight tracks around E.O. and Bloomfield but those movies certainly did the trick as any hint of a train would send us scrambling. BTW Joe? What have you got against Stephen King?
Posted on: 2008/1/27 22:44
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Just can't stay away
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I remember seeing that trailer in a theater (Yes, little Johnny and little Janey, there was a time when movies were shown in big dark rooms).
I never saw the film itself because I was turned off by two things; the author behind it is Stephen King; and the scene where the boys are caught on the trestle by a train is just not credible. Based on my own experiences of walking a variety of rail and trestles, a train is not only noisy, but it sends vibrations out that can be felt miles down the track. What person walking on a trestle, especially a boy of that age, would be - could be - oblivious to that information? Who would walk across a trestle without putting his hand gently on a rail to feel what the rail is saying?
Posted on: 2008/1/27 18:51
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Home away from home
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Quote:
justjoe wrote: If you mean what I think you mean (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) I had not a clue as to anything that may or may not have been going on. All I can say now of Christopher Street in 1947 was what all of us 13 year olds in those innocent days absolutely knew for certain about the whole Village: The men were all queers (whatever *that* meant) and the women would do sex (whatever *that* was) for anyone. All men and women in the Village were commies. Also, both men and women had beards. As I said, in those days, we kids knew all that for certain. Life was much simpler when I was 13.
Posted on: 2008/1/27 18:26
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My humor is for the silent blue collar majority - If my posts offend, slander or you deem inappropriate and seek deletion, contact the webmaster for jurisdiction.
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Just can't stay away
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Quote:
The men were all queers (whatever *that* meant) and the women would do sex (whatever *that* was) for anyone. All men and women in the Village were commies. Also, both men and women had beards. As I said, in those days, we kids knew all that for certain. Life was much simpler when I was 13.
Posted on: 2008/1/27 18:04
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Newbie
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well JustJoe, I think your story just made all the time spent on JCList worth it. That's an amazing story. I definitely don't recommend doing it again, but wow, that's a story that will impress all generations
Posted on: 2008/1/27 17:56
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Just can't stay away
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Quote:
Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not after me 
Posted on: 2008/1/27 17:43
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We are what we pretend to be. So we must be careful what we pretend to be - Vonnegut
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Home away from home
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wow, cool story justjoe.
Posted on: 2008/1/27 16:47
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Home away from home
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What was Christopher St like in 1947?
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Posted on: 2008/1/27 16:33
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Just can't stay away
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I have nothing to share about the Holland Tunnel, but I can tell you how to walk to lower Manhattan.
In 1947, when I was 13 years old, there was a strike that shut down the PATH service, then known as the Hudson and Manhattan or "the tubes." I was living in Hudson Gardens, a short walk away from the tunnel entrance near Journal Square. My buddy Bobby O'Brien (captured and murdered in Korea at age 17 just days after the war started) and I walked the totally empty tunnel to Christopher, went up to the street and walked out past the startled picket line. We took the ferry at Chambers Street back home. No one in the projects - meaning none of the other guys, because I surely didn't say anything to my mother - believed we had done it. A few days later the strike was over. We were determined to prove we had done it. So we took our loudest critic with us and did part of the walk again, while the trains were running. He chickened out at Grove Street and agreed we'd made our point. To walk there while the trains are running requires constant alertness to the subtle shift in air pressure that comes before the sight or sound of a train. It gives you plenty of time to find a safety niche. Wearing dark clothes and facing into the niche as a train approaches will reduce your chances of discovery but given contemporary frequency of trains, the higher ambient lighting, etc., that's going to be difficult in 2008. Also, there probably are video cameras at the tunnel entrance and even inside. Oh, and make damn certain you know where the 3rd rail is. Assuming there are now some really heavy-handed Patriot Act laws being broken, those are probably the greatest downside to an otherwise interesting experience that few can claim in these parlous times.
Posted on: 2008/1/27 16:25
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Just can't stay away
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Quote:
+1 I've spent months on the road hitch-hiking around different countries in Europe and it is a great way to meet peope. Unfortunately due to the paranoia of people like the first few who replied to this post, it's a dying art form. As for hitching through the tunnel, well I'd say you'll get more trouble from the cops than the drivers and also if you work regular daytime hours, you'd be sitting in traffic for the same amount of time that it'll take you to walk to the PATH.
Posted on: 2008/1/27 13:07
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Not too shy to talk
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I 2nd the notion of posting ads on craigslist, here (guess you kinda did that already), and elsewhere. I had a very successful rideshare experience through craigslist recently (which I posted about here).
I also had lots of success hitchhiking and picking up hitchhikers on the Hawaiian island of Kauai when I was there for several months in 1999/2000. In fact, I made (what appear to be) life-long friends. However, it's a tiny island and it's legal there (or was). That being said, it's not for everybody and you definitely have to trust your instincts... especially in a mad house like NYC.
Posted on: 2008/1/27 0:33
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Home away from home
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Many people drive in from JC, post an ad on Craigslist, here and WiredJC and see if you can carpool and share in on the expense of the tolls.
Posted on: 2008/1/26 23:20
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Home away from home
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Just think of the walk as your daily exercise... it is good for you and will be nicer once the weather changes.
I would not risk hitchhiking... no way, no how.
Posted on: 2008/1/26 20:47
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Home away from home
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Try a cardboard sign that says "Jersey City".
Posted on: 2008/1/26 20:45
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Home away from home
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Quote:
JoyOfSound wrote: Right, if you start commuting by hitching rides with strangers, it's not just your job that'll be temporary.
Posted on: 2008/1/26 19:07
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Re: hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Just can't stay away
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I think the drivers would be more worried about picking up a stranger! However, if you successfully flag down a free ride, make sure they have a small trunk (it'll be harder for them to hide your body
 )
Posted on: 2008/1/26 18:20
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We are what we pretend to be. So we must be careful what we pretend to be - Vonnegut
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hitchhiking through Holland Tunnel? has anyone done it?
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Just can't stay away
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I am temping at an office that is literally JUST outside of the Holland Tunnel at Canal and Varick.
When i walk out of work, it's very tempting to just try to hitch a ride through the tunnel. instead, i walk 15 mins either to WTC or Christopher Street. i am very curious how i could go about safely grabbing a ride with a stranger through the tunnel....
Posted on: 2008/1/26 17:51
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