Jacob's Ladder Elevated Railway.

[ER-76]

Hello, All

I was hoping your knowledgeable selves could help me find a movie location.

From Jacob's Ladder (1990), filmed across New York.

I'm currently having no success adding links to images that I have, so in the meantime if you feel inclined, could you hop over to YouTube and watch a clip for me?

Entitled,  Jacob's Ladder - Car Monsters.

After walking towards us, on Driggs Avenue, Jacob pauses underneath the middle of the Williamsburg Bridge. 808 Driggs Ave Ste 1 is the corner of the building behind him.

He then walks into a road/pathway beneath a railway track, this is the location I'm trying to find.

I could find no images of the bridge ever looking like this which is why I think it points to a change of location, also, the corners of the walls we see Jacob stood between do not match the walls in the reverse shot when the car enters the scene.

I've been successful with all the other locations in the film, this is the one that remains a mystery!

Thanks for taking the time to read this, Ilook forward to any clues, or indeed, the answer!

Ewan 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GojiMet86]

It's the Williamsburg Bridge, but before the bridge went reconstruction in the mid-1990s (the movie filmed in 1989-1990).

When you go to timestamp 0:54, you can see Driggs Avenue:

 

Driggs Avenue today:

 

 

 

But the subway was reconstructed, so that street no longer exists, and the elevated structure was replaced with these big columns. This is what we have today:

Edited January 17, 2021 by GojiMet86

[ER-76]

Thank you very much, Goji'

That's exactly the info/picture I'd been hunting for, all my searches must've had the wrong words in them!

You've ended my Jacob's Ladder quest on a high note!

Many thanks from the UK and all the best!

Ewan

 

[GojiMet86]

 

6 minutes ago, ER-76 said:

Thank you very much, Goji'

That's exactly the info/picture I'd been hunting for, all my searches must've had the wrong words in them!

You've ended my Jacob's Ladder quest on a high note!

Many thanks from the UK and all the best!

Ewan

 

Actually, at first I thought it might have been the Market-Frankford line in Philadelphia because this looked so unfamiliar. But then I remembered the Williamsburg Bridge had gone under reconstruction in the 1990s, AND as far as I have read, the movie was filmed only in New York City and Puerto Rico.

 

This is the view of the El in the movie:

 

I can't find any vintage photos from the movie's perspective, but here are some that show what that space had been used for.

 

From what I gather, this space was not a street, but was an entrance on Driggs Avenue to an old trolley station located on the actual bridge upstairs, which should be on the left.

 

From nycsubway.org, you can see are staircases that head down to street level from the platform on the left. Again, this platform appears to be on the bridge itself:

 

This 

 

This one is from 1986, and it looks a lot like the scene from the movie:

 

Another similar one:

 

 

This is the El structure from a 1906 postcard. The ironwork looks the same:

 

 

 

Today it's different. This is from the JoeKorner website:

http://www.thejoekorner.com/photos/willybridge/index.html

"New track supports from street"

Edited January 17, 2021 by GojiMet86

[ER-76]

Thanks for the follow up info, and history lesson!

Some fantastic images. I like to see pictures from calmer times, no skyscrapers!

My computer or this forum still won't let me add links, so I'll leave the name of my Flickr account here - ER-76.

I've added a merged image of the tilt shot from that scene, which you may want to download for your archives.

Cheers

Ewan