Photos of Manhattan’s Own Disconnected Payphone Graveyard

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Underneath Manhattan’s West Side Highway, at 135th and 12th Avenue, photographer Dave Bledsoe of FreeVerse Photography discovered something pretty cool: at least 100 old disconnected payphones stacked unceremoniously and rusting away.

It seems that the payphone is becoming a thing of the past. While some are replaced by higher-tech versions, the majority are just disappearing off of city streets — yet another of the smartphone’s conquests. What we didn’t know until now is that most of the ones in Manhattan seem to be stored under the same elevated piece of highway: a small alcove of history, tucked away under the busy streets of New York.

Bledsoe, of course, knows a photo opportunity when he sees one, and he jumped on this one right away. Initially, he thought to take the photos with his iPhone, but as he puts it “[his] irony levels are dangerously low these days.”

Here are a few more of the pictures he captured of the payphone graveyard:

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To see more of Bledsoe’s work or check out all of the payphone pics he’s taken, head over to his “This Technology Has Been Disconnected” Flickr set or visit the FreeVerse Photography website.

(via Gothamist)


Image credits: Photographs by Dave Bladsoe

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