My 101st Urban Ex post.. w00t! Time flies, I wonder what lies in my next hundred spots? 😀 This abandoned Power Plant was nick named the Gates of Hell by explorers before me. I don’t know why, it seemed lovely to me.

Via the article linked above: (abandoned nyc)

The Yonkers Power Station was completed in 1906 to enable the first electrification of the New York Central Railroad, built in conjunction with the redesign of Grand Central Terminal.  The plant served the railroad for thirty years, but it soon became more cost-effective for the company to purchase its electricity rather than generate its own.  Con Edison took over in 1936, using the station’s titanic generating capacity to power the surrounding county.  By 1968, new technologies had replaced Glenwood’s outdated turbines, and the station was abandoned.

Now, the first time I went to this location, I was told the easiest way to enter was through an adjacent park. Having been there no longer than 3 minutes, we were kicked out by cops. They told us the neighbors keep an eye on the place and alert them anytime someone approaches from the park side. So much for that tip. While waiting for the train on a near by station platform, someone hopped off the platform and walked right into the building. I felt kinda jealous since I just got kicked out, but decided that this was the way the locals went.

Yesterday I finally got a chance to take the train back to these parts, so I hopped off the platform and followed the previous explorers tracks. Once inside, I was shocked to see how crowded it was. There was around 10 or so guys & gals filming a hip-hop music video. There was another couple wandering around taking photos together. Seems like everybody hangs out at this spot – I guess we were just unlucky the first day we visited…

The property is split between two huge buildings. The north building, being the turbine room where the electricity generation was done. The other, larger, building was the boiler building.

Upon entering I took a pano, on the left: boiler building, on the right: turbine building:

Seen in the distance of the pano above is a bridge connecting the two buildings. Up close & underneath:

I took a pano from the otherside:

We entered the turbine building first, as it was the smaller and less interesting of the two. The floor was marked in various places with some classic NYC mosaic work. They don’t build ’em like this anymore!

It wasn’t long before we found the turbines – we were on the second floor at this point, so hurried down there to get some close ups!

On the way to the turbines, I grabbed a pano of the first floor:

Pictures don’t really do these justice. They were taller than me, pretty impressive in size. It’s interesting to think these spinning wheels can generate electricity to power a city.

We made our way to the boiler building via bridge:

I call this haircut, the freedom cut.

The vast openness of this building is awesome. As in, full of awe. It’s rare these days to see an indoor place so open without tons of support columns everywhere. This almost feels like a hangar.

Another pano, from the catwalk on the narrow end:

The crane built into the ceiling of the building:

A pano of the lesser seen half of the boiler building, taken from the bucket of a cherry picker:

Enjoy the rest of the pics!

March 14, 2016 at 4:35 am | Urban Ex