[Ads-l] The City

[Margaret Winters]

Boro Park is served by the El, but everyone called it the subway, hence my lack of precision here.  The signs read "To City" and "To Coney Island".

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MARGARET E WINTERS
Former Provost
Professor Emerita - French and Linguistics
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI  48202

mewinters at wayne.edu


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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
Sent: Thursday, March 7, 2019 2:15 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: The City

On Wed, 6 Mar 2019 13:30:44 Zone + 0000 Margaret Winters <mewinters at WAYNE.EDU> wrote:

>Subway stations in Brooklyn (at least some of them) still have signs
>over the stairway up or down to the Manhatten-bound train as "To City".
>I always assumed these stations (like the one in Boro Park that was my
>local stop) pre-dated Brooklyn's becoming part of the larger New York
>City in1898.  Brooklyn still calls itself  "America's 4th Largest City".
>It's not surprising that even in our adult life-time Manhattan is
>considered The City by Brooklynites.
>
>I wonder about Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island inhabitants - do they
>also consider Manhattan The City?

Brooklyn became merged with Manhattan into New York City in 1898.  The New York subway system first opened in 1904, although the "El" dates back to 1868.

A friend who was a college student in New York told me about a subway station somewhere in the Bronx that IIRC directed patrons to their choice of "the City" and "gun Hill Road".

- Jim Landau

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