BROADWAY: THEN AND NOW
The Great White Way is one of ‘10 Streets That Changed America’
THE evolution of Broadway from a Native American trail to Manhattan main artery is only one of the fascinating stories in “10 Streets That Changed America.” Host Geoffrey Baer takes viewers from Times Square to the Boston Post Road and Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway to give a colorful history of how our modern urban landscape took shape. And then he takes a road trip, to New Orleans, Detroit and Mount Rushmore, that shows how the West and South were urbanized. Baer, 61, spoke to The Post from Michigan where he is filming another show in the “10 That Changed America” series.
How did New York end up having three of the 10 streets mentioned on your show?
Our producer Dan Protess put out the word to academic advisors for suggestions about great streets. We got 50 to 100 suggestions. Then we had to ask, “What makes a good TV show?” We wanted geographic diversity, good stories and good characters. Those New York stories rose to the top.
When electrical lighting was installed on Broadway in 1880, how did the street change?
Prior to that, women would not go out in the city unescorted. It was just not considered proper. It also allowed them to extend the day. If you were on the street in the afternoon and it got dark you didn’t have to go home. The lighting also gave Broadway its nickname, the Great White Way.
Former New York Governor Francis Lovelace created the first postal system between Boston and New York. It operated on the Boston Post Road. What impact did that have?
The only way to communicate in that era was by going somewhere. With the Boston Post Road, you’re forging a route through territory which was thought impassable. It took weeks to get a message from Boston to New York. With the Dutch threatening the colonies, it was critical that they let each other know they needed aid.
Eastern Parkway has had its ups and downs. What was it about its design that made it attractive to the people who gentrified the homes and buildings alongside it?
The bones were there. There’s a context for this. It’s a phenomenon that we’re seeing across the country. In the 1950s and ’60s, American cities were really suffering, with highways leading people out to the suburbs. There’s such an energy in the culture now for people to move back into cities. We’re communal animals. We don’t like being isolated in suburban areas. We like being able to walk to things.
How did you become interested in urban design?
I’m a volunteer tour guide for Chicago Architecture Foundation. I was not an on-camera person at all. I was giving one of my boat tours and after one of them, this guy who was the newly appointed chairman of the board at WTTWpublic TV said to me, “You ought to make it into a TV show.” We started doing one locally in Chicago.