You can imagine women in petticoats down there twirling their bright parasols in the sun. Men jostle for position on the riverbank and children in britches tumble playfully in the grass. A breeze ripples across the water as a cheer goes up. Listing precariously, an overloaded boat rounds into view. The cargo is human wreckage. The wounded, fresh from the Civil War battlefront, have arrived in Philadelphia. Great sport, really. Something lively to do and see on a lazy summer afternoon…

The paddle wheel boat churns in reverse, slowly pulling alongside a wooden dock, already dipping into the drink with the unbalanced weight of well wishers and gawkers. Now begins the unloading. Battered young soldiers wince at the slightest tilt of the stretcher, moaning in the sweaty discomfort of the languid summer heat. Crowds suddenly recoil at the rising vapor of fetid odors and draw quiet in the spectral presence of the War itself.

Lemonade, fortified with rum, is dispensed from a silver tureen into a gleaming white, porcelain cup for each soldier—a gesture of welcome and to slake their thirst in a first line of treatment. Shortly, horse drawn ambulances arrive to spirit the wounded to massive, barracks-like medical complexes erected, hastily, to address the equivalent scale of trauma issuing forth from the battlefields…

Excised elbow joint from gunshot wound Read more…

Metropolis’s senior editor, Kristi Cameron, is contributing semi-regular posts on issues regarding livable streets in a feature we’re calling The Street View. Click here to read her previous posts.

I’ve suddenly developed a mild case of urban envy of…Washington, D.C. That’s right, as of today the not-exactly-progressive town has something New York is sorely lacking: a bike station. Funded by the District and the U.S. Department of Transportation and built by Mobis/Bikestation, the 1,600-square-foot facility offers secure parking for 130 bikes, a changing room, lockers, rentals, and repairs. An annual membership costs $100, or you can buy a daily pass for a buck. Cities like Seattle, Santa Barbara, and Long Beach, California, (where Mobis/Bikestation is based) have already had success with these facilities, but the D.C. station is the first of its kind on the East Coast. Which raises an important question: How useful is a bike station sans showers during warm, humid eastern summers? Perhaps I should reserve my jealousy for Chicago, whose McDonald’s Cycle Center offers showers and towel service. I could get used to the name.