Eugene de Salignac’s Photographs of Traffic Safety — NYC Department of Records & Information Services
The first electric traffic lights came about in the nineteen teens, but New York City did not get one until 1920. It was a tall tower with a wooden shed from which a police officer manually controlled the lights. It was installed at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, under the oversight of Dr. John F. Harriss, the City’s first traffic commissioner. A typed report from 1953 in the Municipal Library “vertical files” states that “The first traffic towers were in use March 11, 1920, at 34th, 38th, 42nd, 50th and 57th Streets and were painted white with black trim. These towers were replaced by more elaborate ones provided by the Fifth Avenue Association in 1922-3.” A police patrolman in each tower manually operated the signals, though in 1926, a system was installed so that one operator could control the signals in all the towers.
In 1924, the City started installing more towers, mostly at busy intersections in Brooklyn. The first independent traffic lights appeared in 1928, marking the end for the system of traffic towers. A 1928 City Record report by the Department of Plant & Structures notes extensive contracts for the installation of lights: 22 on 10th Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue, 17 on 4th Avenue in Brooklyn, 19 in Queens, 14 along 125th Street, and a smattering in the Bronx. Lights were not yet installed on Staten Island. A completely automated system for Manhattan went into operation on March 8, 1929, and on May 7th the demolition of the old towers began.
