Helsinki Daily: The railway

Thursday, April 16, 2009

The railway

Railways are perhaps not a thing of beauty but as I said at the beginning my aim is not to only show such things that I would consider beautiful but to show a picture of Helsinki the way I see it, wheather it be old, modern, quaint, nature, plantations or just constructions. The first two photos belong to the last category but even along the tracks are some nice details to see other than the bay which they run over.

Railroad viewed from the other side of the bay - or rather I was at that point right in the middle of it walking over the ice.

View from the railwaybridge towards Pasila and the main TV tower, a buzzling center of its own where there are amongst other things the ice stadium Hartwall Areena and the big fair center Messukeskus. Mostly the architecture there is modern. Any old buildings have had to give way but a few back streets with small, old and quite primitive wooden houses still exist even there. One of my friends lives in such a house.

Close to the railway bridge high up over the banks are a few of these romantically pastel coloured wooden houses dotted here and there. Somehow they seem rather out of place in that environment but they do make a nice contrast to all that steelwork.

5 comments:

crocrodylApril 17, 2009 at 12:09 AM
Again great shots! I like especially that one from above the railway track:)
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DeniseinVAApril 17, 2009 at 4:23 AM
All wonderful photographs, enjoyed this theme on trains. Thank you!
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hpyApril 17, 2009 at 10:10 AM
You walk in my paths! It's nice to see that the old house is still there.
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Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the GardensApril 17, 2009 at 10:50 PM
Every city has its wows and its "woes". I do love the wooden, villa on the hill. It has such charm and ambiance. It is a shame that it is so near the railway. It should stand in its own beautiful garden overlooking one of the beautiful Finnish lakes! Dreams ah dreams...
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Maria BergApril 22, 2009 at 9:03 PM
Det där tornet hade jag velat ha på mitt hus. Tänk vilken utsikt man får därifrån även om det råkar var nära järnvägen.

Så finska och svenska och engelska kan du fler språk?
jag fördrar det gamla opera huset men som du skrev det blev för litet. Kullersten är så himla fint men inte bra de få gånger man har högklackade på sig,

Maria Berg, med spindelnäten med daggdroppar.
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Welcome to HD

Brief history:

Helsinki was first founded by order of king Gustav Wasa of Sweden around the waterfalls of were the river Vantaa runs into the sea, today called The Old Town, in 1550. It was to be a harbour town competing with the city of Tallin, the Estonian capital. It was later on decided that this area did not work well as a harbour site and Helsinki was moved to an other part closer to today's city center in 1640.
In those days the capital of Finland was the town of Turku more to the west along the south coast.
Helsinki has had a history of turmoil and bloodshed due to many wars between Sweden and Russia and has been burned down a few times. The first time was 1570 during an attack from the Russians. In the old days houses were mainly made of wood.
In 1695-1697 was the great hunger years and a huge number of the population succumbed to cholera and starvation.
The black death decimated two thirds of the whole population in 1710. It came to Finland due to the lively hansa connections and in those days Helsinki was a multinational and multilingual town. Something that then dissapeared during the Russian occupation until these days when the same status has again been reached.
The Sveaborg fortress was built by order from the Swedish king for protection against the Russians in 1748-50 as the Russians had managed to occupy Helsinki six years earlier.
In 1808 Sveaborg was finally forced to capitulate to the Russians and Finland became an autonomic part of the Russian empire.
A year after, in 1809 Helsinki was granted capital status as there had been a great fire in Turku previously and the rebuilding work was taking very long.
In 1828 the university was removed from Turku to Helsinki (allthough these days there is a university in Turku too).
The first newspapers started coming out in 1829.
In 1877 the first telephone network started operating.
In 1884 the electricity works started to operate.
In 1891 the first horse drawn tram started trafficing. Trams are a common sight on the streets of Helsinki even today but obviously not drawn by horses any longer. The tram network became electric in 1900.
In 1896 the first public showing of a movie took place.
In 1917 during the Russian revolution Finland was granted indipendancy on the 6th of December.
In 1918 there was an internal war in Finland and also German forces occupied Helsinki.
During the second world war in 1939 the Russians attacked Finland and through the war years many buildings in Helsinki were bombed down.
After the second world war in 1946 Helsinki grew significantly as many of the surrounding villages were incorporated into Helsinki.
In 1950 the amusement park Linnanmaki was founded. It's still operating today but looks very different from the original. Some original features still exist.
In 1952 was the olympic games in Helsinki.
In 1982 the first mobile phone network was taken into use in Helsinki. Also the underground (Metro) started trafficing in that year.
In 1995 Finland became a member of the European Union .
In the year 2000 Helsinki celebrated its 450th birthday.

Helsinki Daily

Thursday, April 16, 2009

The railway

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