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The
IRT IRT may refer to: Organisations * Indiana Repertory Theatre, an American company of actors * Institut für Rundfunktechnik, a German research institute for broadcasters * Interborough Rapid Transit Company, a defunct New York subway operator Sci ...
Sixth Avenue Line, often called the Sixth Avenue Elevated or Sixth Avenue El, was the second
elevated railway An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train or el for short) is a railway with the Track (rail transport), tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed from steel, cast iron, concre ...
in
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, following the Ninth Avenue Elevated. The line ran south of
Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
, mainly along
Sixth Avenue Sixth Avenue, also known as Avenue of the Americas, is a major thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The avenue is commercial for much of its length, and traffic runs northbound, or uptown. Sixth Avenue begins four blocks b ...
. Beyond the park, trains continued north on the Ninth Avenue Line.


History

The elevated line was constructed during the 1870s by the Gilbert Elevated Railway, subsequently reorganized as the Metropolitan Elevated Railway. The line opened on June 5, 1878 between Rector Street and 58th Street. Its route ran north from the corner of Rector Street and Trinity Place up Trinity Place / Church Street, then west for a block at Murray Street, then north again on
West Broadway West Broadway is a north-south street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, separated into two parts by Tribeca Park. The northern part begins at Tribeca Park, near the intersection of Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), Walker Street ...
, west again across West 3rd Street to the foot of Sixth Avenue, and then north to 59th Street. The following year, ownership passed to the
Manhattan Railway Company The Manhattan Railway Company was an elevated railway company in Manhattan and the Bronx, New York City, United States. It operated four lines: the Second Avenue Line, Third Avenue Line, Sixth Avenue Line, and Ninth Avenue Line. History 19 ...
, which also controlled the other elevated railways in Manhattan. In 1881, the line was connected to the largely rebuilt Ninth Avenue Elevated; it was joined in the south at Morris Street, and in the north by a connecting link running across 53rd Street. And it ran 24/7. Due to its central location in Manhattan and the inversion of the usual relationship between street noise and height, the Sixth Avenue El attracted artists; in addition to being the subject of several paintings by
John French Sloan John French Sloan (August 2, 1871 – September 7, 1951) was an American painter and etcher. He is considered to be one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art. He was also a member of the group known as The Eight. He is best know ...
, it was also painted by
Francis Criss Francis Hyman Criss (1901 - 1973) was an American painter. Criss's style is associated with the American Precisionists like Charles Demuth and his friend Charles Sheeler. The work from his best-known years, the 1930s and 1940s, is characteriz ...
and others. As of 1934, the following services were being operated: * 6th Avenue Local - South Ferry to 155th Street all hours, extended to Burnside Avenue via Jerome Avenue Line weekday and Saturday evenings. * 6th Avenue Express - Rector Street to Burnside Avenue via Jerome Avenue Line - weekday and Saturday peak hours. Trains ran express on Ninth Avenue southbound in the morning and northbound in the evening, and made all stops in the reverse direction. As with many elevated railways in the city, the Sixth Avenue El made life difficult for those nearby. It was noisy, it made buildings shake, and in the line's early years, it dropped ash, oil, and cinders on pedestrians below. Eventually, a coalition of commercial establishments and building owners along Sixth Avenue campaigned to have the El removed, on the grounds that it was depressing business and property values. In 1936, work started on the underground Sixth Avenue Line, operated by the city as part of the
Independent Subway System The Independent Subway System (IND; formerly the ISS) was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of the New York City Subway. It was first constructed as the IND Eighth Avenue Line, Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan in 1932. ...
(IND). As part of the plan, three of New York City's private subway companies (the IND; the IRT; and the
Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) was an urban transit holding company, based in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, and incorporated in 1923. The system was sold to the city in 1940. Today, together with the IND subway sy ...
, or BMT) would be combined into one system, and the IRT Sixth Avenue elevated would be demolished. The city of New York acquired the line from the bondholders of the
Manhattan Railway Company The Manhattan Railway Company was an elevated railway company in Manhattan and the Bronx, New York City, United States. It operated four lines: the Second Avenue Line, Third Avenue Line, Sixth Avenue Line, and Ninth Avenue Line. History 19 ...
for $12,500,000, of which the city recovered $9,010,656 in back taxes and interest, in 1938. Subsequently, the El was closed on December 4, 1938. It was razed during 1939 to make way for the IND line. The section of the IND line that was located under Sixth Avenue opened in December 1940. The footings for the elevated were rediscovered in the early 1990s during a Sixth Avenue renovation project.


Allegations demolition scrap was sold to Japan

In order to alleviate any concern that the scrap metal might be exported to the
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
, demolition contractor Tom Harris, who had received $40,000 to demolish the structure provided affidavits to the New York City Council that none of the iron would leave the United States.The Minneapolis Star Tribune, Feb. 18, 1938, p.18 The inaccurate rumors were later included within the lines of
E. E. Cummings Edward Estlin Cummings (October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962), commonly known as e e cummings or E. E. Cummings, was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. During World War I, he worked as an ambulance driver and was ...
's 1944 poem "plato told." Twenty thousand tons of scrap metal from the El was sold to a dealer on the west coast who was in the export business. ''The New York Times'' pointed out in December 1938 that even if the scrap did not go directly to Japan, for possible use against China, such a large amount of scrap metal arriving on the market would free up metal to be sent to Japan. At a meeting of the
New York City Board of Estimate The New York City Board of Estimate was a governmental body in New York City responsible for numerous areas of municipal policy and decisions, including the city budget, land-use, contracts, franchises, and water rates. Under the amendments eff ...
in 1942, Stanley M. Isaacs, the Manhattan Borough President, denied that steel from the El was sold to Japan. Isaacs said that when the demolition contract was drafted in 1938, "at my insistence the contract provided that not one ounce of that steel could be exported to Japan or to any one else." Isaacs said that the contractor was prohibited from exporting the steel from the El, and carried out his obligation to the letter. Reports of the supposed sale of the scrap to Japan persisted. In 1961, an attorney for the Harris Structural Steel Company, which was involved in the demolition, told syndicated columnist
George Sokolsky George Ephraim Sokolsky (September 5, 1893 – December 12, 1962) was a weekly radio broadcaster for the National Association of Manufacturers and a columnist for the ''New York Herald Tribune'', who later switched to ''The New York Sun'' and oth ...
that continued reports of the sale of steel from the El to Japan were not accurate. The attorney said that none of the steel from the El reached Japan directly or indirectly.


Station listing

All trains ran local, express trains utilized the Ninth Avenue express stations north of 53rd Street.


References


Further reading

* Jackson, Kenneth T. (ed.), ''The Encyclopedia of New York City'', "Elevated Railways", Yale University Press, 1995. .


External links


nycsubway.org - The 6th Avenue El

1920 track map
{{DEFAULTSORT:Irt Sixth Avenue Line 6th Avenue 6th Avenue Railway lines closed in 1938 Sixth Avenue