The IRT Ninth Avenue Line, often called the Ninth Avenue Elevated or Ninth Avenue El, was the first

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 ...

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 ...

. It opened in July 1868 as the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, as an experimental single-track cable-powered elevated railway from Battery Place, at the south end of

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 ...

Island, northward up

Greenwich Street Greenwich Street is a north–south street in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan. It extends from the intersection of Ninth Avenue (Manhattan), Ninth Avenue and Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District, Manha ...

to Cortlandt Street. By 1879 the line was extended to the

Harlem River The Harlem River is an tidal strait in New York City, flowing between the Hudson River and the East River and separating the island of Manhattan from the Bronx on the United States mainland. The northern stretch, also called the Spuyten Duyvi ...

at 155th Street. It was electrified and taken over by the

Interborough Rapid Transit Company The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the private operator of New York City's original underground subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT ...

in 1903. The main line ceased operation in June 1940,Ninth Avenue Elevated Closure Poster
/ref> after it was replaced by the

IND Eighth Avenue Line The IND Eighth Avenue Line is a rapid transit line in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Opened in 1932, it was the first line of the Independent Subway System (IND); as such, New Yorkers originally applied the ''Eighth Avenue Subwa ...

which had opened in 1932. The last section in use, over the

, was known as the Polo Grounds Shuttle. It closed in August 1958. This portion used a now-removed

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that can be rotated horizontally around a vertical axis. It has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravit ...

called the

Putnam Bridge Putnam Bridge may refer to: Bridges: * William H. Putnam Memorial Bridge, a highway bridge in Connecticut, United States * Putnam Street Bridge, a historical crossing in Marietta, Ohio, United States * A bridge of the New York and Putnam Railroa ...

, and went through a still-extant tunnel with two partially underground stations. The line had the worst accident in the history of New York City

s, on September 11, 1905, when a train derailed and fell to the street. Of the 61 casualties, 13 were killed and 48 were injured.

History

West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway

The predecessor of the Ninth Avenue Elevated was the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, which was built on

by Charles T. Harvey and ran from July 1, 1868, to 1870. The line used multiple one-mile-long (1.6 km-long) cable loops, driven by

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

s in cellars of buildings adjacent to the track. Each loop was started when a car neared it and stopped when it had passed. The cables were equipped with collars that the car connected to with "claws". As the claws could not be "slipped" the car was jerked each time it moved to the next cable. The system proved cumbersome, broke down several times and eventually the company ran out of money and the system was abandoned. The new owners replaced the cable cars with

steam locomotives A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

. In 1885, the first demonstration of an electric traction engine in New York took place on the Ninth Avenue El.

Extension

The Ninth Avenue Elevated was extended up Greenwich Street and Ninth Avenue by 1891. The Ninth Avenue El and several other lines 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 ...

were taken over with a 99-year lease by the

on April 1, 1903. The Ninth Avenue Elevated extended over above the street at "Suicide Curve", where the line made two 90-degree turns above 110th Street to travel from Columbus Avenue to Eighth Avenue. On September 11, 1905, the worst accident in the history of New York's

s took place at a curve at 53rd street, resulting in 13 deaths and 48 serious injuries. The rebuilding project was extended all the way north to 116th Street, creating Manhattan's first three-track elevated, although center-track express service did not begin until 1916. The line began at South Ferry and ran along Greenwich Street from Battery Place to Gansevoort Street in lower Manhattan, Ninth Avenue in midtown (joining with the Sixth Avenue El at 53rd Street, continuing along Columbus Avenue in upper Manhattan between 59th Street and 110th, turning east on 110th and running north on Eighth Avenue (Central Park West and Frederick Douglass Boulevard) until the Harlem River. In January 1917, the installation of a third track was completed. The third track allowed the IRT to begin running express trains on the line in July 1918, from 125th Street to 155th Street; trains began using the new express station at 145th Street for the first time. At the same time, the line was extended to 162nd Street in the Bronx, and stations were opened at

Sedgwick Avenue Sedgwick Avenue is a major street in the Bronx, New York City. It runs roughly parallel to Jerome Avenue, the Major Deegan Expressway, and University Avenue. Sedgwick Avenue is one of the longest streets in the western part of the Bronx, ...

and Anderson–Jerome Avenues. In December 1921, Lexington Avenue–Jerome Avenue subway trains began running north of 167th Street at all times, replacing elevated trains, which ran to Woodlawn during rush hours, but terminated at 167th Street during non-rush hours. As of 1934, the following services were being operated: * 9th Avenue Local — South Ferry to 155th Street all hours, extended Sundays and late nights to Burnside Avenue via Jerome Avenue Line. * 9th Avenue Express — Rector Street to Burnside Avenue via Jerome Avenue Line weekdays and Saturdays daytime, extended to Fordham Road weekday rush periods, also Saturday morning rush and afternoon thru PM peak. These trains ran express south of 155th Street southbound until noon and northbound after noon, and made all stops in the opposite direction.

Closing and Polo Grounds Shuttle

Most of the line was closed June 11, 1940, and dismantled, following the purchase of the IRT by the City of New York. A small portion of the line north of 155th Street remained in service as the "Polo Grounds Shuttle". Service ended in August 1958 as a result of the departure of the New York Giants baseball team, which had relocated to San Francisco, and the ending of passenger service on the

New York Central The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

Putnam Division The New York and Putnam Railroad, nicknamed the Old Put, was a railroad line that opened in 1881 between the Bronx and Brewster in New York State. In 1894, it was acquired by the New York Central system along with the nearby Hudson River Ra ...

Station listing

From north to south, the stations were:

References

External links

Beach Pneumatic Transit Co by Joseph Brennan
Full of Photographs and information about the line, particularly Chapter 14.

1939 track map

Time Traveling on the NYC Ninth Ave El
— A History of New York City (Manhattan) Elevated Railways {{Authority control 9th Avenue 9th Avenue Railway lines opened in 1868 Railway lines closed in 1940 Railway lines closed in 1958 1868 establishments in New York (state) 1940 disestablishments in New York (state)