The Sixth Avenue Line was a

public transit Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of wh ...

line 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 ...

, New York City, running mostly 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 ...

from

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

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 ...

. Originally a

streetcar line A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include segment ...

and later a

bus route A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used i ...

, it has been absorbed into the M5 bus route, which replaced the Broadway Line, as its northbound direction.

Route description

The Sixth Avenue Line begins at the South Ferry, and runs north along State Street and then west on Battery Place. It then turns right onto

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 ...

. Greenwich Street changes names to Trinity Place, and then Church Street. It then bears left onto Sixth Avenue, also known as Avenue of the Americas. It follows Sixth Avenue until its end at Central Park South (West 59th Street). The Fifth and Sixth Avenues Line (M5/M55) follows the same route as the former Sixth Avenue Line.

History

The Sixth Avenue Railroad opened the line from Chambers Street and

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 ...

north along West Broadway, Canal Street,

Varick Street __NOTOC__ Varick Street runs north–south primarily in the Hudson Square district of Lower Manhattan in New York City, New York. Varick Street's northern terminus is in the West Village, where it is a continuation of Seventh Avenue South sout ...

, Carmine Street, and Sixth Avenue to 43rd Street (soon 44th Street) on August 11, 1852; the Eighth Avenue Railroad began using the trackage along and south of Canal Street on August 30. In 1853, it was extended south along West Broadway to the new depot at Barclay Street, and a branch was added on Canal Street east to Broadway. On October 7, 1853, trackage was added on Church Street, Chambers Street, and Barclay Street to form a loop. The grant given to the Sixth and Eighth Avenue Railroads specified that they would run to Broadway and

Vesey Street Vesey Street ( ) is a street in New York City that runs east-west in Lower Manhattan. The street is named after Rev. William Vesey (1674–1746), the first rector of nearby Trinity Church (Manhattan), Trinity Church. History The intersection ...

; this extension, in Church and Vesey Streets, was opened by 1865. Extensions to the north opened to 49th Street in March 1856 and to 59th Street by 1865. Cars were later extended west on 59th Street and north on Columbus Avenue, Broadway, and Amsterdam Avenue into

Upper Manhattan Upper Manhattan is the northern section of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, 110th Street (the northern boundary of Central Park), 1 ...

, and a branch (the Sixth Avenue Ferry Line) was added via the Metropolitan Crosstown Line, along Watts Street and West Street to the Desbrosses Street Ferry. By 1935, the last full year of operation, the Sixth Avenue line, now run by the New York Railways Company, ran from 4th Street to 59th Street. The fare, as for all street car lines at the time, was 5 cents, with transfers costing an additional 2 cents. Buses were substituted for streetcars by the New York City Omnibus Corporation (which numbered it 5) on March 3, 1936. When Sixth Avenue between 34th and 59th Streets, Broadway between 34th Street and Columbus Circle, and Seventh Avenue between

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

and 59th Street became

one-way street One-way traffic (or uni-directional traffic) is traffic that moves in a single direction. A one-way street is a street either facilitating only one-way traffic, or designed to direct vehicles to move in one direction. One-way streets typicall ...

s on March 10, 1957, the 5's southbound route from 59th to 34th Street was rerouted to Seventh Avenue and then Broadway before rejoining Sixth Avenue. After another set of one-way conversions on June 3, 1962, the southbound 5 in lower Manhattan was rerouted to West Broadway between Lispenard and

s. After the rest of Sixth Avenue below 34th Street, and Broadway between 34th and 23rd Streets and between 14th and Canal Streets, were converted to one-way streets on November 10, 1963, the 5 was discontinued and absorbed into the NYCO's bus 6 (which replaced the Broadway Line), which was rerouted largely over the former Sixth Avenue Line northbound.''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''
City to Extend One-Way Traffic To 3 Manhattan Routes Sunday
November 5, 1963, p. 1

References

{{NYC streetcar transit 06 1852 establishments in New York (state) 1935 disestablishments in New York (state) Bus routes in Manhattan