IRT Ninth Avenue Line

This article is about the elevated line. For the surface (bus, formerly streetcar) see Ninth and Amsterdam Avenues Line

The Ninth Avenue El's "suicide curve" at 110th Street, in 1896

The IRT Ninth Avenue Line, often called the Ninth Avenue El, was the first elevated railway in New York City. It opened in 1868 as the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, a cable-hauled line. It ceased operation in 1940.

The last section in use, over the Harlem River, was known as the Polo Grounds Shuttle, and was closed in 1958. This portion used the now-removed Putnam Bridge swing bridge and went through a tunnel, complete with partially underground stations.

History

The West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway

West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway test run, 1867

The West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway was built on Greenwich Street by Charles T. Harvey and ran from July 1, 1868 to 1870. The original northern terminus was 29th Street, and the southern terminus was Dey Street. The line used multiple one-mile-long (1.6 km-long) cable loops, driven by steam engines 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.

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 were taken over with a 99 year lease by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company on April 1, 1903. The rebuilding project was extended all the way north to 116th St., creating Manhattan's first three-track elevated, although center-track express service did not begin until 1916.

File:Berenice Abbott-El Station - 72nd Street.jpg

Berenice Abbott photograph of Ninth Avenue El station at 72nd Street, 1936

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 until the Harlem River.

The line was closed in 1940 and dismantled, following the purchase of the IRT by the City of New York. The line from 155th Street north into the Bronx was continued as the "Polo Grounds Shuttle" until 1958.

The Ninth Ave Elevated was over 100 feet (30 m) above the street at "Suicide Curve", which made a 90-degree turn from 9th Ave onto 110th St. then another from 110th St. onto 8th Avenue. The curve at 53rd Street, however, was the site of a September 11, 1905 derailment that was the worst accident in the history of New York's elevated railways.

Station listing

From the Bronx to the southern tip of Manhattan, the stations were:

Station	Tracks	Opening date	Closing date	Transfers & Notes
merge with IRT Jerome Avenue Line between 161st Street and 167th Street
Anderson–Jerome Avenues	all	July 1, 1918	August 31, 1958	Still exists in ruins. Service continued north along the Jerome Avenue Line to 167th Street when the new Bronx stations opened. Service was further extended to Woodlawn on January 2, 1919.
Sedgwick Avenue	all	July 1, 1918	August 31, 1958	Still exists in ruins. Transfer point with New York Central Railroad's Putnam Division.
Manhattan – Bronx border, bridge over Harlem River
tracks split to the 159th Street Yard
155th Street	all	1879	August 31, 1958	Station was built next to New York Central Railroad's Putnam Division southern terminus and was a transfer point until the Putnam Division stopped service into Manhattan in 1918.
151st Street	local		June 11, 1940
145th Street	all		June 11, 1940
140th Street	local		June 11, 1940
135th Street	local		June 11, 1940
130th Street	local		June 11, 1940
125th Street	all		June 11, 1940
116th Street	all	1891	June 11, 1940
110th Street	local		June 11, 1940
104th Street	local		June 11, 1940
99th Street	local		June 11, 1940
93rd Street	local		June 11, 1940
81st Street	local	June 9, 1879	June 11, 1940
72nd Street	local	June 9, 1879	June 11, 1940
66th Street	all		June 11, 1940
59th Street	local	June 9, 1879	June 11, 1940	Transfer to Sixth Avenue Elevated
merged at 53rd Street with branch of IRT Sixth Avenue Line
50th Street	local		June 11, 1940
42nd Street	local	November 6, 1875	June 11, 1940
34th Street	all	July 30, 1873	June 11, 1940
30th Street	local		June 11, 1940
29th Street		1868
23rd Street	local		June 11, 1940
14th Street	all		June 11, 1940
Christopher Street	all		June 11, 1940
Houston Street	local		June 11, 1940
Desbrosses Street	all		June 11, 1940
Franklin Street	local		June 11, 1940
Warren Street	all		June 11, 1940
Barclay Street	local		June 11, 1940
Dey Street		1868
Cortlandt Street	all		June 11, 1940
Rector Street	local		June 11, 1940
split from IRT Sixth Avenue Line
Battery Place	all		June 11, 1940	Transfer to Sixth Avenue Elevated
South Ferry	all	April 5, 1877	December 22, 1950, but was no longer used by Ninth Avenue El after June 11, 1940.	Various ferries (see South Ferry.) Transfer to Second, Third and Sixth Avenue Elevated Lines.

External links

• "Open New Subway to Regular Traffic" (PDF). New York Times. 1918-07-02. p. 11. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
• Beach Pneumatic Transit Co by Joseph Brennan Full of Photographs and information about the line, particularly Chapter 14.
• NYCsubway.org - The 9th Avenue Elevated
• 1939 track map
• Time Traveling on the NYC Ninth Ave El