IRT Ninth Avenue Line

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Engraving from 1876

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

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^[1][2] and went through a tunnel, complete with partially-underground stations.^[3]

[edit] History

[edit] The West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway

The West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway was built by Charles T. Harvey and ran from July 1, 1868 to 1870. The line used multiple one-mile-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.

[edit] Station listing

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Interborough Rapid Transit Company#Maps

• "Open New Subway to Regular Traffic" (PDF), New York Times, 1918-07-02, p. 11. Retrieved on 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
• IRT Ninth Avenue Line is at coordinates 40°49′53″N 73°55′56″W / 40.831423, -73.932264 (IRT Ninth Avenue Line)Coordinates: 40°49′53″N 73°55′56″W / 40.831423, -73.932264 (IRT Ninth Avenue Line)

[edit] References

1. ^ Image 8282. nycsubway.org (1958-06-14). Retrieved on 2007-11-27.
2. ^ Image 8296. nycsubway.org. Retrieved on 2007-11-27.
3. ^ Walsh, Kevin. When Is a Subway Not a Subway?. Forgotten NY. Retrieved on 2007-11-27.