SKU: T25

Elevated trains were the earliest form of rapid transit in the United States, developed in New York City in the last half of the 19th Century. The first El was built on Ninth Avenue. It featured trains pulled by cables connected to an elaborate system of gears powered by a stationary steam engine at a central location. Cables often broke, requiring passengers having to evacuate the trains and climb down to street level on 30-foot ladders!

In 1872, small steam locomotives began to pull the trains, and elevated railroad lines expanded throughout Manhattan. The Third Avenue El opened in 1878 and offered service to The Bronx. The Second Avenue line followed in 1880. Between 1900 and 1904, all of the el lines were electrified, and by the early 1920s, the system was carrying more than 385 million passengers every year!

This fine archive film program presents rare scenes of the Second and Third Avenue els taken in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Additional footage of the Polo Grounds Shuttle (remnant of the Ninth Ave. El), the Dyre Avenue line (formerly part of the New York, Westchester & Boston interurban line) in 1940, and the Staten Island Rapid Transit line is also included. You?ll also view scenes of antique rolling stock being scrapped and the demolition of some of the elevated lines.