1870

Transportation - Elevated.

Transportation: The Ninth Avenue Elevated Line at an early date. Note the name, The New York Elevated Railroad Co. on the top of the passenger cars. Charles C. Harvey, the inventor, was permitted by the Legislature to build an experimental track along Greenwich Street, from Battery Place to W. 29th Street. The system was commenced in 1867 and the means of locomotion was a wire rope drawn by a stationary engine. This method was unsuccessful, and the matter lay in abeyance for several years. The Company failed in 1870 and was succeeded by the New York Elevated Co., which began the use of small locomotives on the tracks. The Manhattan Railway Co. was formed in 1875, and in 1879 it leased, for a term of 999 years, the New York Elevated Railroad and the Metropolitan Elevated Railway, both of which were chartered in 1872 and opened in 1878. The lease was modified in 1884. A copy of this scene is in the Bagoe Collection and is located as at 59th Street. Between 1870-79 Irving Underhill, photo Gift of Ubrock Collection ng. no. 7

Photo from the New York Public Library - Milstein Collection