the 3rd Ave El stubways in the bronx
The 3rd Ave El in was the only elevated railway built in the Bronx that was built that was not part of the later NY City Subway system. That fact is probably the main reason why the El does not exist any more. The pictures above show the one time end of the line Bronx Park terminal and the stub of the former junction with that terminal. Some dramatic reductions of service on the 3rd Ave El occurred beginning in 1950. In Manhattan, the El was reduced in length by the closing of the line South of Chatham Square to South Ferry. The 99th St yard and shop was closed. The 179th St Yard facility was closed in the Bronx and the connections to the Westchester Ave Line were removed. There were two connections to the Westchester Ave Line from the 3rd Ave El. The original 1904 connection at 150th St became a stub and the upper level connection to the Bergen Cut-off at 144th St also became a stub, as both of those structures were removed along with the junction with the Westchester Ave line at St Ann's Ave. 3rd Ave El trains provided the Freeman St Express service over the Bergen Cut-off from 1940, when the 2nd Ave El service was ended North of 59th St, until 1948. The 179th St yard was home to the 2nd Ave El express trains that went up the Third Ave line to Tremont Ave until 1940. All 3rd Ave El service was now performed at the 239th St yard on the White Plains Road Line. 3rd Ave El service to the 241st St terminal on the White Plains Road Line was also eliminated and the Gun Hill Road station became a terminal from then on. The Bronx Park terminal was closed in 1951. It had been the terminal of the 3rd Ave El since 1901 and continued to be the terminal of 3rd Ave El locals after the Webster Ave Extension opened in 1920.
From the beginnings of the the 3rd Ave El in the Bronx or the Suburban Railway, as it was known in the 1880's, the El was envisioned as the Rapid Transit Trunk Line of the Bronx and the Annexed Districts of Westchester County. Those Annexed Districts became part of the Bronx and NY City in the 1898 consolidation of the City of New York in the borders that continue to this day. That Consolidation added Kings County and the City of Brooklyn and Long Island city and Queens County and Richmond County, Staten Island to New York County on Manhattan Island. The Consolidation set the limits that the City of New York had the right to franchise the surface and rapid transit lines within the expanded city limits as it had done previously on Manhattan Island.
Rapid Transit service to the Bronx was determined by the Metropolitan Elevated Railway (2nd and 6th Ave Els) and New York Elevated Railroad (3rd and 9th Ave El) Franchises. The predecessor of the 9th Ave El and the New York Elevated RR Co was the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway which built and operated the first elevated railway from Greenwich St at Trinity Place in Lower Manhattan to 30th St on 9th Ave. The West Side Co failed and the NY Elevated RR took over the and continued to extend the line Northward to 155th St.
However, the franchise or the ability to build the line to Yonkers was never exercised, although the line to Yonkers did get built by a successor company, The New York City & Northern RR, which shared the 155th St terminal with the 9th Ave El in 1879. That link with the Bronx was never a rapid transit line and had little or no effect on the rapid transit plans for the Bronx as the line ran alongside the unpopulated New York Central RR ROW on the Harlem River to Van Cortlandt Park and on to Yonkers.
Later in history, the NY Central RR electrified the Yonkers branch in 1926 and built a new terminal on the Bronx side of the Harlem River. This coincided with the City acquisition of the then Putnam RR Bridge to 155th St for the 1918 extension of the 9th Ave El to the Bronx on the newly built Jerome Ave Elevated extension of the IRT East Side Subway, which was a long planned rapid transit route in the Bronx. The Yonkers Branch of the Putnam Division of the NY Central RR was shutdown in 1943 and scrapped in 1944. The 9th Ave shut down South of 155th St at the end of 1940. The Sedgwick Ave Terminal and the Polo Grounds Shuttle remnant of the 9th Ave El extension to the Bronx passed into history in 1957. The Putnam RR also passed into history about 1980 when the line North of the Bronx
was dismantled.
From the beginnings of the the 3rd Ave El in the Bronx or the Suburban Railway, as it was known in the 1880's, the El was envisioned as the Rapid Transit Trunk Line of the Bronx and the Annexed Districts of Westchester County. Those Annexed Districts became part of the Bronx and NY City in the 1898 consolidation of the City of New York in the borders that continue to this day. That Consolidation added Kings County and the City of Brooklyn and Long Island city and Queens County and Richmond County, Staten Island to New York County on Manhattan Island. The Consolidation set the limits that the City of New York had the right to franchise the surface and rapid transit lines within the expanded city limits as it had done previously on Manhattan Island.
Rapid Transit service to the Bronx was determined by the Metropolitan Elevated Railway (2nd and 6th Ave Els) and New York Elevated Railroad (3rd and 9th Ave El) Franchises. The predecessor of the 9th Ave El and the New York Elevated RR Co was the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway which built and operated the first elevated railway from Greenwich St at Trinity Place in Lower Manhattan to 30th St on 9th Ave. The West Side Co failed and the NY Elevated RR took over the and continued to extend the line Northward to 155th St.
However, the franchise or the ability to build the line to Yonkers was never exercised, although the line to Yonkers did get built by a successor company, The New York City & Northern RR, which shared the 155th St terminal with the 9th Ave El in 1879. That link with the Bronx was never a rapid transit line and had little or no effect on the rapid transit plans for the Bronx as the line ran alongside the unpopulated New York Central RR ROW on the Harlem River to Van Cortlandt Park and on to Yonkers.
Later in history, the NY Central RR electrified the Yonkers branch in 1926 and built a new terminal on the Bronx side of the Harlem River. This coincided with the City acquisition of the then Putnam RR Bridge to 155th St for the 1918 extension of the 9th Ave El to the Bronx on the newly built Jerome Ave Elevated extension of the IRT East Side Subway, which was a long planned rapid transit route in the Bronx. The Yonkers Branch of the Putnam Division of the NY Central RR was shutdown in 1943 and scrapped in 1944. The 9th Ave shut down South of 155th St at the end of 1940. The Sedgwick Ave Terminal and the Polo Grounds Shuttle remnant of the 9th Ave El extension to the Bronx passed into history in 1957. The Putnam RR also passed into history about 1980 when the line North of the Bronx
was dismantled.
The franchise maps of the Metropolitan Elevated Railway (2nd and 6th Ave Els)
and the NY Elevated RR (3rd and 9th Ave Els) routes on Manhattan Island
and the NY Elevated RR (3rd and 9th Ave Els) routes on Manhattan Island