The Suburban Railway in the Bronx
The 133rd St station was the first station and opened on May 17, 1886. All the original stations in the Bronx were built with single-island platforms with one station house and entry stairs at the designated street. The 133rd, 138th and 144th St stations were all located on the Suburban RR PROW. The structure aand stations North of 145th St were all located on Third Ave.
1914 view of the 138th St station during the construction of the upper level express tracks showing how he Bronx had filled in around the Suburban Railway PROW.
1940 view East on 144th St from Third Ave to the 3rd Ave El two-level structure on the PROW where the express track is over the local tracks and the other high level structure is the Bergen Cut-off structure curving off towards Willis Ave.
1940 view of the 3rd Ave 149th St station from 148th St and Willis Ave.
1915 view of the derrick car hoisting a girder up for for the construction of the Bergen Cut-off connection to the 150th St junction structure.
Also in 1815 the 149th St station was expanded to a three track two island express station as shown on the right. All of the stations below 149th St were were double-decked in the 1914-17 express track upgrade where the upper level platforms were for express trains. The 133rd St station (below) appeared in this format in 1941 after the Major Deegan Highway was completed to the new Triborough Bridge. The station was located between 133rd (left) and 134th Streets. However, 134th St was obliterated by the highway construction. The upper and lower level tracks were connected by a ramp in between the 138th and 143rd St stations. The connection was used infrequently until 1954, when the center track at 149th St was taken out of service to convert the station to a terminal. The view on the right shows the upper level ramp junction looking North from the 139th St
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1886 view of the footings of the junction of the Suburban Railway Routes in the Bronx on the PROW between Willis Ave and Third Ave at 144th St. The footings going to the left are for the Third Ave Route and the footings on the right were for the proposed Westchester Ave route on Willis Ave.
1914 view of the installation of the 3rd Ave El center express track ramp at 145th St where the structure comes out onto Third Ave off the PROW. The photo below is a 1940 street view of the same location showing a S/B train of IRT Subway Composite cars on the local track next to the express track ramp.
1928 Aerial view of the Bronx Hub at 149th St and Third Ave. The 3rd Ave El on Third Ave and station cut through the intersection of 149th St, Melrose Ave on the North, Willis Ave to the South.
The Bergen Cut-off El structure is on Bergen Ave and curves East to line up with the IRT Subway portal below 149th St.
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