History
The railroad was chartered on February 16, 1862 (some sources say 1863).
In October 1863, the New York and Harlem Railroad, which had tracks down the middle of Fourth Avenue, took the Forty-second Street and Grand Street Ferry Railroad to court to prevent them from laying a track on each side of Fourth Avenue (between 14th Street and 23rd Street). The NY&H charged that the new tracks would obstruct access between their line and the sidewalk, and claimed exclusive rights to lay track on Fourth Avenue. The defendant argued that it had the same right as anyone else to any part of Fourth Avenue not in use by the NY&H. Since the railroad began to operate, it presumably won the case.
On April 6, 1893, the Metropolitan Crosstown Railroad leased the line; the lessee merged with the Metropolitan Street Railway on May 14, 1894. That company was leased to the Interurban Street Railway on April 8, 1902.
Eventually, the line was not operated as a through line. Instead, the trackage was used for the 42nd Street Crosstown Line, 34th Street Crosstown Line, 23rd Street Crosstown Line, and 14th Street Crosstown Line.
Read more about this topic: Forty-second Street And Grand Street Ferry Railroad
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—Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929)
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
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