History
The earliest example of an elevated railway was the London and Greenwich Railway which was built on a brick viaduct of 878 arches between 1836 and 1838. The first 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of the London and Blackwall Railway (1840) was also built on a viaduct. During the 1840s there were various other schemes for elevated railways in London which did not come to fruition.
From the late 1860s elevated railways became popular in US cities. The New York West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway operated with cable cars from 1868 to 1870, but thereafter was locomotive hauled. This was followed by the Manhattan Railway in 1875, the Boston Elevated Railway (1887-), and the South Side Elevated Railroad, Chicago (1892-). The Berlin Stadtbahn (1882) is also principally on elevated track.
The first electrically-operated elevated railway, was the Liverpool Overhead Railway, which operated through Liverpool docks from 1893 until 1956.
In London the Docklands Light Railway is an example of a modern elevated railway, opened in 1987 and since expanded. In this case the trains are driverless and automatic.
Read more about this topic: Elevated Railway
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“America is, therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World’s history shall reveal itself. It is a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical lumber-room of Old Europe.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“I believe my ardour for invention springs from his loins. I can’t say that the brassiere will ever take as great a place in history as the steamboat, but I did invent it.”
—Caresse Crosby (1892–1970)
“It is true that this man was nothing but an elemental force in motion, directed and rendered more effective by extreme cunning and by a relentless tactical clairvoyance .... Hitler was history in its purest form.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)