Manhattan Railway - History

History

By the late 1870s, the elevated railways in Manhattan were operated by two companies - the Metropolitan Elevated Railway (Sixth Avenue) and New York Elevated Railroad (Third and Ninth Avenues). The Metropolitan also began constructing a line in Second Avenue. The Manhattan Railway was chartered on December 29, 1875, and leased both companies on May 20, 1879. The Suburban Rapid Transit Company, operating the Third Avenue Line in the Bronx, was leased on June 4, 1891; all three companies were eventually merged into the Manhattan Railway. The Interborough Rapid Transit Company, incorporated in April 1902 as the operating company for the first subway, leased the Manhattan Railway on April 1, 1903, over a year before the subway opened.

Finally, after 60 or more years of service, and after having operated under a series of companies and jurisdictions, mainly the IRT, the successor to the Manhattan Railway, the elevated lines began to disappear, with the first line closing in 1938, and the final section closing in 1973:

• service on the Sixth Avenue Line ended in 1938.
• the Ninth Avenue Line south of 155th Street was closed in 1940, while the section from 155th Street north into the Bronx was continued as the "Polo Grounds Shuttle" until 1958.
• the final section of the Second Avenue Line closed in 1942.
• service on the Manhattan section of the Third Avenue Line was phased out in the early 50s and ended in 1955, while the service on the Bronx section terminated in 1973.