The end of the Third Avenue El

[awaseniu]

I used footage from this public domain film, and another film to create a video on the Third Avenue El. You can see it on my channel.

[signorgelato]

Could you imagine the carrying-on the MTA would be doing today about running all the extra lines that were torn down. The fare would probably be about $3.75 currently if these were still around. The3 comment must be made though how the far east and west side avenues in Manhattan are underserved by interborough rail connection as the buses are frozen in traffic crawl...they shouldn't have touched the trolleys!

[pspmerr]

We could have use Third Avenue E in today's NYC -_-

[Carlos7Matute]

what a mistake it was to dismantle it...

[greensliverblue]

BOY! iwould have liked to ride that SUCKER!!

[randomsource]

although one could detect the bias again rapid transit, this was a great film (just turn off the commentary). Living in Mott Haven, i got to see te 3rd ave el still operate in the 50's and60's between Bruckner Blvd and Gun Hill Rd. Towards the end of the 50's they tore down (that was sad watching them cut the girders) the run from Bruckner Blvd to 149th st, although they left the disconnected station at 143rd near Alexander Ave. until the city demolished it for the Mott Haven Projects.

[joni2691]

If I got on the "time machine" now I would get off on May 12th 1955, pay 15cents & ride the 3rd Ave El completely from Park Row to White Plains Road & back looking thru the front car window. That would be ......priceless!!!!

[therealrightisleft]

@joni2691 I know what you mean. I live in Queens and love riding the J & Z into the City because it is mostly outdoors.

[ishouldntbeyoutubing]

In the 1930s, the east side of Manhattan was served by the Lexington Ave subway, and parallel to that one block east, the 3rd Ave el, and a block east of that, the 2nd Ave el. The Lexington Ave subway is the only one left. One line can't do the work of three. For years, the 14th Street stop on the Lex has been unlovingly known as the Black Hole of Calcutta. If the objection to the els was that they were noisy, there are a dozen el lines still running in other boroughs. They're quieter?

[intercityrailpal]

@ishouldntbeyoutubing The els should have been upgraded. Tracks placed over sidewalks giving cover to them. And opening up the street to daylight. Useing rubber between steel parts would have made them much quietier.They would never allow new equipment on them. They wanted the public to hate them. Ridership did drop as they lost their connecting lines.

[intercityrailpal]

@intercityrailpal Then they said "No one was riding them!" They never really planned to build anything on Second Avenue. It's just that they have been forced by public opinion to do it. The number one thing is to make money on the project. It should be a elevated railway like Seattle has. 90 mph down the street, quiet, and profitable. By the way as a kid, I rode from downtown to the 86th station (?) one final time.

[nhlives]

this isn't so much a newsreel as a biased editorial against the very thing the city WISHES it had today: A viable means of congestion mitigation on the east side of Manhattan.

"Boo hoo hoo its noisy" yeah, and the 100,000 rubber tired trips per day that go by there are absolutely silent. This video truly IS the VOICE OF URBAN IGNORANCE.

[intercityrailpal]

@nhlives This false misleading misformation is being put out NOW by the airline and highway lobby. They use think tanks to confuse the public about high speed rail benefits and public transit. They have to hire someone, they need a front. So you don't see them names, you might get mad and not use their service. Once they torn the els down. The trucks really came in, and the freight railroads...bankrupt!

[Apolyion]

My mother grew up on E. 102 and Lexington. Back then the hill was cobblestone and they used to roller skate on it. On E. 110 and Lex and old Jewish man sold pickles from a barrel for a nickle. She rode the El often. Years later as a police officer I worked in the 23rd Pct now located on E.102nd between 3rd and Lex. I was married on E. 106th at St. Cecelia's where my mom was married. Small world. I found the remains of the old El in the Bronx. They are there till this day.

[intercityrailpal]

@Apolyion I don't know where it is. But I'm sure you can find it on the internet. I guess around Jerome Avenue. But there is a tunnel and a abandon station still there built into the hillside. When I come into New York on Amtrak's "Lake Shore Limited" it used to go down the Harlem River to Grand Central I could see it riding by. The "Limited" from Chicago goes down the westside now in a tunnel to Penn Station.

[intercityrailpal]

@Apolyion This was a piece of the 9th avenue el. That was cut back to the Polo Grounds at 155th Street. I saw that too, but didn't get to ride it. I hope I have my details correct here.

[SpanishAmerica321]

the city needs progress from the 1950's untill now

[italobambino43]

That Elevated would still be standimg today, it was so well built!

[italobambino43]

Gotta love these 1950's post - war progress propaganda films, lol.

[scoutandscooter]

I'm sure Robert Moses was behind tearing this thing down, but if so it was one of his few good good move. Els are hell on the neighborhood.

We're still waiting for the 2nd ave. subway.

One thing that Moses didn't complete were the crosstown highways that would have replaced Houston and 34th Sts. with elevated roads. That would have been a mess.

[eddie1967]

Yes....NYC has never really covered from Moses' excesses.

[intercityrailpal]

@scoutandscooter Yes, old out of date EL's are. But if they use steel and rubber wheels like PCC streetcars, San Francisco called them "Magic Carpets" Or were like today's modern light rail systems. (New York one of the largest cities in the world doesn't have one! What does that tell you?) 50 cities are expanding them and building or planning them. It's not because people don't like them!

[KantorTzarCollectif]

Great footage......

Kantor Tzar Collectif have used archive footage (for an instrumental video) of this 3rd Avenue El shot in 1950.....

It's worth checking out!!!

[newscorner]

Oddly, the documentary says not a word about how people will get to work now. Did ridership really dwindle?

[eddie1967]

There is an interesting book titled "By the El" by Lawrence Stelter you might want to explore. Stelter addresses how they failed to preserve little from the structure. He even has pictures in the book from the last day of the El and how they burned the cars down.

[jooknf]

The EL was supposed to be replaced by a subway, it never was. Politics was it's demise.

[froz3nic3cr3am]

My Grandfather worked on the Third Ave "El" for 40 years as a conductor. It was great to see this video as the "El" is long gone.

[BobR1955]

I wasn't around when the Third Avenue El was running, but for a taste of what it was like, go to Jackson Heights and stand under the elevated tracks there. They block out the sunlight and the noise is deafening whenever a train goes by. I understand perfectly why they were in a hurry to tear it down, but it was poor planning to not have underground trains ready to replace it.

[M1903A1]

You get used to it.

[intercityrailpal]

@BobR1955 Well during the high point in El ridership, they (highway lobby) got the city to start tearing them down. Why? Because they wanted to get the big trucks into Manhattan that wouldn't fit under the EL. Also after getting rid of the streetcars via National City Lines. See a streetcar named denial on youtube. They wanted to sell more buses and oil.

[BigKatz]

This newsreel seems like propaganda. There's no talk of replacing it, just how crapped out it was. Who paid for this, the highway lobby? It probably was pretty noisy though, right outside tenement bedrooms all night and day. It's been 53 years and no 2nd Ave line

[prausch65]

Indeed, it was foolish to demolish this line without building a replacement.

[M1903A1]

City planner Robert Moses, along with much of NY city government, thought only in terms of private autos. Mass transit, especially anything rail, was a non-starter with him.

[skipstops]

The Thrid Ave Elevated line was opended in 1878. Thrid Ave line was a great line. In 1955 the Thrid Ave el line was closed in Manhattan only. The remaining Thrid Ave El was in broxn only between 149th Street and Gun Hill Road. In 1967 the remaining service was named the 8. the (8) service was in service between 1967 to 1973. The remaninig 3rd Ave el was closed in 1973 and ending (8) service and was replaced by the Bx55 Limited bus route making only the stops the former line made.

[BobR1955]

Glad you enjoyed it! There used to be elevated lines running on several east-side avenues, but they were demolished in anticipation of the second avenue subway being built. Alas, it never happened. That's why the Lexington Ave. line is so crowded. I understand that another attempt to build the second avenue subway is being made. Long overdue!

[prhotboyrocboy]

It's my pleasure to be the first to comment on this video. I LOVED IT!!! Train history is fascinating to me. Althought I am only 31 years old but my grandmother used to tell me stories of riding these trains and how New Yorkers complain about it. Funny how we got into the 80s which is my time of ERA when we had to deal with murders and graffiti. Although they dont exist but I love it anyway because it's a part of history that still remains around for the history of New York. Again I LOVED THIS!