IRT Ninth Avenue Line

IRT Ninth Avenue Elevated
The Ninth Avenue El's "suicide curve" at 110th Street, in 1896
Overview
Other name(s)	West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway West Side and Yonkers Patent Elevated Railway Company Westside Patented Elevated Railway Company Ninth Avenue El
History
Commenced	July 1, 1867 (1867-07-01)
Opened	July 1, 1868 (1868-07-01)
Completed	April 1868 (1868-04)
Cable railway	1868
Regular Service	February 14, 1870
Electrification	1903
Closed	June 11, 1940 (1940-06-11) (South of 155th Street) August 31, 1958 (1958-08-31) (North of 155th Street)
Technical
Number of tracks	2–3
Character	elevated railway
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Electrification	DC third rail
Route map Legend Jerome Avenue Line 167th Street Jerome Avenue Line Anderson–Jerome Avenues Sedgwick Avenue Putnam Bridge (Harlem River) 159th Street Yard 155th Street 151st Street 145th Street 140th Street 135th Street 130th Street 125th Street 116th Street 110th Street Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line Lenox Avenue Line 104th Street 99th Street 93rd Street 86th Street 81st Street 72nd Street 66th Street Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line 59th Street Sixth Avenue Line 50th Street 42nd Street 34th Street 30th Street 23rd Street 14th Street Christopher Street Houston Street Desbrosses Street Franklin Street Warren Street Barclay Street Cortlandt Street Rector Street Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line Sixth Avenue Line Battery Place Second & Third Avenue Lines South Ferry (subway) This diagram: view talk edit

The IRT Ninth Avenue Line, often called the Ninth Avenue Elevated or Ninth Avenue El,^[1] was the first elevated railway in New York City. It opened in July 1868 as the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, as an experimental single-track cable-powered elevated railway from Battery Place, at the south end of Manhattan Island, northward up Greenwich Street to Cortlandt Street. By 1879 the line was extended to the Harlem River at 155th Street. It was electrified and taken over by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company in 1903.

The main line ceased operation in June 1940,^[2][3] after it was replaced by the IND Eighth Avenue Line which had opened in 1932. The last section in use, over the Harlem River, was known as the Polo Grounds Shuttle. It closed in August 1958.^[4] This portion used a now-removed swing bridge called the Putnam Bridge,^[5][6] and went through a still-extant tunnel with two partially underground stations.^[7]

The line had the worst accident in the history of New York City elevated railways, on September 11, 1905, when a train derailed and fell to the street. Of the 61 casualties, 13 were killed and 48 were injured.^[8][9]