Railroad Forums 

Discussion relating to the past and present operations of the NYC Subway, PATH, and Staten Island Railway (SIRT).

Moderator: GirlOnTheTrain

 #129507  by Aa3rt
 
Could someone tell me what elevated line served the Polo Grounds? This discussion has come up on a baseball forum I frequent. What's puzzling is a stub end platform outside the Polo Grounds. I've been unable to identify it from the old elevated maps I could find on line.

If you'd like to see the photos, you can find the thread here:

http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=28620

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.

 #129518  by efin98
 
IIRC, it was the 9th Ave. El that served the grounds via a stub.

Here may help...

 #129523  by Aa3rt
 
Thanks, that's precisely what I was looking for!

 #129528  by arrow
 
Very interesting link efin. I always enjoy looking at old photos like that. Thanks.

 #129535  by efin98
 
No need to thank me, it's the guys who actually contributed to the webpage that are the ones who should be thanked :wink:

Art, I owe you for the link to an interesting website. Have been looking for something like that for a while :-D

 #129547  by Aa3rt
 
efin98 wrote:Art, I owe you for the link to an interesting website. Have been looking for something like that for a while :-D
Ed, you're welcome-but you don't "owe" me anything. We're all here to help each other.

Coincidentally, I stumbed across Baseball-Fever.com when researching a topic on the previous version of this site. Do you remember the discussion we had about when major league baseball teams stopped travelling by train in the "Railroads in Media" forum? I think you participated in that topic.

Actually, another subway question came up this weekend-Who coined the phrase "Subway Series" and when?

 #129586  by efin98
 
First use would have to have been when the Dodgers or Giants played the Yankees, since only New York had teams play against each other back then that actually had subways nearby...Boston nearly had it one year, Philly never had that happen, Chicago hasn't had it happen at all since their subway opened....

 #130908  by Otto Vondrak
 
I've never been quite clear about this... but when the New York & Northern Railroad was built in the 1880s (later to become the Putnam Division of the New York Central in 1904), their original terminal was at 155th Street on Manhattan, which they reached via swingbridge over the river from High Bridge. IIRC, there was a physical connection with the 9th Avenue El at 155th Street... sometime after 1918, this operation became the IRT's Polo Grounds Shuttle.

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/SUBWAYS/9thavel/9Ave.html

http://www.nycsubway.org/irt/9thave/
The 9th Ave. El would extend all the way to 155th Street and terminate adjacent to the southern terminal of the New York and Northern Railroad (later the New York Central's Putnam Division). This junction would allow suburbanites an easy transfer to the 9th Ave El for points in downtown Manhattan. Eventually, the Polo Grounds would be built at that location as well. Behind the Polo Grounds was the 159th Street Yard, the largest elevated yard of the Manhattan Elevated Railroad Company.
On July 1, 1918 the 6th and 9th Avenue Els extended operation to 167th St. station of the IRT Woodlawn line over a bridge built by the New York and Northern Railroad, which terminated operations at 155th Street on January 6th of the same year. The opening of the extension coincided with the cutback of the Putnam Division back to Sedgwick Avenue on the Bronx side of the Harlem River. The 155th Street terminal had two island platforms serving four tracks (plus one bypass track); the eastern platform served through trains to the Bronx, the western platform served trains terminating at 155th Street. Although the terminal was elevated, there were stairways leading down to the street and up to the 155th Street viaduct, connecting the Macombs Dam Bridge with "Coogan's Bluff". By January 2, 1919, 9th Ave. El service was extended to the Woodlawn station of the IRT.
The 9th Avenue El ran north from Manhattan across the 155th St. Bridge into the Bronx, connecting to the existing #4-Jerome Ave. IRT elevated line near 162nd St. and Jerome Avenue. The line opened as far north as 155th St. in 1879, and was extended to meet the Jerome Ave. IRT in 1918, which itself had opened a year earlier. In 1940, the line was cut back to a shuttle operating between the Polo Grounds at 155th St. Station and the Jerome Ave. IRT. This shuttle ceased operation in 1958.

 #131062  by Noel Weaver
 
Very interesting stuff.
Along with some friends, I rode the last passenger train on the Putnam
Division in May, 1958 and we had all day in NYC to do something. Went
out on the old bridge over the river on a foot walk to watch a little bit on
the NYC Hudson division and still have some movies that I took at that
location.
When we left later that day to go back to Brewster on the very last train,
the NYC had already started boarding up and closing up stuff around the
area. It is nothing short of amazing that a little bit remains from this
bygone era.
Thanks for posting it here.
Noel Weaver