The Ninth Avenue El An Early History of New York City's First Elevated Railway By G. J. Christiano (contact) It was agreed by City officials that an elevated line would solve the problems of serious congestion in Manhattan. In fact, the first proposal was as far back as 1825, by H. Sargeant. There were dozens of others over the decades that followed until Charles T. Harvey received his patent June 18, 1867, and actually saw his design built and operational. On April 20, 1866 the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway Company was formed by Harvey and eventually got awarded the approval to begin construction of his elevated line up Greenwich Street, then Ninth Avenue from Battery Place to 30th Street. Construction began July 1, 1867. The first column was erected October 7, and tested in December. The method of operation was a continuous chain or cable wound around a drum, the cable being attached to a passenger coach on the tracks above. The drum was driven by stationary steam engines placed beneath the sidewalk at certain intervals. This would propel the cars to the next engine and the next, thus moving the car along the tracks. The demonstration proved satisfactory to the delight of the stockholders and company officials. The company constructed three miles of track, although they had a mandate to construct twenty-five miles uptown. The Rapid Transit Commissioners inspected the structure and made a favorable report on July 1, 1868. The plan and operation were approved. Mayor John T. Hoffman, and a deputy inspected the line also. It also passed muster. From 1868 through 1870, the line ran on a single track and was extended to 30th Street. The name changed to the West Side and Yonkers Patent Elevated Railway Company, the last station being at 29th Street. Almost immediately there were mechanical problems, not to mention financial and legal difficulties. This cable system proved impractical and was finally abandoned and remained idle for months. Creditors bought the line at a Sheriff's Auction on November 15, 1870 at a purchase price of only $960 (Nine Hundred and Sixty Dollars). The equipment included three complete passenger cars; four vaults where the machinery was located and patent rights. The new investors substituted the stationary engines for small steam locomotives. There were objections from the Boss Tweed crowd, pushing for his viaduct scheme as well as injunctions introduced by the horse-car companies which, up until this time, had no competition. On February 9, 1871, the Transit Commissioners granted permission for the elevated railway company to proceed with their plan to discard all previous equipment and replace it with steam locomotives. Repairs were made to strengthen the existing structure and steam operation began on April 20, 1871. There were only two stations at this time, one at Dey Street, the other at the end of the line at 29th Street. The company adopted the name the New York Elevated Railroad Company. Thus commenced the world's first successful elevated railway. Steam power was to be used on all subsequent lines until the advent of electrical operation in 1902. THE NEW YORK TIMES � SATURDAY JULY 4TH, 1868 LOCAL INTELLIGENCE The Elevated Railway The trial trip upon the elevated road in Greenwich-street having been postponed on Thursday, on account of an accident to the machinery, came off yesterday at noon, and was very satisfactory. The car ran evenly from the Battery to Cortlandt-street, starting at a rate of five miles an hour, and increasing to a speed of ten miles. The Company does not pretend, with its present machinery, to run the cars faster than fifteen miles an hour; but during the next two months will make arrangements for much more rapid motion. On the 1st day of July, 1867, the work was commenced, $100,000 being then pledged for the purpose. Contracts were made, and the first column was placed in position on the 7th of October. The machinery was first tried on the 7th of December, on the first quarter mile. So well were the Directors pleased that they authorized the inventor to order the remainder to Cortlandt-street. This was erected in March and April, and some improvements introduced. About the 1st day of May the new trial car was placed on the road, and the Directors took a ride at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, propelled by an engine out of sight and hearing. On the 6th of June last the railway was placed in charge of the Commissioners appointed by the Governor, Messrs. FITHIAN and MORRIS, and Ex-Senator FREER, (of Sulivan County,) appointed by the Croton Board, for its inspection. During that month Gov. FENTON came from Albany and inspected it himself, by examining the machinery and taking a ride upon it; also the Croton Board, with the engineer; Mayor HOFFMAN, the Governor of Minnesota, a deputation from the Common Council of Boston, and many eminent engineers and civilians. The opinion was expressed that it was a great mechanical success. On July 1st the Commissioners reported in its favor. The Governor gave it official approval promptly on the following day. This endorsement vests in the constructing company full powers to proceed with the railway at once from the Battery to Spuyten Duyvil. The Chief Engineer and inventor expresses the opinion that there is no engineering difficulty in the way of having the railway completed to the Hudson River Depot at Thirtieth-street the present year. Then the passage from Wall-street can be made in fifteen minutes! He is desirous of having the whole line under contract at once, that the time of its being thrown open to the public use may occur during the terms of the present incumbents of the office of Governor of the State and Mayor of the City, who have recommended this project and assisted its development as a means of relief to the over-crowded thousands in this City. The inventor will proceed next week to take down the present machinery, and substitute some special improvements which he has perfected after testing the working of that already up. Footnote to above article: The inventor's name was never mentioned. It was, of course, Charles T. Harvey. It may be noted that Harvey was never given the acclaim and appreciation for his achievement. He is the engineer who presented us with the city's very first elevated railroad, into which he invested much of his life and finances. His engineering skill and vision initiated the expansion of rapid transit of which the elevated railroads dominated for thirty-seven years. As quoted in William Fullerton Reeves', The First Elevated Railroads in Manhattan and the Bronx of the City of New York, (N.Y., 1936) "Nothing in the city's history has done more for its growth and advancement than that system of transit, and Charles T. Harvey was its originator and the man directly responsible for its achievement. There are monuments in New York City, but none to him. He gave us his utmost, in time, money, and brains, but has received no permanent recognition." Harvey died in 1913. This next entry is a rather detailed accounting of the Greenwich Street Road as recorded once again in the New York Times. The descriptions highlight the construction and method of operation. THE NEW YORK TIMES � TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 7TH, 1869 THE ELEVATED RAILWAY Successful Trial Trips of the West Side Railroad in Greenwich-Street The Line to be Completed by November Description of the Means by Which the Cars are to be Driven Names of the Stockholders and Officers of the Company Trial-trips were made on the new West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway in Greenwich-street yesterday, in which several stockholders of the Company and other invited guests participated. The first section of the road, from the Battery to Cortlandt-street, is completed, and posts for receiving the rails are erected, and many of the rails are laid on the next section, from Cortlandt-street to Thirtieth-street. It is anticipated that the road will be in condition for the transportation of passengers from the Battery to Thirtieth-street by the first day of November next. For the present route of travel will be over a single track; but it is intended, eventually, to construct another track on the west side of Greenwich-street and Ninth-avenue, and along the whole route to Yonkers, to be used, for cars returning to the starting point, while the present one will be confined solely to the carrying of passengers going north. The experimental trips made gave ample satisfaction to all who passed over the route, and the opinion was universally expressed that, if the construction of the road over the remaining sections be as well done as on the first, the enterprise will prove to be a complete success. The riding was remarkably smooth and easy, and the speed satisfactory. The rate at which the car was yesterday operated was fifteen miles per hour. Twenty miles can be made, if required, just as easily. It is not intended, however, that the rate of travel shall, ordinarily, exceed that of yesterday. The mode of propulsion is an "endless chain," so called, but really a wire rope, which passes over a drum at either end of the section, and runs thence between the rails over which the car moves; the motor being a steam engine underneath the sidewalk at the corner of Greenwich and Cortlandt streets. To this wire ropes are attached, at distances of 150 feet apart, small iron uprights, or projections, running on wheels on a narrow track provided expressly for the purpose, the rails of which are about sixteen inches apart. Pendant from the bottom of the car is an iron beam that may be thrown out or drawn inward by operating a brake at the end of the car, and when thrown out, is the material against which the upright presses itself, and thus forces the car onward. On reaching the end of any section these uprights follow the direction of the endless rope, and going over the curved line there, are reversed in position, and they then return to the large drum at the other end, where they are again, one by one, sent off on propelling duty as before. The car, meanwhile, passes over the space between the two sections (never more than the width between the opposite curbstones of a street, say twenty-five feet,) by force of the momentum it has gained, and at the next section meets one of the uprights attached to the rope traversing it and is thus propelled toward the terminus of that section. This proceeding is continued along the entire route. The engines necessary to operate this endless chain are to be located in Greenwich-street, at the corners of Franklin, Bethune and Twenty-second streets, the one corner of Cortlandt-street and Greenwich being placed there merely as the motor for the other half mile of the route, which according to the act of incorporation, had to be [several lines were not readable on microfilm]. The upright posts and the rails resting on them have been tested first at the place of manufacture, Buffalo, before shipment hither. The flanges of the wheels (every car being provided with eight double trucks,) are an inch and a half in width, which, added to the weight of the car itself, would seem to make it impossible that they should ever get off the track. In addition to this, the floor of the car itself sets very close to the rails, thus throwing the whole weight on that portion of each wheel which may be at the times in contact with the rail. Every other precaution that prudence or experience could suggest has also been taken. The sections are to be inspected by Commissioners appointed in the act of incorporation before the road is thrown open for regular travel, and no fares can be collected until the certificate of these Commissioners has been filed in the offices of the Secretary of State and of the Mayor to the effect that the road is in a perfectly safe condition. By the terms of the act, these Commissioners are compelled to test the strength of the road with a car placed upon the track loaded to a weight equal to at least three times the ordinary weight of a passenger car proposed to be used thereon, with its occupants. The cars, ten of which are already completed, are each calculated to seat comfortably forty passengers, there being seats across the end as well as at the sides, and also in the center . The rails are now arriving from Buffalo, and probably there will be a sufficiency of them here by Friday next to insure the speedy completion of the track to Thirtieth-street. Until the down-track shall have been laid there will be turnouts or sideways used at the Battery and at Thirtieth-street to enable the car to get into position for making return trips either way. When the road is put into full operation it is intended that a car will pass a given depot every eight minutes. The difficulty of steep grades is entirely overcome by the use of traction rope with stationary power, although at one point of the route the incline is 130 feet to the mile, and at its upper end in the neighborhood of Harlem, 280 feet to the mile. Another advantaged possessed by this mode of travel is its comparative freedom from noise, as well as the obviation of all delay in consequence of street obstructions, a matter which now seriously interferes with the transit of passengers by horse-car routes. The act of incorporation under which this Company is formed was passed April 22, 1867. It fixes the fare for each passenger for any distance within the limits of the City, not exceeding two miles, five cents; for every mile or fractional part of a mile in addition, thereto, one cent; provided that when the railway is completed and in operation between Battery Place and the vicinity of the Harlem River, the Company may at its option, adopt a uniform rate not exceeding ten cents for all distances on Manhattan Island. The Company is by the same act compelled to pay a sum not exceeding five per cent of its net income from passenger trains, into the City Treasury as a compensation to the Corporation for the use of the streets. The original stockholders of the Company were Messrs. C.T. Harvey, William E. Dodge, William H. Fogg, William H. Appleton, R. T. Underhill, John P. Yelverton, Turner Brothers, Chauncey Vibbard, Fred B. Fisk, John B. Murray, Wm. W. W. Wood, Moses A. Hoppock, John Perkins, Edwin Booth, D.D. Williams, Chas. D. Bigelow, De-Witt Clinton Jones, W. S. Guruee, S. M. Pettingill, John H. Hall, Alanson Trask, Isaac Scott, Stephen Cutter, D. Crawford, Jr., F. T. James, Frank Work, George L. Trask, H.F. Lombard, H. F. Spaulding, S. M. Pettingill, A. S. Barnes, R. P. Getty, and Samuel D. Babcock. The capital stock is about $1,000,000. The officers of the Company are: President, D. N. Barney; Directors, S. M. R. P. Getty, Pettingill. A. S. Barnes, Chas. T. Harvey, J. H. Benedict, and C. E. Miller; Secretary and Treasurer, H. W. Taylor; Manager and Chief Engineer, Chas. T. Harvey; Attorney , Edward C. Delevan; Counsel, Hon. Jos. S. Bosworth. The office of the Company is at No. 48 Cortlandt-street. The final article in this series talks about the "motive power" not being successfully demonstrated. They are already experiencing problems. THE NEW YORK TIMES � SATURDAY NOVEMBER 6TH, 1869 THE GREENWICH-STREET ELEVATED RAILWAY This enterprise, which has now been before the public for about three years, and in the prosecution of which nearly half a million of dollars is reported to have been expended, appears to be no nearer completion than it was a year ago. The report that the failure of LOCKWOOD & Co. the bankers of the Company, had entailed losses upon the enterprise, is not correct. The loan of $300,000 which LOCKWOOD & CO. negotiated for the Company in 1868 had all been expended before that house failed. Since then the Company has endeavored to raise $300,000 to complete the road to Thirtieth-street, and in order to get the money, they proposed to the original subscribers to abate fifty per cent, on their original subscriptions and payments � all parties who contributed to the first $300,000, being allowed to receive fifty per cent of their subscriptions in additional stock. In this way $100,000 has been subscribed and partly paid in, which it is thought will be sufficient to complete the road to Canal-street. With this money the work is now being prosecuted , but in a very slow manner, the number of workmen actually employed being small. Subscribers to the road complain that the enterprise has been mismanaged, and that more than $100,000 has been squandered in useless experiments through the incompetency of the engineers. Even if the money were ready to complete the road the practicability of the plan is regarded by many as exceedingly problematical. The motive power for propelling the cars has not been fully demonstrated as a mechanical success, and many think it will prove abortive in practice. On the whole there does not appear to be much prospect that the public will get any relief at present in the way of speedy transit uptown from the long talked of Greenwich-street Elevated Railway. The elevated structure up Greenwich Street and then up Ninth Avenue was further extended from 30th Street north (still on the curb line), to 34th Street and placed in operation July 30, 1873. By 1874 the New York Elevated Railroad Company's rolling stock had increased to ten cars and six "dummy engines." By Nov. 6, 1875 the el was extended to 42nd Street, and reached up to 61st Street and Ninth Ave. by January 18, 1876. The original one track, single column structure on the West Side of Manhattan, was eventually twinned by erecting another track on the western side of the street in the latter part of 1876. By May 1880 the two track system stretched all the way up Greenwich Street/Ninth Avenue, one track on each curb line. There was much reconstruction of the original structure. It was a great success and set the pattern for the other elevated lines that followed.
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