An illustrated journal from 1876 indicates that there used to be a sunken track used by the New York and Harlem Railroad that ran through 4th Avenue at around 126th Street. The original 4th Avenue was today's Park Avenue so it appears that this section of town had a wide path to accommodate traffic on both sides of the street along with having several tracks down below. It is quite curious that no actual photos were ever taken of this interesting intersection and we always assumed the above image was a theoretical design. The archival information only confirms the track's location. Today the roads are flat and the tracks are elevated at this section of East Harlem.
Print courtesy of NYPL
I prefer it this way for no other reason than it looks so damn cool.
ReplyDeleteNo photos... I've been looking for photographs of the old Harlem stations, and noticing that no one seems to have bothered taking any!
ReplyDeleteThe below-grade station opened in 1875 and was in use for about 20 years. It does look cool, and once the railroad was operated with electric power instead of steam (by 1910) it could have been roofed over, too. Imagine that. The only reason for the rebuild as a steel viaduct was that the railroad needed to raise the level of the Harlem River bridge to minimize how often it opened for ships. The whole section from end of the stone viaduct (112th St) to the bridge was raised.
Most of the below-grade railroad was filled in BUT at Harlem station, it forms the basement of the present day station building-- according to a report in the New York Times. Challenge to Harlem Bespoke: can you get permission to go there and snap the first known photograph?