Tuesday, February 28, 2012

☞ REMEMBER: The Elevated Train at East 104th

A photo from circa 1870 to 1910 shows an elevated train track that was located over at East Harlem from 100th Street to 104th Street. From the looks of the surroundings, we would probably guess that the timeline is really closer to 1870 than to the turn of the century.  This part of Harlem appears to be void of any major residential development at the time and pretty much still looked like the countryside.

Robert L. Bracklow, Elevated railroad at 100th - 104th Streets [train passing by]ca. 1870 - 1910 via the digital collection at the Museum of the City of New York
Posted by at
Labels: ,

3 comments:

  1. ChrisFebruary 28, 2012 at 6:38 PM

    That photo is amazing. Were these steam engines then? (yes, I am devoid of all historical knowledge when it comes to trains).

    ReplyDelete
  2. westsiderFebruary 29, 2012 at 7:38 AM

    Nice photo, it appears taken from a rooftop as we can see across other roofs. It is rare to see the train and carriages in these old photos, looks like these four cars are being pushed by the steam engine.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Joe BDecember 8, 2012 at 4:45 PM

    The broken structure in the foreground looks to me like the old Croton Aqueduct structure that ran west of Columbus Ave. So we are at about 100th St as noted, looking east. The elevated railway over Columbus Avenue opened in 1879, so that's the earliest date. I don't think they needed four-car trains until sometime later, so I'd guess roughly 1890. The elevated railway was steam powered until 1902. Notice they used tank engines (like Thomas in the stories) that could run in either direction.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)