3rd Ave. El - 1955
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 มี.ค. 2007
- What is a 3rd Ave. El?
It's the elevated train that used to run up and down Manhattan until the mid-1950's, when it was decommissioned and turned into scrap metal.
Despite this, you can still experience the trip through New York City that vanished over half-a-century ago, not only from the overhead view of the train window, but through the actual neighborhoods and with the authentic people who road it daily.
A beatnik photographer with a tripod, a stumbling drunk from the old Bowery, a giddy little girl traveling with her father, and a couple on a romantic excursion help create a loose narrative.
For the soundtrack, a sprightly rendition of Haydn's Concerto in D for Harpsichord is accompanied by all of the real sounds of a metropolitan elevated subway trip. Along with it's superb photography and creative editing, a viewing of '3rd Avenue El' is like taking a ten minute vacation to a place that is no more.
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At the end of the S curve a hundred yards away was the Soth Ferry Terminal for the El. It once served the 2nd, 6th, 9th Ave. Els also. I am a New Yorker. This was filmed around 1950 the last year for the South Ferry Terminal.
This is Carson Davidson's one-reel film nominated at the 1956 Oscars. The film itself was probably made in 1950 or before because it shows the South Ferry branch with the famous S curve at Coenties Slip which was closed in 1950. This short film is a masterpiece. Too bad that city doesn't exist anymore. I could spend an hour explaining how that city was better than the one today, but let me just share this little fact: the intricate and fragile stained glass windows were still intact after more than half a century when the El was dismantled. For some reason nobody thought to vandalize the stations or break the windows...'nuff said.
I lived in Manhattan in 1945 thru 1954, and I remember when the Third Ave. El went all the way to South Ferry to the Staten Island Ferry, which was discontinued sometime in the middle of 1950. I lived on York Ave. at the southwest corner of E. 70th St. right across from New York Hospital. On a Sunday, my Dad would take my brother and I up to the 67th St. southbound station and go down to South Ferry and over to Staten Island. I thought it was a shame they tore down the 3rd Ave. El. They said it was "dirty and noisy" but I think they could have fixed it up to be like the Chicago elevated trains, which are nice. The Lexington Ave. IRT subway was severely overcrowded for many years until they finally finished the 2nd Ave. Subway. I think real estate interests who wanted to build expensive apartment buildings on Third Ave. were part of the reason for the demise of the late lamented Third Ave. El.
Wonderful. Manhattan pre-yuppification,. when a thin dime could buy a cup of coffee (usually bad coffee).
I'm guessing that when this was made it was considered an "odd" film but it can now be regarded as a slice of Manhattan life that sadly does not exist any more.
The el closed down in Manhattan in 1955 but most of the original Bronx stations were being used until 1973 when this el line finally came to an end. What a shame that it had to close down.
Great video of a bygone era. In the 1950s my father owned a restaurant under the 3rd Ave El at the 76 Street Station. After they tore down the 3rd Ave line, business dropped off dramatically and he sold the store and bought another restaurant , The Marina at 9th Ave & 37th St, a few stores down from Manganaro's Groceria Italiana.
I probably walked by your Dad's restaurant back in the early 1950's when my family on a Sunday would often stroll up Third Ave. to 86th St. I remember a great toy store, Rapaport's, was right near there. I lived on York Ave. and E. 70th St.right across from New York Hospital. I went to St. Catherine of Sienna School on E. 69th St. between York and First Ave. We moved to Connecticut in July, 1954.
Lovely film! I grew up in NYC, in the 1950s, and my two most vivid memories of riding the 3rd Ave.El were looking in people's windows along the route and how dark the street was, under the train. You captured those visuals very well!
New York is probably the greatest city in the world. It's great seeing a slice of NYC history in that video. Too bad that NY doesn't respect its history. After the destruction of Penn Station there was some consciousness raising about the need to preserve NYC, but before that there was
very little. I wish that the 3rd Ave El had not been destroyed. Even today, there is very little attempt to preserve the architecture of the remaining El's with their wonderful Swiss architecture Stations.
Right now there is a plan to Rebuild PEnn Station in the original majestic, glorious, Beaux Arts style executed by McKim, Mead, and White. There are 354 of McKim's original drawings in possession of the New York Historical Society, and the foundations of Penn Station are still there. 600,000 people a day travel thru the hell hole they now call Penn Station. Beaux Arts train stations have been shown to work in Washington DC, Denver, and Philadelphia. It was the worst act of civic vandalism in our country's history to destroy
Penn Station to get the "air rights" to put up Madison Square Garden, whose lease is up in 2023, and it's going to be moved. Commuters and visitors alike will may able to enter one of the world's greatest cities in the dignified manner which would be provided by the original Penn Station!
The sad part is that it will cost NYC untold billions to replicate the rapid transit service it already had - and more - for decades. If the el had been rehabilitated instead of demolished, it would still be running today, like in Chicago.
That all started under the Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia administration in the 1940's
At the 3 minute 10 second mark it looked like the Frankford El on the east side of Philadelphia by the Ben Franklin Bridge up until 1975.
I never rode the EL, but in the mid 1950s as a 7 year old, was a passenger in the family car. We would drive from the Holland Tunnel to the Williamsburg Bridge, and a short part of the ride was along the Bowery, under the EL. It was quite a sight with the human derelicts of the Bowery. The EL blocked all the sunlight from the street and sidewalks, and gave the entire area an aura of depressive semi darkness. The Bowery was never the same after it came down. There are other elevated train lines in the Bronx and I think Brooklyn, but the combination of the EL with the Bowery was unique.
This film is a gem! I first found it on a DVD of railroad films and, as a lifelong railroad fan (80+ years)---and almost as long a classical music fan---I fell in love with it. I wonder how many people realize how much beauty, like details of the stations and cars of the "El," was included in workaday structures around the turn of the 20th century? Even the _subway_ still retains some of it. I worked in an office on Long Island for a few months in the late 1960s and rode the Long Island RY and subways on weekends, seeing the tile, iron, and woodwork in the underground and elevated stations in Queens. Stay safe, everyone.
Was that Wanda Landowska on the harpsichord? But in any case - I saw this played for years at the Transit Museum in Brooklyn, alongside another (B&W) film, "Voice Of The El" - are you familiar with that one? Don't think that one's on YT today.
Great video. There were two third avenue "Ls" in New York city; the one in the video was in Manhattan, torn down in Manhattan in the mid 1950's. The Bronx segement remained until relatively recently. There was another Third avenue "L" along Third Avenue in Brooklyn, that disappeared many many years earlier, certainly before the Second World War. Its route is the one followed by the Belt Parkway today. If anything connected to the Myrtle Avenue "L", it was the Brooklyn segment.
Thanks for sharing!
Nominated for the Oscar as Best Short Subject, One-reel in 1956.
Was realesed in 1955.
The El You Say
NYC lost a lot of its character when the el came down in 1955. And Manhattan’s east side still doesn’t have enough rail service to this day. .
My grandmother lived in the Bronx on 169th street & 3rd Avenue. The station platform was right outside her window. She told me plenty stories about the old El. The Manhattan section was torn down in 1955 but the Bronx portion survived until 1973. I heard in the later days the El was in poor condition and was literally falling apart. Once the city took over all of the separate transit companies all the Manhattan El lines came down and the 3rd Ave El was doomed.
I had the privilege of going to the NYC transit museum just the other day. Those subway cars are iconic.
You're thinking of the Lo-V cars for the subway. The cars which you see here were wooden cars specially made for the el lines. After the routes were demolished, the cars were burned; none of them survive today.
Damn how I wish sooo badly 2 b around back in those days....the 1900's had the best decades & generations ever
Me too.
As a railfan and living in Chicago, the El Capital of U.S. I can appreciate this film.
Very nice video, it's like being on the train. I've never been to N.Y.C. I hope to see the sights, like the Brooklyn Bridge for instance. I was born about the era of this film,
hard to imagine the 'old times'. Thanks for this video !
Uprated. Lovely, thank you! Subscribed. I escaped the Rust Belt at 20 and lived in NYC from '77-'94. Greetings from Paris, France, my new home and citizenship.
I wish my father could have seen this video! This is a dam treat if I ever saw one. Love it very much!!!
The Elevateds, not the subways, allowed Manhattan to expand. The same is true of Brooklyn.
This is one of my favorite railroad shorts, I love the way they intertwine the people and the EL as it was. Fact- The EL was 90% removed in 1955, a short segment lasted until the 70's. Thanks for posting.
I saw the Third Avenue Train when I was a small boy. Those old train cars looked strange and I always wanted to ride on the Third Avenue El. But my family never had the need to travel on it. Then it was torn down by the time I was a teen ager and I never had that train ride in the 1950's. My family left New York in 1960.
chitgussin You can still ride on it, it's preserved at the new york transit museum and we have train trip travel adventures on it literally every year
Interesting that it seemed to curve so much. That slight C curve toward the end is lovely. I kept trying to figure out what the various cross streets going by were. The JESUS SAVES cross is still on that corner!
Amen God sits high and look low
This video was incredible! It's these "windows through time" that allow people like me (Born too late to see these things) an opportunity to experience pieces of New York history which have been nonexistent for decades. Thanks for posting this!
@bflatism Unfortunately the 3rd Avenue El could not have handled the R-class cars, from the R-1 up to the present models -- they are far too heavy. The 3rd Avenue El cars were composite wood-and-metal, weighing far less than subway cars. The El, built in 1878, probably could not have been reinforced to handle the additional weight.
Actually the Bronx section north of 149th St. did operate R-12 cars from 1969 until the end of service in 1973. However they had to be modified to disable their dynamic brakes and also had their acceleration restricted. They were limited to four car trains.
What a nostalgically wonderful short film, thanks for posting
Great flick...I rode the el as a kid--most people really miss it! This truly shows old NY. Music is great! You could do one on the Myrtle Ave el in Brooklyn.
Thanks for this excellent video 👍!!!
This is like a trip back in time with the nice color photography...
Love the MUDC, converted Manhattan Elevated cars, and some Q cars in the beginning.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks! 👍
I’m glad that one person had the foresight to document what our city was about to destroy. The fact that it was done in color and with live sound (not dubbed), a rarity in
those days makes it all the more endearing.
THANKS SO MUCH for posting this. I always dreamed of being able to experience NYC in the 50's, now I feel like I've seen it first hand. Great combination of view from the train, street life, and creative views of the people who rode it.
There are still several elevated lines--the 1 is elevated north of 207th Street for instance all the way to 242nd Street. The east side IRT is also elevated in the Bronx. There are also elevated lines in Queens and Brooklyn. It's a great way to see the city, but not fun to live near. They're loud, depress property values, and stuff falls off therm from time to time making them a bit dangerous.
Great gem of a film! Glad I found this as I am writing a piece about the 3rd Avenue El. Thanks for posting!
@joni2691 last year the train ran below 149th street...i rode the #8 train as a child until 1972 or so
NYC was a kinder, gentler city during that period.
This 16mm film played thousands of times in the early years of the Transit Museum on a film projector. Today I uploaded a remix of another artistic film of the el to my channel. Search Third Avenue El remix Trainluvr
Beautiful film. I am glad that there are many out there who film what later is history. I film many things waiting for the day that I can share with the new generations what they only hear about. Thanks for a great piece of NYC history.
Excellent look back at New York's early transit infrastructure, the elevated train, which is becoming extinct,as there's only a few left here in NYC.Looking back it was foolish to demolish the 3rd ave "el",because there was no replacement for it, leaving the Lexington ave. line overcrowded to this day. Now that there's approval of the 2nd ave subway, perhaps the overcrowding will cease.
What they. tair down what's got to be put back together They reeped what they soul
It is still over crowding on the 4/5/6 and the BX 15 BX 42 buses on 149 Street 3rd Avenue Webster Ave Bronx Gun Hill road
This is very well done and is an historical treasure. Who is the "beatnick photographer" and what became of him?
One wonders. I have to imagine it would've been the late Lothar Stelter, whose photos formed the basis of a book, "By The El."
I remember it as a little kid, but barely :)
I love this movie
Nice video 👌👍 truly enjoyed watching thanx for sharing❣️💯🤗
Thank you too
oh my god thanks for this clip it is awsome!
Indeed, this is very rare color footage of the old Third Avenue El -- the ONLY color footage of the el that I know of.
@ukkfayooyay
They could of kept the old wooden cars longer until replacements came or the structures themselves were somehow strengthened. You wouldn't have to worry about parts since Hi-Vs and Lo-Vs had parts that could have been incorporated into the wooden cars like compressors, doors, motors, gears, etc...
Wonderful video, thanks for posting.
Thanks for enjoying it.
Thanks.Great Video.
this video make me think some one is going back in time and bringing footage back ...my grand mother used to tell me when i was a kid there was a l train on 3rd ave at one time wish i could have been able to see the city at this time
Cool video blog post on the 3 ave el
They shoud have completed the 2nd ave subway before tearing this one down. The 4, 5, and 6 would not be over crowded.
hey,c'mon everybody knows it was taken down in 1933, by Kong.
That was the Sixth Ave El'.
@@blakemcnamara9105 just steps from the Empire State Building !
@@blakemcnamara9105 - Which was actually discontinued in 1938 and torn down the next year.
this video make me think some one is going back in time and bringing footage back ...my grand mother ues to tell me when i was a kid there was a l train on 3rd ave at one time wish i could have been able to see the city at this time
back in the 50's when you would see a person with a camera and has good quality you would be like, "damn that guy must be rich" but now if you dont have a single camera people would mae fun of you
Wow....actually saw the 3rd Ave EL train pass under the Brooklyn Bridge right next to were I grew up. I wish it had included the Alfred E. Smith Housing Projects.
I can't imagine what it must have been like to live in one of those apartments a few feet away, sweltering summer, no A/C. Did they run all night?
People still live like that. And I see apartments still being built in extreme close proximity to el trains. You can imagine that rents are a little cheaper.
Originally it ran 24/7 like the rest of the system. After WWII the service was gradually reduced. By 1952 it only ran in Manhattan weekdays during daytime hours.
It wasn't too bad with the els in Manhattan as they were rather low and far from the buildings adjacent to them (except for Downtown).
Yes. I grew up next to the 3d Ave. El. When we had the first transit strike in 1966, I had trouble sleeping because it was too quiet.
The JMZ line when thy first go into Brooklyn have the same thing the apartments so close together like You can look into peoples apartments
your not the only one,i also want to experiment NYC in the late 50's and 60's
I cry for no reason sometimes.
The Third Avenue Line of the Interborough Rapid Transit is the most iconic elevated railway in New York City by far because it spans the very heart of New York City and runs above the primary streets, which consists of Midtown East, the Financial District, and the Bowery connecting the two, all of which are located in Manhattan below Central Park. It is arguably the most iconic part of New York City, just like the Loop carrying L trains is to Chicago. Given how decrepit from neglected maintenance the elevated railways in Manhattan were in the early 1950s, it was understandable why it needed to be demolished. The sudden collapse of the West Side Highway in the early 1970s showed how catastrophic the comsequences could have been.
Losing the 3rd Ave El was almost certainly even more major of a loss to the cultural identity of New York than losing the original 1911 headhouse of Pennsylvania Station. Noise with elevated railways built since the mid-1980s is not a problem at all because they use continuously welded rail to eliminate clacking noises outside of switches and use rubber pads to isolate the track from the structure. Such vibration isolators are known as under-sleeper pads and under-tie pads. So, even an elevated railway that is newly built today but with the architecture of a historic metal structure would still be as quiet as a typical contemporary bone-stock automobile driving by at urban thoroughfare speeds. Even if the Third Avenue Elevated Line was rebuilt entirely with high-grade stainless steel but still painted over with the original colour, it would have still almost certainly been multiple times cheaper than tunneling either the Second Avenue Subway or the East Side Access through several miles of very-hard metamorphic schist rock.
So, before year 2101, is there any appreciable chance that New York will build a brand-new 3rd Avenue Elevated Railway with contemporary engineering but with the architectural appearance identical to the original? What do you think the probability is? How about before year 2201? How about the aesthetic West Side Highway?
Hey! That must be Mott St. (in Chinatown) @ 2:02 just past Chatham Sq(?)! As Gen-X, I've never seen or heard about these while growing up in Manhattan / Lower East Side... makes sense now seeing Bowery btwn Canal St. and Park Row is so spacious... only things still immediately recognizable from these old 'El' film footages in the Chinatown area is the Manhattan Savings Bank building (currently HSBC bank), the Manhattan Bridge entrance... that one taller old building on that small island-block at Chatham Square. Confucius Plaza high-rise/Yung Wing P.S. 124(? - Asian kids were segregated from White kids back in 70s-80s) school is probably the only modern/large-scale luxury development to the Chinatown area since the end of the 3rd Ave El in 1955. My uncle worked as a bricklayer in the Confucius Plaza construction.
how many elevated train lines does new york still have and are any going to be replaced any time soon
Awesome when compared to now oh my how civilization has degraded in NYC
Now this is NYC
Old school, they way you remember it.
nice little film
I love it. Great vid!
how cool
Yes, It's a Shame they Tore it Down. They don't never leave good things alone. I remember the EL too on Third Avenue in the Bronx.
Sonia Lenora. no it's not a shame. the street below was dark and depressing. they didn't exist on the nice street. I was there.
Cindy wehle And? It was a public good and those should never be removed.
@@packr72 Why did they discontinue this line?
@kmothersil What a waste that is. If anything the 7 train needs to be extended EAST down Northern Blvd to terminate at Bell Blvd, if the Mayor was really serious about reducing traffic. (No, I don't live over there.) Extending it a few blocks west and downtown will do nothing to reduce traffic, only benefit the owners of whatever new mega-project they're putting up over there by the Convention Center.
Rode on it as a kid.
Am I seeing some Q cars mixed in with all those MUDC's?
Great movie!
Who's the name of the cinematographer of this film short of the old NYC 3rd ,Avenue el? I await your answer.
this was the best video of the 3rd Ave EL too bad its only 4 minutes long
The Bowery, the Bowery
They say strange things
and they do strange things
at the Bowery, the Bowery...
I won't go there anymore.
like train
i bet soem people on the east side miss this line.
Sounds like the 1937 version of Haydn's Concerto for Harpsichord in D, as performed by Wanda Landowska, was used for this:
th-cam.com/video/7pxbXadtpXE/w-d-xo.html
This and "The Vanishing 'El' ":
th-cam.com/video/HFyixEMrUu4/w-d-xo.html
were among the films played for years at the Transit Museum in Brooklyn.
This is the 3rd Ave El in The Bronx from Fordham road to 149th Street in The Bronx not Manhattan not at all so there was no 76 at or 86st that's wrong.
Maybe Dec. 21st 2012!
Wow, true gotham.
The El was demolished by the unions, mayor and voters acting in concert. The unions gave the mayor control of the fares, the people voted for mayors who said they keep the 5 cent fare, and the els were run down to nothing.
I definately think i wasborn in the wrong time period. I wish i had a time machine.
Came here from Dr Dog The Truth
All I can say is thanks for these memories. I was seven years old at the time.
New York is no longer great - it has been polluted by progressivism. And it is for that sin, many will have to answer.
The good ole days.........this planet is dying.
Back in '49 I mugged a few guys on there.
They should have had the drunk guy go into the motorman's cab and take control of the train.