NEW YORK CITY once had four main trunk elevated lines: the 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 9th Avenue Els. Of these, the Third Avenue gets the most of meager press attention in the 2020s, as there are people still alive who patronized it. Its Manhattan section ran until 1955, and its Bronx section north of “The Hub” at 149th Street, all the way until 1973. I was 16 years old that year, and my NYC explorations and perorations outside Brooklyn didn’t begin in earnest until 1998. But I was poring over maps since age eight and knew where the subways and streets were. As much walking as I hve done for Forgotten New York, Google Street View remains a prime means for me to really know what NYC streets, as well as other locales worldwide, really look like.
A rare Second Avenue El remnant is shown here, the Manhattan Railway Co. Station No. 5 powerhouse, at Division and Allen Streets. For you Facebook people, this site offers a multitude of photos of the East Side’s mostly forgotten el, which shuttered in 1942. It originated at a junction with the 3rd Avenue El at Chatham Square, ran up Division Street for about three blocks, then up Allen Street, 1st Avenue, East 23rd, and 2nd Avenue, rejoining the Third Avenue el for shared trackage over the Harlem River and then splitting apart again in the Bronx. Allen was one of the few streets in NYC completely covered by an el at one point, though a street widening in the 1930s allowed the sun to shine on it.
The 2nd Avenue El was built between 1879 and 1880, a 7.5 mile stretch, in 18 months. It will take most of the 21st Century to complete its replacement line, the Second Avenue Subway, which will be finished more than a century after the el was torn down, if the present rate of construction is not accelerated.
Manhattan Railway Co. Station No. 5 powerhouse, serving the 2nd Avenue el was never razed. The slant on the corner allowed the el to curve onto Allen Street. When I first spotted it on a Division Street walk in 2009, it was devoid of graffiti and still clearly marked “Manhattan Railway Co. Station No. 5”; but conditions have changed since then.
Also see: Manhattan’s Lost “El” Streets
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3/5/25