07/29/2006 - New York City's Els

Public transportation in New York City wasn’t always a sprawling underground mess. As I mentioned before elevated trains, or “Els”, dominated the city for decades before subways were finally introduced in the early twentieth century. There were four main lines that ran above Second, Third, Ninth, and Sixth Avenue. Eventually in 1953 the New York Transit Authority was created after the city took over the subway system from private companies in 1940. The els were then eventually closed, seeing as how the subways preformed the same function, there was no need for them anymore.

History of the New York City Subway
Manhattan Railway
Sixth and Ninth Avenue Els