Washington Street Elevated
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The Washington Street Elevated was an elevated segment of Boston's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority subway system, comprising the southern stretch of the Orange Line (named after the original name for a section of Washington St, Orange St.). It ran from Chinatown through the South End and Roxbury, ending in Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain. The initial portion of the line, which ran from Dover (now East Berkeley) Street to Dudley Square opened in 1901, while the extension south to Forest Hills was completed by 1909.
The Washington Street "El" was abandoned and torn down in 1987, replaced by a long-planned reroute some distance to the west, following the Southwest Corridor that had originally been planned for Interstate 95 through Boston. During 2002, the MBTA deployed bus rapid transit along much of the route from Dudley Square to Downtown Crossing in the form of Phase I of the controversial Silver Line; while significant effort was made to optimize the street routes for bus travel, there was considerable neighborhood criticism for reducing the number of available stops.
The Washington Street "El" can be seen in exterior shots of the fictional "St. Eligius Hospital," the setting of "St. Elsewhere," a television medical drama series about a hospital in an impoverished neighborhood. The building posing as the hospital is adjacent to the elevated line and was still in operation when the series was filmed.
[edit] Stations
The Washington Street "El" consisted of six stations, the most complex and major of which were at Dudley Square and Forest Hills. The original stations were designed by architect Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr. and originally featured much in the way of ornamentation and architectural prowess. By the time the "El" closed, however, much of this detail had been lost to decades of decay, neglect and cost-cutting. Forest Hills Station was designed by Edmund March Wheelwright and was quite different from the other stations along the line. The majority of stations were scrapped, however, Northampton Station was sold to the Seashore Trolley Museum and still exists there.
The stations themselves were:
- Dover St., South End (now East Berkeley St.)
- Northampton St.
- Dudley Sq., Roxbury
- Egleston Sq., Roxbury
- Green St.
- Forest Hills
