155th Street (IRT Ninth Avenue Line)

155th Street was an elevated railway station in New York City which was in use from 1870 until 1958, serving as the north terminal of the Ninth Avenue Line from its opening until 1918 and then as a southern terminal of a surviving stub portion from 1940 until its closure.

History

The Ninth Avenue El originally terminated at 155th Street at its inception as a matter of geographic necessity (the hills of Washington Heights would have made expansion northward troublesome) and political boundaries (at its opening, The Bronx was part of Westchester County. Development came to the area in both the expansion of the New York City and Northern Railroad building its terminal at 155th Street in 1880 and by the relocation of the Polo Grounds to the area in 1889. The line expanded into The Bronx on June 1, 1918 when a bridge was built across the Harlem River which allowed the Ninth Avenue El to bridge into the Bronx and join with the IRT Jerome Avenue Line while adding intermediate stops at Sedgwick Avenue and Anderson Avenue.

With the building of the Eighth Avenue Line and Concourse Line of the city-owned Independent Subway System in the 1930s, the Ninth Avenue El was rendered redundant. On June 12, 1940, the Ninth Avenue El in its full form was closed with the portion from 155th Street northward retained to provide a connection from the Jerome Avenue Line to the Polo Grounds. The retained service, known as the Polo Grounds Shuttle, ran from 155th Street to the 167th Street station on the Jerome Avenue Line.

Though still moderately successful at its outset, the Polo Grounds Shuttle eventually suffered at the hands of the Concourse line as well as declining ridership on the New York Central's Putnam Division, the successor to the New York and Northern. The need for the shuttle decreased when the Polo Grounds went vacant in 1957 when the baseball Giants moved to San Francisco and the football Giants moved across the river to Yankee Stadium. On May 29, 1958, the New York Central ceased operations on the Putnam Division which rendered the shuttle as unnecessary. Three months later, at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, August 31, 1958, the shuttle was shut down and the elevated portion of the line demolished. The two underground station were abandoned and left to decay. Until 2008, there was a stub near 161 Street – Yankee Stadium that was the tracks that were part of the Ninth Avenue El. Due to the recent completion of the new Yankee Stadium in the area, the track stub was torn down. The next northbound stop was Sedgwick Avenue. The next southbound stop was 145th Street.

References

• New York City Transit Authority

External links

• nycsubway.org — The 9th Avenue Elevated
• "Ninth Avenue Local". Station Reporter. http://stationreporter.net/9avl.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-26. 
• "Ninth Avenue Express". Station Reporter. http://www.stationreporter.net/9avx.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-25.