#107 New York's Elevated Railroads

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Places & Travel

4.8 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 July 2010

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Before there were subways, New York City transported travelers up and down the length of Manhattan by elevated railroad, an almost unreal spectacle to consider today. Steam engines sat high above several avenues in the city, offering passengers not just a faster trek to the northern reaches of Manhattan, but a totally new way to see the city in the 19th century. Welcome to our second podcast in our series Bowery Boys On The Go, a look at the history of New York City transportation. Before we get to those famous 'El' trains, we explore the earliest travel options in the city -- the omnibuses and horse-drawn railcars, the early steam successes of the New York and Harlem Railroad and Hudson River Railroads, and something affectionately nicknamed the one-legged railroad. What were some of the more peculiar ideas for improving travel? And why was the idea of a subway immediately shot down by the city? Let's just say -- Boss Tweed and Jay Gould are involved. ALSO: What were the different motivations driving transportation progress in the city of Brooklyn? Well, it has something to do with the beach. www.boweryboyspodcast.com Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Bowry Boys Episode 107, New York's Elevated Railroads.
0:05.2	Hey, it's the Bowry Boys.
0:06.8	Hey.
0:07.8	The Bowry Boys is brought to you by urochipo.com.
0:11.7	Urochipo editors personally visit and review the best budget hotels in Europe.
0:16.5	Now with hotels in New York City, on the web at urochipo.com.
0:21.0	Hello and welcome to the Bowry Boys. I'm Tom Myers.
0:24.3	And this is Greg Young and we are off on our second part of our summer long mini series,
0:30.0	which I've titled Bowry Boys on the Go, which is a history of New York public transportation.
0:35.3	I do have to say though, Tom did have maybe a cooler name for it called the subway series that you had mentioned.
0:40.8	Rather obvious, of course, right, the subway, the summer subway series.
0:44.4	But then of course we started doing our research and realized, well, of course,
0:48.8	there's a lot more to New York public transportation than just the subways.
0:52.9	I would say, Greg, that we even were a little surprised to come across something like the elevated rails.
0:59.9	Of course, we've seen the elevated and lots of photos.
1:02.6	We've talked about them in different podcasts.
1:05.0	But when we're actually jumping in here and really investigating the history of it,
1:10.7	it just seems like this marvelous and almost fantastical thing that resided in New York in 19th century.
1:18.0	Like huge steam engines propped up above the heads of New Yorkers and taking people all over Manhattan Island and even to other burrows.
1:25.8	What's funny is you look back at photos of New York in the 1890s, 1900.
1:31.3	You see a lot of the buildings that we know today.
1:34.6	So the buildings haven't changed.
	...

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